Christmas Joys

If you happen to visit the Capital during Christmas, you will experience an extraordinary festival spirit which you would rarely come across in any other city within United States. Here are a few interesting places to visit during your Washington, D.C. sightseeing tours in Christmas.

National Christmas Tree Lighting

Witness the spectacular National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the Ellipse, south of the White House. Since 1923, the United States has held a tradition of lighting a National Christmas Tree in Washington, DC., a 40-foot Colorado blue spruce, surrounded by 56 smaller, decorated trees representing all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia. The lighting of the National Christmas Tree is the beginning of a three week Washington, DC Christmas tradition. This year, the event had introduced a new lottery system to distribute tickets to the general public. The new online lottery was available November 4th to November 6th 2099 on thenationaltree.org.

Festival of Lights at Mormon Temple

Mormon Temple, which is the Washington, DC Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosts excellent musical performances, nativity exhibits, and exclusive Christmas films in its state-of-the-art theater. The church and its surrounding are bedecked with sparkling lights during Christmas making it a sight not to be missed during your Washington, D.C. tour

U.S. Botanic Garden

The U.S. Botanic Garden presents a unique exhibit featuring phenomenal replicas of Washington, DC’s most famous buildings and monuments. The U.S. Botanic Garden has a special Christmas show and display that opens on Thanksgiving Day and remains open through the first Sunday in January, every day including Christmas and New Year’s. It showcases model trains made up of real plant material and a fantastic botanical display which is delightful to watch at.

Mount Vernon Candlelight Tours

Enjoy candlelit walks, fireside caroling and festive ambience of the 18th century Christmas during Mount Vernon Candlelight Tours. Visitors learn about the Christmas traditions of George Washington and his family, meet historic characters and tour the Mount Vernon Estate by candlelight with hot cider and ginger cookies. The interesting part of the candlelight tour is the final stop, where guests get to know about 18th century Christmas cooking. Visitors are given a complimentary copy of Martha Washington’s famous cake recipe.

The National Zoo

The National Zoo presents a display of thousands of sparkling lights featuring sculptures of many of the Zoo’s most popular animals, including giant pandas, Asian elephants, gibbons, and sea lions as a part of the Christmas celebration. This exclusive celebration is called ZooLights, popular for its live entertainment, storytelling and cookie decorating events, ice-sculpting demonstrations, and special choral group singing during Christmas.

Author, Tia Jones, is a freelance writer who contributes articles on Affordable Travel Tours for Tours4Fun. For more information on how Tours4Fun can help you plan a trip to your next travel destination visit http://www.tours4fun.com.

Is it your turn to host Christmas Dinner this year? Are you stumped for ideas on what to serve? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Millions of people around the world are working on their Christmas Dinner menu right now. In this article I will give you a few ideas to help you on your way to making the best Christmas Dinner for your family and friends.

It is best not to over complicate this. Keep it simple and you will be able to enjoy your Christmas day. If you are a novice cook then you will want to plan a menu that is easy to execute. If you are a more experienced cook then you can get a little bit more creative with the menu. Planning is probably the most important part of the dinner preparation.

The first thing you need to do, is to work how many people are coming. This will let you work out how much food you need to buy. To lighten the load a bit you could always ask everyone to bring something to contribute to the dinner, you could even work out what you want each person to bring so that you don’t double up on certain foods.

You can’t go wrong with a traditional Christmas dinner. What is traditional? Well, it is turkey with all the trimmings followed by the traditional plum pudding for dessert. This sounds like a lot of work and in some parts of the world, such as Australia where it is summer, it’s not really very practical. So what do you do then?

Well, one idea is to serve an informal buffet. This allows people to eat at leisure and it gives the cook more free time to spend with loved ones and less time chained the kitchen. A buffet also allows you to be more flexible with the type of food you serve. For instance, you can serve finger foods that are easy to eat while you are mingling with the family. In fact, the food choices for a buffet are practically limitless as you can choose from a host of different ethnicities, like Chinese, Italian and even American or Australian. You can even serve vegetarian if there are members of your family that don’t eat meat.

These ideas are great if you have a large family, but what if you don’t? What if there are only the two of you? Do you have to forgo a lovely Christmas dinner because all of the Christmas dinner menus cater for large gatherings? Of course you don’t. I have some ideas here for you if there are only going to be two of you for Christmas dinner.

You have the opportunity here to turn the Christmas dinner into a romantic occasion. You can set the table formally and by adding candles you will give the meal a romantic glow. You and your partner can even dress formally if you want to, just to give the meal that added special touch.

If you are having a Christmas dinner for two it doesn’t need to be a solemn occasion. It can be fun. You can prepare the menu in advance and as it won’t be a big operation you will have more fun if you do it together, which will add to the romance. You can make it even more fun by reminiscing about past Christmases or of the time when you were dating.

Even if it is just the two of you, you can choose to have a traditional or non traditional meal, just do it on a much smaller scale. You may even choose to have someone else cook your meal. You will just need order it and then pick it up when it is time. This way you don’t even have to cook it, just eat it.

These are all great ideas but what if you just don’t want to cook this year. Like I said you have the option of ordering in but that may not appeal to you. Why not consider going out to a restaurant for your meal. Most restaurants offer Christmas dinner. If this is something that sounds good to you just be sure to make your reservation well in advance as these venues get booked out very fast.

Whatever you decide to do for your Christmas dinner this year just remember to have a good time and not get stressed out over it. Christmas is the time of year to enjoy spending time with loved ones so don’t let the cooking of the dinner overshadow this.

If you want get some inspiration on what to serve for Christmas dinner this year then you need to check out these great Christmas dinner ideas.

If you are looking for some great ideas to make your Christmas special have a look at http://www.xmasideas.org

This post is written for anybody who may not be looking forward to spending Christmas on their own.

I have spent several Christmas’s on my own. The first time, I was not really looking forward to it. I was single, I’d just moved into my own flat and I had no close family to spend Christmas with. After the initial, realisation and sadness that I really was going to be on my own, I decided that I was going to get through the day and have as good a time as I could. I ended up having a really good day and choose to spend Christmas on my own for several years afterwards until I got married.

I think learning to be on my own at Christmas has actually made me more resourceful and self-reliant.

If you really don’t want to spend Christmas day on your own then you have several alternatives. You could go on holiday where there are lots of other single people. I spent one Christmas as a single person on a tiny island designed for backpackers and travellers off the coast of Fiji. I woke up at 5am on a wonderfully warm and sunny Christmas day, wandered down to the beach, sat on the sand and dipped my toes in the water. It was great fun, very beautiful and very spiritual. There were back-packers there aged from 17 to 70!

Or you could spend the day as a volunteer perhaps working with the homeless or with animals in shelters. Giving of your time and your energy can be very satisfying.

I think there is so much pressure and expectation to have a fun and jolly Christmas surrounded by a loving family that if you are on your own you can feel lonely and at odds with everyone else.

So, here are my tips to survive (and dare I say even enjoy) Christmas on your own:

1. De-clutter and clean up

Start now to have a good clean up and de-clutter. De-cluttering tends to have a therapeutic effect and makes you feel good. Getting into action also tends to help you to lift your mood.

2. Plan Your Christmas meals

Plan what you are going to eat and drink over the festive season, including breakfasts. If you will be spending Christmas Eve at home don’t forget to have something nice for that as well. If you don’t feel like cooking then you can always get ready meals. On my Christmas Day, I would have a lovely breakfast. Then I had a glass (or two) of Champagne while I cooked my dinner. You don’t have to cook traditional Christmas Food. This is your day, you can have whatever you want. If you are drinking alcohol though, please remember to eat something even if it’s just snacks so that you don’t just get drunk and morbid.

3. Buy Yourself A Present or Two!

Treat yourself to a present or two and wrap it up so you have something to open on Christmas Day. I always used to buy myself some cosy socks and new lingerie.

4. Plan what You Are Going To Do

Plan what you are going to do - watch TV, listen to music, play dvd’s or playstation games, or you can go online to chat with others on different forums, facebook or twitter. Or curl up with a good book. Do not watch sad films or listen to sad music! Find something to make you laugh.

5. Start the day off well

Open the blinds to let the light in. If it’s mild enough then open a window even just for a short time to freshen the room. Have a lovely bubble bath or shower, wear aftershave or perfume, makeup, and get dressed. I have spent the day in my jammies however I always have a lovely bubble bath beforehand, and do my hair and make-up before putting on my cosy socks.

6. Dance Like No One Is Watching!

Put on some up-beat music and dance like no-one is watching. Okay if you don’t like dancing then how about going out for a short walk? It will lift your mood and bring a rosy glow to your cheeks.

7. Don’t Assume Everyone Else Is Having A Better Time

It would be great if we all came from loving families who got on well with each other. The truth is for a lot of people being thrown together with people who at any other time of the year you wouldn’t normally hang out with can be very stressful. If your mind starts to wander off in this direction then make a list of everything good about being on your own from having control of the tv remote to eating what you want. You might well be having the best time of all!

I remember the first time I spent Christmas on my own I did feel a wave of sadness that I was on my own and I had a little cry. I found that I felt better afterwards and together with some loving self-talk I was able to move on and enjoy the rest of the day. This might sound strange but I do talk to myself on lots of occasions! It really does help.

8. Don’t Allow Other People To Feel Sorry For You!

One of the things I learned to avoid was well meaning friends who assumed that I was going to be miserable spending Christmas on my own. It really didn’t help feeling sorry for me. And I’m sure there are several people who used to feel unnecessarily guilty because they didn’t invite me for Christmas. The truth is I would much rather spend Christmas on my own, in my own home, with my own things around me than be somewhere else where people felt sorry for me.

9. Create A Cosy Atmosphere

Later on in the day create a cosy atmosphere. Fairy lights can create a lovely warm and welcoming atmosphere along with lovely spicy scents. I used to get and decorate a Christmas Tree but if you are not into Christmas decorations then candles or a nice fire give off a lovely glow.

10. Things Change

You may have heard the phrase: This Too Shall Pass. You may be alone today but this could change. So take each Christmas Day as it comes.

If you do feel that things are just too overwhelming then here are some useful links for you:

Useful Links:

Samaritans - for confidential, non judgement emotional support http://www.samaritans.org/

Befrienders Worldwide - for emotional support for people in distress http://www.befrienders.org/

I invite you now to sign up for my newsletter at: http://janicerobertson.co.uk and connect with me here on twitter at: http://twitter.com/Janicerobertson.

Janice Robertson is an experienced Life and Career Coach specialising in helping people to live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

Christmas is a day for all to bless one another with interesting and unusual gifts. This gift exchange festival has always been one of the top occasions that people are willing to dig into their pockets and buy the perfect gifts for their loved ones and friends. If you are looking for unusual fun gifts, the internet is the best place you can find.

Nowadays, traditional gifts like chocolates and sweets are no longer unique enough for people to buy as presents. People are looking for unique gift ideas or even unusual gift ideas in terms of buying Christmas gifts for him or her. For man, finding the perfect Christmas gift ideas for their girlfriend is a tedious process.

One question you might ask me is “There are so many gifts shops online selling Christmas gifts that it is very easy to be overwhelmed by all these variety of selections!” So how to I find and choose the perfect gifts online for my girlfriend? The answer is really simple. You have to first make the effort to recall what the personality traits of your girlfriend are and understand that the gifts that you like it are not necessary the gifts your girlfriend will relish it.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, the people all around the world are searching online for unique gift ideas. The number of search results that you can find on Google search engine, let say the key phrase “Christmas Gifts For Her”, is simply too abundant. A novice internet user will simply be overwhelmed by the vast numbers of websites offering Christmas gift ideas for her.

So what to I do to narrow down my choices on the internet? I simply use long-tail key phrases with specific words that point to the unique gift ideas that I’ve in mind. For example, if you are looking for unusual gifts for your girlfriend, you can type the key phrase “Unusual fun gifts for woman based on personality traits”. And you can trust me that your search results’ accuracy will be way better and you are more able to find related gift ideas that you can buy for your girlfriend.

Next, if you have unique gift ideas in mind, whereby the gifts must be interesting and unusual, you can type the key phrase “Interesting and Unusual Gifts”. This way you are guaranteed to find unique gift ideas that are to the point of your preference. Do note that you should browse through the first few pages of the search results after keying these long-tail key phrases as there are many more good gifts websites that are positioned on the second or third page. The rule of the thumb is “Always search beyond the first few pages if you are looking for interesting and unusual gifts for your girlfriend during Christmas”.

While searching for unique gift ideas online for the past few years, I have basically scanned through hundreds of gift websites from all around the world. If you really want me to recommend an unusual fun gifts for your girlfriend during Christmas, I would suggest you consider diy gift ideas. Kitchen aids and tools are some good diy gifts that you can give to your girlfriend. Of course, I am not telling you to turn your girlfriend into an Ugly Betty housewife! Everyone loves food and your girlfriend definitely loves food.

Hence, kitchen aids and tools for someone who loves to prepare food and drinks are definitely interesting and unusual gifts that you can give to your girlfriend.

A cotton candy maker or a candy floss maker is an incredibly fun addition to your girlfriend’s household. Your girlfriend will love the novelty of making her own sugary treats and even have a blast twirling the fluffy cotton candy. It’s really simple too. All you need is a long stick and with one flick of the switch, you’re away. If you’re suitably convinced, then what are you waiting for? Your girlfriend may be making curly pink afros and candy floss moustaches before you know it.

Another diy food maker is the “Queen of all sugary treats” - “Ice-cream maker”! For your girlfriend who loves to make their own homemade ice cream, an ice-cream maker makes a great diy gift idea. For many it has become a fun event to gather the ingredients and congregate on the back porch or in the kitchen to churn up a batch of an original ice cream recipe. Making ice cream at home is a wonderful experience for people of all ages. Nothing beats the perfect ice cream that suits your girlfriend’s taste. So start having fun making every ice cream she fancy with her in the comfort of your home!

All these interesting and unusual gifts are my humble gifts recommendations and I always never fail to bring an appreciative smile on my girlfriend’s face whenever she receives these unusual fun gifts from me.

Trying to find gifts for the woman who has everything? You can definitely find them! Discover the perfect unusual gifts for women with our interesting and unusual fun gifts. For more information on gift giving guide and how to choose the perfect present ideas for her, go to => http://www.gift-ideas-by-horoscope.com/unique-gift-ideas.html

This post is written for anybody who may not be looking forward to spending Christmas on their own.

I have spent several Christmas’s on my own. The first time, I was not really looking forward to it. I was single, I’d just moved into my own flat and I had no close family to spend Christmas with. After the initial, realisation and sadness that I really was going to be on my own, I decided that I was going to get through the day and have as good a time as I could. I ended up having a really good day and choose to spend Christmas on my own for several years afterwards until I got married.

I think learning to be on my own at Christmas has actually made me more resourceful and self-reliant.

If you really don’t want to spend Christmas day on your own then you have several alternatives. You could go on holiday where there are lots of other single people. I spent one Christmas as a single person on a tiny island designed for backpackers and travellers off the coast of Fiji. I woke up at 5am on a wonderfully warm and sunny Christmas day, wandered down to the beach, sat on the sand and dipped my toes in the water. It was great fun, very beautiful and very spiritual. There were back-packers there aged from 17 to 70!

Or you could spend the day as a volunteer perhaps working with the homeless or with animals in shelters. Giving of your time and your energy can be very satisfying.

I think there is so much pressure and expectation to have a fun and jolly Christmas surrounded by a loving family that if you are on your own you can feel lonely and at odds with everyone else.

So, here are my tips to survive (and dare I say even enjoy) Christmas on your own:

1. De-clutter and clean up

Start now to have a good clean up and de-clutter. De-cluttering tends to have a therapeutic effect and makes you feel good. Getting into action also tends to help you to lift your mood.

2. Plan Your Christmas meals

Plan what you are going to eat and drink over the festive season, including breakfasts. If you will be spending Christmas Eve at home don’t forget to have something nice for that as well. If you don’t feel like cooking then you can always get ready meals. On my Christmas Day, I would have a lovely breakfast. Then I had a glass (or two) of Champagne while I cooked my dinner. You don’t have to cook traditional Christmas Food. This is your day, you can have whatever you want. If you are drinking alcohol though, please remember to eat something even if it’s just snacks so that you don’t just get drunk and morbid.

3. Buy Yourself A Present or Two!

Treat yourself to a present or two and wrap it up so you have something to open on Christmas Day. I always used to buy myself some cosy socks and new lingerie.

4. Plan what You Are Going To Do

Plan what you are going to do - watch TV, listen to music, play dvd’s or playstation games, or you can go online to chat with others on different forums, facebook or twitter. Or curl up with a good book. Do not watch sad films or listen to sad music! Find something to make you laugh.

5. Start the day off well

Open the blinds to let the light in. If it’s mild enough then open a window even just for a short time to freshen the room. Have a lovely bubble bath or shower, wear aftershave or perfume, makeup, and get dressed. I have spent the day in my jammies however I always have a lovely bubble bath beforehand, and do my hair and make-up before putting on my cosy socks.

6. Dance Like No One Is Watching!

Put on some up-beat music and dance like no-one is watching. Okay if you don’t like dancing then how about going out for a short walk? It will lift your mood and bring a rosy glow to your cheeks.

7. Don’t Assume Everyone Else Is Having A Better Time

It would be great if we all came from loving families who got on well with each other. The truth is for a lot of people being thrown together with people who at any other time of the year you wouldn’t normally hang out with can be very stressful. If your mind starts to wander off in this direction then make a list of everything good about being on your own from having control of the tv remote to eating what you want. You might well be having the best time of all!

I remember the first time I spent Christmas on my own I did feel a wave of sadness that I was on my own and I had a little cry. I found that I felt better afterwards and together with some loving self-talk I was able to move on and enjoy the rest of the day. This might sound strange but I do talk to myself on lots of occasions! It really does help.

8. Don’t Allow Other People To Feel Sorry For You!

One of the things I learned to avoid was well meaning friends who assumed that I was going to be miserable spending Christmas on my own. It really didn’t help feeling sorry for me. And I’m sure there are several people who used to feel unnecessarily guilty because they didn’t invite me for Christmas. The truth is I would much rather spend Christmas on my own, in my own home, with my own things around me than be somewhere else where people felt sorry for me.

9. Create A Cosy Atmosphere

Later on in the day create a cosy atmosphere. Fairy lights can create a lovely warm and welcoming atmosphere along with lovely spicy scents. I used to get and decorate a Christmas Tree but if you are not into Christmas decorations then candles or a nice fire give off a lovely glow.

10. Things Change

You may have heard the phrase: This Too Shall Pass. You may be alone today but this could change. So take each Christmas Day as it comes.

If you do feel that things are just too overwhelming then here are some useful links for you:

Useful Links:

Samaritans - for confidential, non judgement emotional support http://www.samaritans.org/

Befrienders Worldwide - for emotional support for people in distress http://www.befrienders.org/

I invite you now to sign up for my newsletter at: http://janicerobertson.co.uk and connect with me here on twitter at: http://twitter.com/Janicerobertson.

Janice Robertson is an experienced Life and Career Coach specialising in helping people to live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.