Christmas Cards, a lost tradition?

I love getting Christmas Cards in the mail. Knowing someone took the time to write a card, put my personal address on it, put a stamp on it and put it in the mail just makes me happy! But over the years I’ve noticed people starting to cut corners with their Christmas cards. Me included!

I used to get cards with long handwritten notes, now I’m lucky if I get a handwritten Merry Christmas.

I could tell who the card was from just by looking at the handwriting on the envelope but many times now it’s a printed label.

I guess I should be happy I’m getting a card at all. Many of my friends and family have stopped sending cards all together. Some have switched to e-cards claiming they are going the “green” route while others the “budget friendly” route. Translation = quick and easy!

We send out many cards every year and get few in return. Is it a lost tradition? I guess I’m old school because there is no comparison to getting a actual Christmas card in the mail. I love it! I put them on the wall by the front door and it just makes me happy to know someone took the time to send me a little note at Christmas. The ones with pictures are my favorite!

Puget Sound Christmas Lights

I love, love, love Chrismas Lights. At our house, I do the inside and my husband does the outside. For some reason he enjoys putting the lights up in the rain and cold and many times he’s crawling on the roof at midnight fixing that one light.  As much as I love our own lights we also enjoy going to light festivals. Here are just a few of the big ones around the Seattle area but of course you can always just drive around your own neighborhood. Let me know if there are some really good ones that I should add to the list!

• Bellevue – Festival deLights and Snowflake Lane
• Stanwood – Warm Beach The Lights of Christmas
• Downtown Seattle – A list of events here Downtown Holidays
• Tacoma – Zoo Lights
• Renton – Ivar’s Lights
• Leavenworth – a drive but worth it!

Rent A Christmas Tree???

Do you want a $10 gift card to Ikea and a free Christmas Tree? Then head to Ikea this weekend! That’s right, Ikea is “renting” Christmas trees for $10, then you bring the tree back in January and they will give you your $10 back as a gift card to their store and Ikea will recycle the tree into mulch.

It’s a pretty cool idea but it’s only on December 5-7 and while supplies last. On the radio this morning I swear it said $10 but their website is saying $19.99 so you better double check. Here’s the link so you don’t think we’re crazy!

U-Cut Christmas Trees

We got our tree earlier than normal this year and we were under a time crunch so we went to a sure thing U-Cut Christmas Tree Farm so we headed north to Pilchuk Secret Valley Farm in Arlington.

First things first, the power lines are a little scary and sound nasty but once you get past that this tree farm has a very good selection. We usually want a really tall Noble and we found one in 5 minutes. This farm has it all I’m telling you! I highly recommend it.

They had a nice customer service girl with maps of the farm and she would tell you which direction to go for which trees and explain the process. The tree workers were on top of things, if they saw someone carrying a tree they were right there to carry it for them. They bundle too!

While my husband was putting the tree on the car my boys and I bought some hot chocolate and sat by the fire. The farm allows dogs so we got to see quite a few 4 legged friends.

This farm is really worth the drive! The website is a little dated and looks small but in real life the trees come in all sizes ( we got a 8 foot noble, there were taller ones and shorter ones too) but it really is a a good u-cut christmas tree farm.