In preparing for Santa Claus’s visit each year, do you find yourself wanting to buy a lot of new Christmas decorations but struggling with what to do with your old ones? The Christmas Home Decorations blog has some great ideas for reusing your old Christmas decorations elsewhere in your home.

Have you ever been caught without a gift? Had someone bring you a gift when you didn’t already have a gift for them? It’s an embarrassing situation, but you can avoid it entirely if you keep a few “emergency gifts” handy. You don’t  have to spend a lot of money, though. If you shop clearance racks and discount stores that specialize in overruns (like Gabriel Brothers, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, or Ross), you can pick up some great gifts for cheap that almost anyone would love. Watch this video for some great ideas:

With technology turning away from voice calls and more toward text messaging, it was only a matter of time until the “phone call from Santa” turned into a “text message from Santa.” At TextSanta.net, you can register your child’s cell phone number to receive text messages from Santa. (Or, register your own cell phone, and Santa will send your child’s messages there.) They can be scheduled to send at any time, and $1 from every sale goes to the March of Dimes–you get something fun, and support a great cause at the same time.

In these tough economic times, no one needs a gift from Santa more than some of our non-profit organizations. More people are lining up with their hands out, in need of assistance, while donations are down as people tighten up their pocket books. According to a post at the Christmas Bonuses blog, the CEO of an Oklahoma rural electric cooperative offered employees their Christmas bonuses in July, under the condition that they “pay it forward” and help the less fortunate.

Anyone who’s ever been out shopping on the day after Thanksgiving knows that Black Friday is a huge shopping day. But is it the biggest shopping day of the year, like many believe? According to a featured article this week from the Christmas Myths blog, the answer is no. Which one is it? Read their blog to find out.

Playing Santa this year to someone with a penchant for technological goodies? If you’re at a loss for what to buy, the Christmas Toys Blog has a few gift ideas for you. They’ve found an excellent source for all things “geek”–ThinkGeek.com–and picked out some of the best.  They can caffeinate with Jolt gum, stick things to the refrigerator with magnetic push pins, solve the Rubik’s cube, or staple without staples. There’s also a nice collection of t-shirts to help them express their geekdom.

Although the photos are important, journaling is perhaps even more important. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your handwriting or don’t feel like you have anything to say -just write down whatever comes to mind. Describe what the photos depict. Tell a funny story about something that happened on that day. A picture is worth a thousand words, but you do want to tell your story through other means in your scrapbook as well. Make sure to use an acid free pen or marker for your journaling, though, or your paper will turn yellow where you’ve written after several years have passed.

There are also several different sizes of scrapbooks available. The most common sizes are 12×12″, 8×8″, and 8.5×11″, respectively.  Most of the supplies you’ll find are for the 12×12 size, but some people find the large albums difficult to store and prefer the smaller formats. You can fit more photos on a page in a 12×12 scrapbook-usually 3 or 4 standard sized pictures-while an 8×8 scrapbook can only hold 1 or 2 pictures per page. The number of photos you have is important to consider when deciding what size scrapbook to buy.

Now onto the last problem-you’re too busy to scrapbook! If you have trouble getting a moment to yourself, consider attending a “crop,” or a scrapbooking event, usually held at a local scrapbooking store. Archiver’s is a national chain that holds crops two to three times a week and makes their workroom available for free any time there isn’t a class or a crop in session. Smaller, local stores often do the same. That way, you can pack up your stuff and go someplace else, setting aside a block of time to do nothing except scrap your family’s Christmas memories. Have fun and enjoy!

What better way to keep your children believing in the spirit of Santa Claus at Christmas than by leaving undisputable evidence that he really visited your house? There are many ways you can do this, from the simple act of leaving a few crumbs or a note behind, to going to the detail and trouble to create snowy Santa footprints and reindeer prints out in the yard or even a video showing Santa in your house. SantaProof.net has some great ideas for proving the existence of Santa this Christmas.

Imagine sitting down with your kids 10 or 20 years from now and flipping through a scrapbook filled with photos of them as youngsters, tearing into all of their gifts from Santa Claus. If your children are still young, or even if they’re teenagers, it’s never too early or too late to start preserving your Christmas memories in a scrapbook.

But I’m not creative, you say, right? No problem. There are complete scrapbook kits out there now, some even with pre-designed pages so all you have to do is glue in the photos. This pre-designed Christmas album from Making Memories has a corduroy cover, photo mats, and journaling space on beautifully designed pages. Just add photos and you’re done.

If you want to design your own pages but are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of products available, you might want a simple page kit, which typically includes coordinated papers, stickers, and other embellishments. You create the layout from what’s in the package, then add your photos. This inexpensive Christmas scrapbook kit contains enough materials to make up to six pages. Pick out an album in a holiday color to start putting in your Christmas pages, and pretty soon you’ll have several years of Christmas memories wrapped up into your album.

You can also start from scratch, picking out your own papers from the thousands of different holiday papers available in scrapbook and craft stores. If you’re new to scrapbooking, make sure everything you pick out is acid free, or else it will turn yellow and degrade your photos over time. (Construction paper is a huge no-no due to its high acid content. Go ahead and spend the extra money for colored cardstock. You won’t regret it, I promise.)

Now that you’ve got the basics down, check back in a few days for more tips on creating a great Christmas scrapbook.

Curious what all of the kids will be asking Santa Claus for this year?  There are several online resources you can turn to for finding out the hottest toys of this holiday season. GiftBee has a category subdivided (and constantly revised) list of links to some of they toys they feel will be popular this year. Toy Reviews and News is another good resource to turn to for a wealth of information on new toys for all ages. For a little extra toy commentary, check out blogs like the Christmas Toys Blog or the Amazon Toy Times.