Sunday
Dec212008
*TIME’S UP!* Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza Spectacular Spectacle!
Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 9:34AM
Welcome to our first-ever Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza Spectacular Spectacle! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah (or Chanukah, if you prefer)! Make the Yuletide gay!
Whatever you're celebrating, we want to help make your holiday a little brighter.
That's why we're giving away -- in our Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza Spectacular Spectacle -- three fabulous prize packages full of wonderfulness and awesomeness.
Tell them what they can win, Bob!
Bob?
BOB?
Fine, I'll just fill you in myself.
By entering our contest, you'll be eligible to win one of three great prizes.
Prize #1: A Three Irish Girls Sock Kit. This includes your choice of any of our awesome patterns and a skein of yarn in your choice of colorways to complete the pattern! If you are already a sock club member and you have all of our patterns, we'll have a special alternative for you. (Approx. $28 value!)
You know you want a pair of socks like these:
Prize #2: A custom colorway consultation and two skeins of a custom colorway! We can make your colorways dreams come true! On your favorite yarn base! (Approx $50 value!) Exclamation point!
Prize #3: Three months of your choice of club memberships! Sock Yarnista features your choice of two colorways, a custom designed pattern, and a fun extra each month.
If you prefer heavier weight yarns, Stash Menagerie has a broad variety of fibers, your choice of two colorways, and fun extras every few months!
Being a club member also gives you access to exclusive members-only colorways like these:
If you're already a club member, you can extend your membership, add extra skeins to your existing membership, become a member of a club you're not in, or give the membership as a gift to a very lucky person. (Approx $90 value.)
Why are we giving all of this away? For a few reasons. One is the spirit of the holidays. We like brightening people's days a little with a yummy yarn package. It's good to put a little good out there in the world.
Another is to say thank you for all of your support this past year -- you've been with us as we've moved into a new studio, expanded our yarn offerings, and started new clubs. We would be nowhere without our fantastic customers, and we want to say thank you.
Here's how you enter: leave a reply to this post answering the following question: What is your favorite holiday tradition? Do you have a latke party? (And does your house smell like latkes for three weeks afterward?) Do you have a family outing to cut down a Christmas tree? Do you bake something special? Watch something special? Go somewhere special?
If so, I want to hear about it!
Winners will be randomly selected from the responses. You have until Monday, December 22nd at 9pm EST to reply. Winners will be announced Tuesday, December 23rd.
If you'd like to give any of these prizes as a gift, that can certainly be arranged!
Thank you again, dear readers and loyal customers.
Whatever you're celebrating, we want to help make your holiday a little brighter.
That's why we're giving away -- in our Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza Spectacular Spectacle -- three fabulous prize packages full of wonderfulness and awesomeness.
Tell them what they can win, Bob!
Bob?
BOB?
Fine, I'll just fill you in myself.
By entering our contest, you'll be eligible to win one of three great prizes.
Prize #1: A Three Irish Girls Sock Kit. This includes your choice of any of our awesome patterns and a skein of yarn in your choice of colorways to complete the pattern! If you are already a sock club member and you have all of our patterns, we'll have a special alternative for you. (Approx. $28 value!)
You know you want a pair of socks like these:
Prize #2: A custom colorway consultation and two skeins of a custom colorway! We can make your colorways dreams come true! On your favorite yarn base! (Approx $50 value!) Exclamation point!
Prize #3: Three months of your choice of club memberships! Sock Yarnista features your choice of two colorways, a custom designed pattern, and a fun extra each month.
If you prefer heavier weight yarns, Stash Menagerie has a broad variety of fibers, your choice of two colorways, and fun extras every few months!
Being a club member also gives you access to exclusive members-only colorways like these:
If you're already a club member, you can extend your membership, add extra skeins to your existing membership, become a member of a club you're not in, or give the membership as a gift to a very lucky person. (Approx $90 value.)
Why are we giving all of this away? For a few reasons. One is the spirit of the holidays. We like brightening people's days a little with a yummy yarn package. It's good to put a little good out there in the world.
Another is to say thank you for all of your support this past year -- you've been with us as we've moved into a new studio, expanded our yarn offerings, and started new clubs. We would be nowhere without our fantastic customers, and we want to say thank you.
Here's how you enter: leave a reply to this post answering the following question: What is your favorite holiday tradition? Do you have a latke party? (And does your house smell like latkes for three weeks afterward?) Do you have a family outing to cut down a Christmas tree? Do you bake something special? Watch something special? Go somewhere special?
If so, I want to hear about it!
Winners will be randomly selected from the responses. You have until Monday, December 22nd at 9pm EST to reply. Winners will be announced Tuesday, December 23rd.
If you'd like to give any of these prizes as a gift, that can certainly be arranged!
Thank you again, dear readers and loyal customers.
Reader Comments (479)
making the Christmas cookies, peppermint marshmallows (yes, i make marshmallows), & chocolate truffles. wrapping the gifts in brown paper & twine, a tradition i started when i first moved out on my own and couldn't afford wrapping papers & ribbons. everyone really liked the "look" so it became a tradition.
My favorite tradition is having a tradition. We moved so much when I was little that Christmas always disappointed a little. The family was never together and all the right foods were not there. It's even worse when you are in country that does not celebrate this season.
So, now I live in one place and Christmas is great. We eat all the cakes from our combined cultures. My husband always cooks a ham and most of our family is near. The most important part is that my children will remember traditions and feel their roots.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity for writing this down. It's difficult when you are a global nomad to realize that you now have a home!
Every year for many years, I've hosted a party on the Saturday before Yule. The tradition has followed me through five homes and two cities, and no matter how I'm feeling about the holiday season, the party gets me ready to "do" Christmas. Sometimes the party is small and intimate and other times it spans multiple groups of friends and forces us all to get cozy in a small space, but there is always apple cake and homemade wassail, some sort of lighthearted, inexpensive gift exchange, and lots and lots of holiday music. Filling the house with love and laughter for Yule always makes me happy, and it feels like it must mean good things for the rest of the winter.
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating my wee small American Girl tree. I got this as a freshman in college because it was perfectly dorm sized and I couldn't wait until days before Christmas to be home with a real tree. My friend Kate and I decorated it together those four years and now I do it myself, but it's always the first decoration to go up and it makes me very happy. :)
Every year, growing up, my grandma made all 11 grandkids pajamas for Christmas and we got to wear them to bed on Christmas Eve. I now do that with my own children and they look forward to seeing their new PJs on Christmas Eve.
I am part of a big family with lots of brothers and sisters and in laws. we play secret santa every single) and each get each other somethings special. You have to investagate the other person without giving away which name you drew, find out what their likes and interests are for that year or just what they need. Its a great way to feel like a kid again and to spend time getting to know and learn more about the people in your life.
I LOVE hearing about holiday traditions. I never really had any while I was growing up, so it has been important to me to have them now.
First, we go out on Christmas Eve and get some yummy doughnuts for breakfast. Everyone gets up, we open stockings and eat doughnuts. Then we open our gifts, one person at a time, starting with the youngest. When we are done, we all hang out at home in our jammies, playing with the kids, having a good time. Dinner is easy and laid back, usually sandwiches and salad.
We always want our Christmas day to be close to the kids, relaxed and mellow. We haven't been disappointed doing it this way. :)
My favorite tradition growing up was Pillsbury cinnamon rolls from a can on Christmas morning, and opening one present before Christmas Eve services.
My favorite tradition now, is putting together a stocking for my mom :)
I've held on to the Christmas traditions that I grew up with - Christmas eve we go to mass, and then Christmas morning we stay home......gifts are opened Christmas morning, but with quite a specific order that makes the gift opening last a good part of the morning.
First of all - no one enters the living room before 8:00 am, and then at 8:00 we all go in to look at the tree together (this was painful as a child - I always woke up by 6:30 and had to stare at the clock for what seemed like years).
Second, we all get to open our stockings first. Then it's time to prepare breakfast (with holiday music filling the air).
Only after a nice breakfast together do we venture back into the living room to check out the gifts under the tree. Then the kids start pulling the gifts out and sorting them into piles for each recipient.
After all the gifts are out from under the tree, we take turns opening them one by one, starting with the youngest and moving upwards. Taking turns makes sure that everyone gets to see each and every gift that is received.
After all the gifts are opened, we lounge around the house for the rest of the day....
When I was young, we always then had a pot-luck dinner on Christmas night with a couple other families in town. (None of us had extended family in town, so this was a nice balance of having an intimate Christmas morning and a large festive Christmas night.) I'd love to try starting this tradition now that we've also moved away from all the grandparents.
I'm free of holiday stuff these days, but I used to do cookies with the kids and lots of other stuff. I go down and volunteer at the animal shelter during the holidays, since most people are too busy this time of the year with their usual stuff.
my favorite tradition is going downtown in DC to see the National and Capitol Christmas trees. My dad used to take me every year, and now that he's retired and moved to Arkansas, I still go for both of us, and take pictures to send him. I might make this year's trip tonight!
On Christmas morning my husband and I get up first and make some coffee and open our presents to each other alone. It is nice. This is my favorite part of the day. Some solitude before the madness.
Then the kids get up and we put the breakfast casserole in the oven and open their presents.
When I was young, my brother and I would wake up really early, approximately 4am and wait by the tree for our parents to wake up so we can open our presents. We would inspect the loot covertly in that amount of time.
Now-a-days, my family doesn't do that stuff much anymore. My fiance's family though does a similar morning opening presents routine.
As of last year, my fiance and I are starting up a tradition of watching "The Hogfather" at least once during the Christmas Season.
My favorite part of the holidays is watching the look on adults' faces when my 4 year old daughter proclaims, "I don't believe in Santa. No, he doesn't come to my house!"
My family both my immediate and extended do not celebrate the holidays. We love this time to spend with our families and build stronger bonds in these tough times.
My favourite holiday tradition is having the super big dinner on Christmas Eve (instead of Christmas Day). We eat, drink, get (very) merry and open one small present each. That leaves Christmas Day itself free for opening the rest of the Christmas gifts, hanging with family and eating left overs!
mmmmmm...cookies...mmmmmmm
We bake lots of cookies. My Grandmother is a pro cookie baker and has tons of secret recipes. This year she is visiting us in ATX and has decided to share these secrets with me! YAY!!!!!!!
Since I was a little kiddo, during Christmas dinner I would take black olives and stick one on each of my fingers. My Mom takes a photo and then I proceed to eat each one. This is the only time of year I am allowed to do this. Although now that I am an adult I guess I could do it anytime I want, but then it would not be a tradition!
Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!
My favorite holiday tradition is baking pumpkin chocolate chip breads for our teachers, friends, neighbors, etc. My mom used to bake these breads every year, and it is fun to continue the tradition. The smell brings me back to my childhood. :)
My favorite Christmas tradition is our Christmas Eve celebration. We decorate the tree in the morning and listen to Christmas carols. Then when the first star comes out, we begin dinner (my favorite being beet broth with wild mushroom dumplings). An extra place setting is always set, so that a hungry stranger is always welcome at our table. We then open our gifts and head off to Midnight Mass, after which we blissfully fall asleep. I love Christmas Eve.
We're not very good with traditions in our family so I had to make up some of my own :)
On Christmas Eve I watch Tim Burtons 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and on Christmas Day 'The Muppets Christmas Carol'
My sister and I shared a room growing up. One year (we were maybe 6 and 4), we woke up around 2 in the morning. Our stockings were at the feet of the bed, so we assumed it was morning, and proceeded to noisily open them. My mother stumbled in about five minutes later to point out that it was perhaps a bit early for such activity, and to go back to sleep. Ever since then, if one of us woke up and the stockings were there, no matter what time, we'd wake the other one up and open our stockings, just making sure we did it quietly.
My sister lives in CA now (I'm in ME), but when I went to spend Christmas with her a couple of years ago, we made sure to wake up very early to open our stockings, even though we did have to pretend that we weren't the ones that had put them there.
Holiday traditions are so important to my family, and it's hard to pick one favorite! I think my favorite thing about the holidays for the past couple of years has been creating the traditions that will stay with my children throughout their lives. It's been fun, and sometimes challenging, to mesh my traditions with my husband's and create something all our own. And now that our children are getting older, we find new ways to enjoy the season. This year the advent wreath and advent calendar have been very important traditions for my daughter.
We watch the kids perform every year at our church's christmas pageant. We have done this for about 7 years. Afterwards we have the relatives back to our house for Christmas eve munchies. I always make homemade egg nog, deviled eggs, and it is a must to have chocolate fondue and fruit and pretzels to dip. We have other muchies that vary. My kids always open their Christmas pjs. Everyone comes back on Christmas Day for a joyous dinner and to open presents.
My favorite holiday tradition is celebrating Christmas, but on Christmas Eve. It's magical, full of anticipation and joy. We always open presents with my parents on Christmas Eve after having a wonderful Christmas dinner. To me, THAT is Christmas celebration. I have always loved Christmas Eve the very best. In my heart of hearts, that is when I celebrate most. Imagining Mary in labor with her firstborn, the anticipation of the Lord... I imagine that was amazing. That is all we do. :)
Just one? oh dear... my current fav is watching the kids open presents on Christmas Eve - my husband's family has that tradition, and we carried it on (my family never opened gifts until Christmas Day). It has made it super easy for us as a family to keep my youngest baby's birthday separate (Josiah was a Christmas baby!).
And since I can't do just one - my other favorite is pepperkakker - swedish cookies that my Grandma used to make every year. After she passed away, my Mom took over the baking of them (and my mom doesn't have an ounce of swedish blood in her! But she sure makes good pepperkakker). My sister makes them now, since my Mom is out of the country, and I'm a little busy with three littles. ;) Those cookies are just amazing. A pain in the rear to make, but soooo yummy! They were the first cookies that my littles actually loved. :)