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)
Hi! My favorite tradition is something my family has done since way before I was born. We have a big party with music and food every Christmas Eve. Then we go to midnight mass. Once mass is over we head home and open our presents. (Santa always mysteriously stops by while we are at mass.)
My favorite tradition growing up was going to my Granny's house on Christmas morning; she had these huge stockings she'd made for all of us, and they were always filled with things like knee-highs and apples and oranges, LOL! And on Christmas morning, she always made fresh homemade doughnuts. We are now far away, but I still miss my Granny's house on Christmas morning.
Not many of the family traditions I knew as a child have survived into my adulthood. I lived alone in a small apartment for so long that even a tree and decorations were abandoned. Now that I have a significant other, we celebrate with his family on Christmas Eve. There is a constant flow of people, tons of food (including my fabulous pecan pies!), gifts, and we don't get home until about 3 in the morning. Christmas Day is just the two of us.
Each year my boyfriend and I go pick out a tree together, when we get it home and after he places it in the stand, I string the lights, then he decorates the tree while I cook dinner or bake goodies. We generally finish the last of the decorations together, then sit back enjoy a nice dinner and admire our handiwork by the fire. Oh and did I mention the prime rib and yorkshire pudding on Christmas Day!
My new favourite tradition is watching my son open his presents on chanukah. Whether it is something made or bought (we give him something small each night) the joy and delight he gets from receiving a wrapped gift is a pleasure to experience.
My husband's Grandma Betty, before her eyesight failed her, would knit slippers for everyone in the family. At the family Christmas party, she'd have a giant box full of hand-knit slippers in various colors and sizes, and she would invite us to dig in a pick the pair we wanted most. Such a generous gesture. I knew she spent many, many days each year stitching her love for us all into those slippers. The first pair I ever received, I wore daily for nearly two years before I wore them out. The last year she knit slippers for us -- nearly 17 years ago now -- I took a few pair home. I still have two pair in the bottom of my sock bin. I don't wear them because I want to make them last, but every time I dig through the sock bin, I put my hands on them and remember Grandma Betty and her hands that seemed able to knit anything.
My favorite holiday tradition is our family Christmas party. My mom has eight sisters and all our extended families gather together shortly before Christmas for a massive party. There are over a hundred of us and for many, it's the only time all year we see each other. Within the party itself, my favorite tradition is the shopping bag contest. This activity started more than 70 years ago when my grandmother had 9 girls running around the house while she tried to cook Christmas Eve dinner. She sat the girls down with crayons and shopping bags and told them the best shopping bag would get to open gifts first. Seventy years later, it's turned into an elaborate contest that almost everyone participates in. I turned 49 this year and I've never missed a party!
Years ago, my kids starting clamoring to open a present on Christmas Eve. I finally gave in, but I chose the present they would each open ... each girls' present was a new pair of pajamas. So now every year, they get to open 1 present Christmas Eve and it's always new pjs. My middle daughter (now 12 y.o.) finally figured it out last year and commented ... it's always pjs!
When we were kids, my father would take us for a walk to get our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve because they were marked down, or if we were lucky, free. He'd drag the tree behind him to get it home. Once we got home and he set the tree in its wobbly stand, it was time to decorate. There was one ornament that was considered special. The child who found it first and hung it on the tree was able to open one of their gifts on Christmas Eve. It was always exciting to see who'd find it first. As adults, we've altered the tradition by letting everyone open one gift on Christmas Eve.
My favorite holiday tradition is making tamales with my family. We all take turns working different 'stations' around the table, chatting and having fun. There's tons of food, family, and friends. For me, it's what's the holidays are all about.
Oh -- our favorite tradition? Definitely the fabulous appetizers we eat after Christmas Eve worship--we look forward to them all year! Early in my first marriage we suffered through the in-law's hideous oyster stew. The night my father-in-law literally kicked and hit the 4-year-old at the table because he just couldn't eat that bitter brew I just knew there had to be a better way to live. That was the last Christmas Eve spent in their house, the last oyster I've ever eaten, and a whole world of fabulous appetizers has appeared. This year, for the very first time, I can't be with my now-adult daughter for Christmas Eve. And on the 20th we made a table full of delicious appetizers and her three little ones, her fabulous husband, and my wonderful-second-husband all sat down, rejoiced in the birth of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas, and pigged out!
Thanks for letting me share a very happy night!
LINDA
My parents announced their separation two Christmas' ago so the holidays have been a challenge for my siblings and I these last 2 years. To try and bring happiness and new tradition into Christmas we (my siblings and our spouses) have started drawing secret names within our group and whosever name you get, you fill a stocking for them filled with stuff you know they will love. We give each other our stockings on Christmas morning. My favorite part is thinking privately about that person and choosing small things they would really love. It also makes me feel good to know there is someone out there thinking the same things about me.
Our Christmas tradition started out taking place after attending christmas mass with the kids - neighborhoods surrounding the church always have luminaria lit all through the streets, so we would pile everyone into the car and drive the streets without car lights for at least an hour, looking at how the luminaria lit up the neighborhoods - along with the holiday lights of course.
Now that we attend midnight services, we go out early to see the luminaria before attending church.
My favorite tradition is taking the kids to the tree farm and picking out our tree. Once we pick it out, we take a family picture in front of it for our Christmas cards before we cut it down. We bring it home and have hot cocoa and cookies.
My favorite family tradition is making (and eating!) homemade ravioli. The recipe and pasta machine were handed down from my grandmother. Everyone has a “job”, from kneading and rolling out the dough to cooking the filling to stuffing and pinching the pasta. It is a real family project!
My favorite holiday tradition is actually a new-ish one that I got from my husband when we first started dating. That first year, he presented me with 2 cards on Christmas Eve - a funny one, and a very thoughtful romantic one. Now, each year, we exchange one of each with each other when we are finally alone on Christmas Eve. We also each get to open one present afterwards. Something I grew up doing as a kid and still really enjoy sharing with him :)
Congratulations on a successful & wonderful year and I hope that 2009 is even better for all of you! Happy Holidays!!
My favourite holiday tradition happens Christmas Eve. Ever since we were children, we had a huge Ukranian feast with 12 meatless dishes on Christmas Eve. After a huge dinner with pyrogies, salmon, and other goodies, Santa came to visit. He always had a small gift for us and made us promise to be asleep when he would come back later with the good stuff.
My children loved that Santa came to see them, and now their children can't wait for him to come.
The bigger kids try to guess who it is, but we all know that it truly is Santa.
Christmas eve we spend with my in laws. We always have sandwiches with all the fixins and open presents. Christmas morning we usual go to my parents house and open presents and later eat dinner. This year we are having Christmas eve and Christmas day at my house. I miss Christmas eve as a child the most. We would go to mass. Afterward, we would go to my grandparent's house. My granny would make all these candies and cookies and oh so much deliciously, unhealthy goodness. There was homemade eggnog and ham and you would graze until you were ready to pop. Then we would open presents. Unfortunately, my grandparents moved away and now my grandmother has alzheimer's.
Oh, how I would love to win! I am hoping someone extends my memberships here at home or at least gives me some yarn cash :)
My favorite tradition is waking up early on Christmas morning, eating monkey bread and egg bake while opening presents with my family.
Being Italian, my favorite holiday tradition is eating non-stop on Thanksgiving and Christmas! We would literally start eating around noon or so, and continue until about 7pm or so. Starting with soup, then homemade pasta and meatballs, continuing with what a lot of people think of as "traditional" Christmas food (ham et. al), followed by salad (this is always eaten LAST!), then dessert, and finally sitting around eating roasted chestnuts. Yum!
I have to say that my Fave holiday tradition is going tobogganing christmas day!! we tend to have about 12 feet of snow by then...and it's fantastic. Now that I have a child it's goign to be amazing to keep the tradition that was started when my brother and I were little going
Our favorite tradition is to stay in our PJ's all day on Thanksgiving. Sometimes we have to rush to visit with relatives for other holidays but on Thanksgiving we make sure that we don't need to go anywhere. It's all about spending the day together.
My husband and I spend Christmas Eve alone together. We don't have kids, but we do have 4 dogs. During the day, we take them for a long walk and give them special treats. Then, my husband and I go out for a late lunch/early dinner to a favorite restaurant. Then, we come home, have a fire, watch "A Christmas Story" or "It's a Wonderful Life" and drink champagne. It's nice to have a quiet day before the insanity of Christmas Day and our visits out to family and friends.
My favorite Christmas tradition growing up was watching the Wizard of Oz and the Sound of Music. Now that I'm older and have kids of my own, it takes on an even greater meaning by getting to share that tradition with the next generation. We even get my son singing!
We live out of state from both mine and DH's families so we've started to build our very own traditions. On Christmas Eve we host as many families from church that can fit in our home for dinner and then attend the family service with everyone and return to our home for dessert, coffee and great fellowship. We'll miss doing it this year since our new son was born just over a week ago and momma still needs some rest time.