A New Year's Auld Lang Syne

A New Year's Auld Lang Syne

What does "auld lang syne" mean, anyway? Loosely translated, this perennially popular New Year's Eve phrasing means "long time ago," "long time since" or "long, long past."

New Year's Eve is a traditional occasion for reflecting upon cherished memories from past years and looking forward eagerly to the future with family members, friends and other loved ones.

How will you celebrate New Year's Eve this year?

Will you play "Auld Lang Syne" at your New Year's Eve party?

Here's "Auld Lang Syne," from the soundtrack of the 1940 film, Waterloo Bridge. (Subtitles are included - revealing the lyrics:

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What's on your New Year's Eve playlist?

How about this favorite, "As Time Goes By," performed by Frank Sinatra, from the soundtrack of the 1941 film Casablanca?

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Happy New Year! Be safe!

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What's your favorite song from 2009?

What's your favorite song from 2009?

Do you prefer pop, blues, rap, rock, soul, gospel or another style of music? What was the best song of 2009, in your opinion? Did you buy it on CD or download it to your MP3 or iPod?

Here's an amazing remix blend someone made of Billboard's Top 25 hits from 2009 (posted yesterday on YouTube). Whether you like pop music or not, the blend is intriguing. See how many hit singles (and popular music artists) you can recognize. Can you find Fergie, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Flo Rida, and other artists?

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What did you think?

Happy New Year! 

Don't you just wonder what popular music 2010 will bring?

Merry Christmas from Practically at Home

Merry Christmas from Practically at Home

What Sort of Christmas Card Are You?

What Sort of Christmas Card Are You?

Having sent out our family Christmas cards, I thought this Christmas quiz sounded like fun.

Try it, and see what results you find! Be sure to leave a comment - announcing your result!

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You Are a Cute Christmas Card

You love the holidays, and it's hard for you to feel any sort of seasonal burnout. You're the person who thinks the holidays don't start soon enough. You have your Christmas cards picked out months in advance. The holidays make you feel happy and content. You're tickled by every gift you receive and every old friend you reconnect with. You are a thoughtful gift giver, and you take the time to make each object you give unique and special. You like to see someone's eyes light up when they open your present.

What Kind of Christmas Card Are You?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

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DIY Photo Collage Cards: An Illustrative Way to Say Happy Holidays

Holiday cards are coming soon. What will yours look like this year? Will you select a box off-the-shelf, or do you want to do something a little more original? And who doesn't love photos of family and friends?

10 Super Sites for Free Christmas Gift Tags Online

Christmas gift giving is an expression of thoughtfulness. Why not include a gift tag with a happy holiday message? Try these 10 super sites for free printable Christmas and winter holiday gift tags. Title links lead to each site's selection.

3 Easy DIY Christmas Place Card Holders

A festive Christmas table may need creative place cards to help guests find their places. Place cards help party attendees to recall one another's names. What crafty Christmas place card holders can you make for your holiday dinner party?

A Highly Decorated Deer?

A Highly Decorated Deer?

Oh, dear!

Have you seen those light-up reindeer in folks' yards each Christmas? How about those plastic Rudolph figurines with the light-up noses?

Look what happened in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last week. This deer tops 'em all.

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Actually, the Colorado Division of Wildlife said the decorated deer had been spotted a few weeks earlier. Apparently, however, the deer is not in danger, as long as the lights are only tangled on his antlers, which he will eventually shed during the winter.

Holiday Recipe Roundup

Holiday Recipe Roundup

Are you baking for the holidays? What are you making? Do you make cookies for Santa? How about Christmas brownies or bars? Does your family have a traditional recipe for holiday fruitcake?

What home-baked goodies do you bake for the holidays in your home? Or do you buy Christmas cookies and treats from a bakery, gourmet food shop or grocery store?

Here are a few favorite recipes, if you're looking for inspiration.

Blond Brownies - a 3-Ingredient Family Favorite

Got a bake sale at school? Need to whip up a batch of brownies in a hurry? Perhaps company is coming, or you simply want to surprise your family with a home-baked treat. These blond brownies are ever-so-easy to make.

Sugar Cookie Recipes - the Simple and Super-Simple Way!

Cut it out! Holiday cookies are fun to make and bake, alone or in a crowd. Here are a few oh-so-easy recipes for these perennial favorites, that taste just like Grandma used to make! Start a tradition this holiday season!

Low-Fat Holiday Cookie Recipes

Christmas cookies and cookie swaps are highlights of the holiday season. What healthy creative cookie recipes might you prepare and share this year? Simple and sweet, these healthy holiday cookie recipes will appeal to holiday revelers.

Pumpkin Loaf Bread Recipe for the Holidays and Beyond

Great for an autumn party, Thanksgiving feast, or anytime! This healthy bread is so deliciously moist that I usually bake it in a bundt pan. What a yummy brunch offering, or even a dessert!

Totally Simple Toffee Treats

Candy-making is a time-honored holiday tradition. These delicious toffees are easy to make. What a wonderful and festive gift for family members, friends, teachers and other special people!

Truly Tasty Truffles: Make 'Em with Marshmallows!

Holiday truffles are a perennial favorite! Who doesn't love a tasty treat? Truffles are delightful for dessert, hostess gifts or teacher treats. Try this simple recipe. Even preschoolers can help.

Easy Peanut Brittle - Microwaving Makes Magic!

Christmas means candy-making, cookie baking and more! Here's a sweet confection you can whip up in a hurry for family and friends. Toss some in a festive tin, and you will have a delicious homemade gift for someone special.

Make Butterfinger Drop Cookies from Leftover Halloween Candy

Home-baked cookies are a treasured tradition for winter holidays. Christmas cookies make super homemade gifts for families, friends and others. Butterfinger Drop Cookies are a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy, while baking holiday treats.

Make Snickers Fudge Bars from Leftover Halloween Candy

Fudge bars are a holiday favorite and a treasured Christmas confectionary. This simple fudge-making recipe is an excellent way to use up leftover Halloween candy. Snickers Fudge Bars make a delectable holiday party treat or a great gift.

Make Peanut Butter Cup Pie from Leftover Halloween Candy

Pies are a perennial highlight of Thanksgiving, Christmas and holiday parties. This delicious no-bake pie is an excellent way to use up leftover Halloween candy. Peanut Butter Cup Pie makes a wonderful holiday dessert for a party or festive family dinner.

Have you ever attended a Christmas cookie swap? Here's how to host a holiday cookie exchange:

10 Tips for Organizing a Christmas Cookie Exchange with Neighbors

What is a Christmas cookie exchange? A Christmas cookie exchange is an informal holiday party that includes the swapping of home-baked holiday cookies. What are the basic ingredients of a successful Christmas cookie exchange?

Do you have holiday recipes to share? Why not leave a comment with a link to your favorite holiday recipes?

Need help making an active link?

See Super-Simple Linking.

Feel free to bookmark it for future reference!

Don't be caught empty-handed, if someone shows up with a surprise holiday gift!

Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas: Scented Candles, Baked Goods and More

What can you do when someone offers you a holiday gift, and you find yourself unprepared to reciprocate? If you are clever (and well-stocked), you can simply put on your best elfin smile and offer a clever present in return.

Happy holiday baking!

Hushed Hallelujahs?

Hushed Hallelujahs?

Even an alleged vow of silence can't stop these monks from raising holy Hallelujahs for the holidays. Take a look at the Ecumenical Chorus of Abilene's Monks (2009). This group is actually made up of local pastors and church leaders from Abilene, Texas.

Don't you love it? (The "of" monk probably has amazing abs - by the end of this thing!)

 

 

 

Hallelujah indeed.

Can Pets Come Along for Holiday Visits?

Can Pets Come Along for Holiday Visits?

Are you visiting family or friends for the holidays?

Is it acceptable to take your dog or cat (or another pet) along with you for an overnight stay in someone else's home? What's the protocol on pets?

Or, if you are hosting family or friends for the holidays, how do you feel about your guests showing up with their canine, feline or other animal companions?

What do you think?

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Holiday Etiquette: Should You Take Your Pet to a Host's Home?

Holiday travel plans often visits with family members and friends. Pet owners wonder if they can take their cats, dogs or other animals along for such stays. Before packing the pussycat, pooch or other pet, a houseguest might consider these ten reminders.

Tips for Holiday Tipping

Tips for Holiday Tipping

During the holiday season, many individuals will choose to offer gratuities to those who have served them well (in any number of professional capacities). Often, a customer will tuck a few extra dollars inside a holiday greeting card.

What are the basic guidelines for tipping, particularly for holiday tipping?

Should patrons tip babysitters, cleaning services, garbage collectors, hairstylists, mail carriers and other service providers for the holidays?

Certainly, the amount and appropriateness of a gratuity is up to the giver. But these articles may provide some overall standards and helpful hints for tipping etiquette.

Tipping for Drive-Ups and Deliveries

Holidays and special occasions may call for tipping for a host of personal and professional service providers. Are mail carriers, package delivery drivers and trash collectors part of this tip-giving tradition? Ought they to be?
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Christmas Tipping: Mail Carrier Christmas Gift Ideas

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Valet Parking Tips

City dwellers understand the value of strategic parking, particularly for dining out at restaurants, checking into hotels, attending theater events and visiting at hospitals. What tipping is appropriate for valet parking service?
By Linda Ann Nickerson

Who and What to Tip Over the Holidays

This article will give you some direction about who to tip and about how much is acceptable.

By Carl Benjamin

Super Sitter Gifts
To a parent with young children, reliable teenaged babysitters can be worth their weight in gold. What great holiday gifts (or even tips) might parents offer a valued babysitter?
By Linda Ann Nickerson

Holiday Tipping of Child Care Workers

Check with the child's parents before you tip; remember the teenage babysitter is not an adult and it is the courteous thing to do.

By Rebecca Furtado

Tips on Tipping Your Stylist

Hairstylists rely on tips to cover many of their salon expenses. How can you figure out how much to tip your valued stylist?

By Linda Ann Nickerson

Holiday Tipping Guide... Not Just for the Waitstaff!

A short guide to holiday tipping, the amount, and the recipients.

By Lynette

Take-Out Tips
Stop at the gourmet coffee shop, the bakery or the smoothie counter for a quick snack. As you pay for your treat, you may notice a jar on the counter, marked "tips." Many customers will drop a few coins or a small bill into the tip jar. A few may deposit the change they receive with their order. Should restaurant patrons offer tips when paying for take-out food?
By Linda Ann Nickerson

Tipping Guide

Knowing the proper tipping etiquette is important to anyone receiving personal services. These etiquette tips for tipping services will provide the reader with gratuity protocol.

By Melissa Harker Ridenour

A Grandma Moses Christmas Array

A Grandma Moses Christmas Array

Out for the Christmas Trees
by Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses), a familiar and beloved American primitive folk artist, died on December 13, 1961, at the age of 101.

Grandma Moses became famous as a self-taught painter in her seventies. Her work focused primarily on seasonal and holiday scenes of American country life. In fact, folks believe Grandma Moses completed her first painting at age 76.

From then on, the beloved folk artist painted nearly every day, even after severe arthritis made this process painful for her.

The Old Checkered House in Winter
by Grandma Moses

In her memory, here are a few popular Christmas paintings by Grandma Moses. Perhaps you have seen these images, either in museums or on Christmas cards.

Sugaring Off
by Grandma Moses

We Will Celebrate
by Grandma Moses

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is less than two weeks away. Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet? Need some artistic, crafty and creative holiday greeting card ideas?

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Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah

Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, began last night. This holiday continues for eight days (through December 19th).

3 Easy DIY Hanukkah Cards

Hanukkah (Chanukah) is the Jewish Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is a wonderful opportunity to send greetings of faith and love to family members and friends. Try these three easy do-it-yourself Hanukkah card crafts to share holiday greetings.

Homemade Hanukkah Menorah Cards

The menorah is the classic symbol for Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, making it an ideal decoration for homemade Hanukkah greeting cards. Try these simple do-it-yourself Hanukkah menorah card crafts for your family and friends.

Homemade Hanukkah Dreidel Cards

The dreidel is an ideal Hanukkah card decoration. The dreidel contains four Hebrew letters to spell an acronym: Nes Badol Haya Sham. Loosely translated, it means, "A great miracle happened there." Try these simple dreidel card designs for Hanukkah.

Great Ways to Trim Costs on Christmas Dinner

Great Ways to Trim Costs on Christmas Dinner

Are you planning to host Christmas Eve or Christmas Day in your home this year? Will you serve the traditional meal, or will your menu be somewhat different this time?

Here are some super strategies for keeping holiday dinner expenses down without sacrificing merriment this Christmas.

How to Save Money on Your Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve dinner is a festive gathering of family and friends for food and celebration. A traditional holiday dinner can be costly. What frugal steps might a Christmas Eve host take to cut costs, without sacrificing traditions?

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Five Tips to Save Money on Christmas Eve Dinner

In the midst of a tight economy, many Americans are scratching their heads over how to save money on the holidays. Here are some easy tips for saving money on the dinner your serve on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

By Vonda Sines

5 Ways to Save Money on Your Christmas Party

Learn ways to re-think your Christmas party to save money and still have a great time celebrating with friends and family.

By Wendy Dawn

Whether you clip coupons, search for sales or simply prepare holiday foods prudently, it is certainly possible to keep Christmas dinner costs under control. And no matter what you serve, may you enjoy a festive feast and a blessed Christmas with those you love the most!

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones ... from Practically at Home.

Favorite Christmas Song/s Ever

What is your very favorite Christmas song of all? Which version of your choice tune do you prefer? Who sings or plays it the best?

Do you like to go a-caroling at Christmastime? Where do you carol? Do you host or attend a caroling party? Do you sing at school or church? Do you carol in your neighborhood or somewhere else?

Opinions vary for sure, when it comes to selecting the top Christmas songs. The picks change from year to year. Consider the following examples from leading publications (in recent years).

 Perhaps not surprisingly, Time Magazine cited "Silent Night" as the most popularly recorded Christmas song of all time (in 2014), handily exceeding second-place "Joy to the World." Both of these perennial Christmas classics often appear on holiday CDs by all sorts of musical artists.

Among specific performers' renditions, here are some wildly popular holiday tunes:

The Guinness Book of World Records pointed to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" as the best-selling Christmas single of all time (in 2012).

Rolling Stone Magazine opted for John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" (in 2011).

Good Housekeeping went with Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (in 2023). Woman's Day agreed (in 2021), along with Cosmopolitan (in 2023), Billboard (in 2022), Parade (in 2023), Seventeen (in 2023), Men's Health (in 2020), and Spotify (in 2023). Can you say, "earworm"?

 "Merry Christmas," by Ed Sheeran and Elton John, topped Country Living's list (in 2023).

 USA Today marked the Vince Guaraldi Trio's "Christmas Time Is Here" as the top holiday favorite (in 2022). (Remember A Charlie Brown Christmas?)

As the saying goes, "There's no accounting for taste." At least a few of these tunes would make my own list for worst holiday songs. What do you think?

Image: Holiday music heart, Pixabay, public domain

How about a few fractured Christmas carols?

How about a few fractured Christmas carols?

Let’s have a little fun with Christmas carol traditions. Here are a few fractured Christmas carols, looking at the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

Deck 'Em All - Rhyming Blahs from Mrs. Claus

(Sing to the tune of “Deck the Halls.”)

Based on a true story . . . here is what Mrs. Claus has to say about all those Santa impersonators, who are milling about malls everywhere in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Maybe It's Sold-Out Time - a Carol in Rhyme for the Holiday Time

(Sing to the tune of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”)

Another fractured Christmas carol for the 21st Century, to be sung to the tune of the popular Christmas song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

By Linda Ann Nickerson

Most Horrendous Crime of the Year - a Carol in Rhyme for the Holiday Time

(Sing to the tune of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”)

Reflecting on the year 2007, what is the most horrendous crime of all? Perhaps the worst offense broke no legal boundaries, but it sure trespassed our personal ones. Here's a search, in rhyme, for the year's worst crime.

By Linda Ann Nickerson

Violent Night - a Carol in Rhyme for the Holiday Time

(Sing to the tune of “Silent Night.”)

Here's a Christmas carol for the 21st Century. The tune is familiar, but the lyrics have been changed to reflect our times and new traditions.

By Linda Ann Nickerson

Creating a Christmas Playlist?

Creating a Christmas Playlist?

What's on your soundtrack for songs of the season? What tunes are you downloading (or uploading) for the holidays this year? What music will you play for your Christmas party?

 Each year, we find countless new holiday albums, featuring our favorite (or least favorite) artists. Some new releases are collections of Yuletide favorites (old and new) from a variety of artists, usually performing their own covers of past numbers. 

No matter what musical genre you like, it's always possible to select Christmas albums (or compile playlists) to fit your chosen taste:

• alternative
• blues
• classical
• country
• disco 
• easy listening
• electric
• folk
• gospel
• hip-hop
• hymns
• indie
• instrumental
• metal
• opera
• pop
• punk
• R&B
• rap
• reggae 
• rock
• showtunes
• soul
• vocal
• and more.

 What's your favorite style of Christmas music? And your best pick of artists performing it?

Image: word cloud by this user

Christmas Wrapping Round-Up

Christmas Wrapping Round-Up

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? Need some creative gift wrapping ideas -- or just a little cheery company?

Why not host a gift wrapping party?

Grab a bunch of rolls of festive wrapping papers. Pick up a few rolls of tape. Find those missing pairs of scissors. (We all have those, don't we?)

Set out a few spools of ribbons, yarns, twine, or other tying materials. 

You might even practice your craftiness by putting out several plain shopping bags (or lunch sacks or solid-colored gift bags) and inviting your guests to adorn them with stickers, rubber stamps, paints, or other artsy effects. 

Then invite some of your favorite local friends to come on over and wrap holiday gifts together. 

Be sure to set out some easy festive refreshments, such as salty snacks or holiday cookies. (Why not both?) Try for finger foods, so guests can nosh and wrap at the same time. Fire up the coffee pot, and arrange some sodas and water bottles (or other beverages) on the counter.

Bingo. Instant wrapping party!