Christmas trees that are not properly stored can warp over time or lose lights. Sunlight, moisture, and dust are harmful to trees and lights. Lights that are not protected will not properly work the following year. To keep your investment protected, use a storage bag.

There are plenty of benefits to having a Christmas tree storage bag. Besides prolonging the life span of a tree, the tree needs less maintenance the following year. The lights should still be in working condition, and the body of the tree will not be warped in storage. Storage bags keep branches from bending and becoming deformed. All trees that are properly stored in storage bags will retain their shape and hue for years, keeping them more beautiful and natural in appearance.

Before putting your tree away, inspect it thoroughly. As you unplug the tree and pull down the sections, notice if there are any lights out or any damage to the tree. Knowing your tree before you put it into the bag is helpful for the following year. After you’ve stored your tree, do not put anything on top of the storage bag as it could harm the lights or warp the branches of the tree. Place the storage bag in a cool, dry location where the temperature will remain relatively constant. If the tree gets too hot, it could be harmful to it.

Each Christmas tree storage bag works differently and comes in different sizes for trees of all heights and shapes. Whatever the size of your tree, make sure that it has appropriate storage so that your tree can be a centerpiece in your home for years to come. Over the course of time, tree bags have grown to include new shapes and features. Some storage bags have rolling wheels for ease of transport or expandable pockets so that placing the tree within the bag becomes just as simple as setting it up.

A good tree bag has multiple features. Many have straps that secure the tree within the bag so that it does not move even during placement of the bag in a storage unit. Wheels are always a plus, while handle straps keep you from wrestling with the storage bag. If a large tree bag is too much, using multiple smaller bags is always possible for those who want to reduce the weight of their tree storage. Canvas storage bags are also available for minimal cost.

While some Christmas tree storage bags require you to take down the tree, some bags, such as the TreeKeeper, allow you to store the entire tree still standing up straight. For more information on the TreeKeeper, you can view a video on Christmas Lights Etc.’s Christmas Tree Storage page. Securing a 9′ tree may seem like a workout, but the TreeKeeper is a blessing when the time comes to unveil the tree for the following season as most of the difficult work is already done.

Christmas tree storage is an important process of the season since trees can keep their shape and lights for years if properly stored. Unpacking and repacking is also easier with a proper Christmas tree storage bag. Storage bags take the hassle out of decorating and take the worry out of whether your tree will look its best the following year. If you don’t have a storage plan in place, try the Christmas tree storage bags and rest assured.

Gifting as a Christmas tradition dates back far beyond the birth of Christ. We tend to look at gifting as the tradition born of the Wisemen, who came bearing lavish gifts for the Christ child. But gifting goes back much further in Christmas celebrations than the time of Christ. There might be a variety of either religious or societal influences for it but gifting as an idea is nothing new for year-end celebrations.

The dilemma therefore isn’t in why we give gifts. It remains in how we do it. For some, gifting isn’t solved by one singular item. For some, the gift of variety solves the gifting issue. And therein resides the beauty of Christmas hampers.

Christmas hampers allow for unique Christmas gifts all in one package. A Christmas hamper can follow a general theme — all Christmas, all wine, all bread & cheeses, all chocolate, etc. — or they can offer a potpourri of items designed to delight.

Bundling of gifts into one spectacular package is what makes gifting truly festive. Unwrap a hamper in a crowd and oohs-and-aws are sure to abound.

Hampers also make excellent gifts given in anonymity. Whether delivered by a service or left doorbell-ditch style the element of surprise pays dividends as layer after layer of small gifts reveal themselves to unsuspecting receivers.

While many companies bundle gifts in a variety of hampers many gift givers prefer to hand select the items, brands and variety to make the gift of a hamper more personal. This can make the gifting project more demanding- – and more satisfying.

But that being said, you wouldn’t believe how many people write in to ask us about which pro-Merry Christmas buttons and signs to purchase. Imagine that. For all the decorations and food and gifts to purchase in the season ahead folks are concerned about which button to buy. So, we’ve been asked and we’ll give you our take if you just have to spend money making a statement this holiday, er, Christmas season.

The first thing to recognize when buying holiday political propaganda is who is selling it.

Believe it or not, in some neighborhoods, that matters. The King of the “Say Merry Christmas” movement is the American Family Association, a conservative group advocating family issues year round on a variety of causes, not just Christmas. They are famous for annually publishing a list of businesses — mostly retailers — who avoid using references to “Christmas” (or Christ) in their advertising, signage or other promotions during the season. They have a whole store of popular “It’s Okay to Say Merry Christmas” products. These folks are commonly interviewed in the media because they fight lawsuits about Christmas in the schools or in public buildings and frequently suffer no small amount of ill-will by the Christmas-hating crowd out there.

The thing to note about folks like the AFA is that they really aren’t retailers or even profit-seeking enterprises. Their intent is the promotion of the idea that supports their cause. Most we find selling these kinds of products online have some sort of connection to either a political action group, a church or a civic organization. The purchase of these products would thus imply agreement with that particular sponsoring organization.

It is likewise advantageous to stick with one of these campaigns that have been around a while, too. The Wish Me a Merry Christmas Campaign dates back five years with a very recongizeable logo that has grown familiar in the marketplace. Their website explains their whole take on the issue and gives links, contact info, a toll free number and a secure gateway for purchasing just as any credible online vendor should.

But not all is at it seems in the Merry Christmas button movement and in this buyer beware.

Some sites — like SayMerryChristmas.net — are clearly exploiting the issue for the sake of selling buttons, t-shirts, CDs and other products bearing their logo urging folks to say Merry Christmas. These guys are hawking bumper stickers at $3 and CDs at $17. They have a snappy logo and are marketing the heck out of their wares through a bizarre YouTube video. They have no sponsoring organization. There isn’t a name or contact link on the site. Even the ownership of the domain used for the site is cloaked. Not even their payment gateway is secure. It’s almost like a starving graphic designer with time on their hands developed the logo in hopes of making a Christmas killing. We can’t advise you enough to avoid them.

Of all the sites we could find the one we liked the best was Ok to Say Christmas.com — a site that charges just a $1 for a button with all proceeds going to charity. Operated by the Catholic Daughters of Court John Paul II, their message is simple and their approach is honest — and, dare we say it? — humble, too.

But as time has marched on so too has the complexity of sending holiday greetings. They have to convey not only the merry message of glad tidings but also it needs to be sensitive to a world more and more prone to celebrating the secular side of Christmas as well as the spiritual aspect of it. Clearly, getting just the right message isn’t something easily found off the rack wherever Christmas cards are sold.

Enter the Internet into the equation and you’ve got a much more handy solution for getting it just right when finding holiday cards.

The Holiday Card Website from CR Digital Design provides an organized, straight-forward collection of classic-to-contemporary cards made to be customized-to-fit with your holiday message. We browsed their collection for well over two hours before selecting an image and a message that would work for the hundreds of cards we plan to send out for Christmas 2011.

Over the years we have used plenty of online printers for Christmas cards. Not all are created alike. While the variety — more than 1000 designs over all — can’t be beat the process of getting through an order is what makes it convenient. On some card sites, you have to endure endless pop-ups for add-on products such as mousepads or mugs. Not so with Holiday Card Website. It stays focused on getting the card design right with the right message matched with the right envelope. You can choose from a variety of creatively crafted messages or you can create your own custom message.

Cards are printed on recycled stock and you can choose to get self-adhesive envelopes with pre-printed flaps for return addresses. Cards are competitively priced and discounted for greater quantity.

We would note that given the inflationary nature of today’s economy professionally printed cards like this are a bigger value than ever. We shopped at the big discount stores for boxed cards and found prices in 2011 exceeded more than $2.50 per card for the nicer cards they offer and nothing they offered could match the quality we found at Holiday Card Website.com. Our total there came in under $1.70 per card and it is completely customized to our likely in the exact quatity we required.

We ordered our cards the first week of November thinking it would take a while to get the cards so we could mail them out shortly after Thanksgiving. We were wrong. The ordered was placed, printed, shipped and in our hands within 5 days. And we’re told that even orders sent in post Thanksgiving can be turned around just as quickly.

If you haven’t heard of Elf Yourself this will be a treat for you. Just go to the website, upload a picture of yourself or a friend and the software there puts it on the body of a dancing elf. Set it to fit the body, make a couple of clicks then enjoy a brief video of you-the-elf dancing in whatever fashion you choose.

The site, brought to us by Jib Jab and sponsored for several years running by Office Max, gives a quick giggle to anyone looking for a little fun online.

This is the third or fourth year we’ve done Elf Yourself and not much has changed…except that the site has more logos on it before and you can now download your elf-self video for a $4.99 fee.

If you can look past the growing commercial aspects of what Elf Yourself has become (they likely had to do it to support the resources it must take to generate hundreds of millions of elves each year) this site is still a great diversion and simple harmless fun during the holiday season.

That’s our roundabout way of telling you that The Waddles, a new CD of Christmas music performed by Donald Duck-wannabees, is not recommended.

As a general rule, animals doing Christmas carols has seen some begruding success. We’ve all heard the barking dogs and jingling cats. Somewhere out there is a music reviewer who will claim “Kids love ‘em!“. The truth is, kids don’t. Kids, like adults, find it a novelty for about 30 seconds. Then they turn it off. I know. I tried it on my kids and their smiles faded to rolling eyes in a flash.

Why doesn’t The Waddles work?

Well, let’s start with the practical: The Waddles CD sells for $15. Michael Buble is on sale this Christmas for $11.98. Which are you going to choose? And let’s face it — there’s a recession on. This isn’t a great time to be charging a premium price on a less-than-premium product.

But more importantly, this is a product whose realistic lifetime existed far in the past. This isn’t the 1970s, when Dr. Demento ruled the Christmas airwaves with Christmas novelty songs. Kids then heard and liked novelty songs because they were truly novelties. Today, with the likes of Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black churning out novelties via YouTube, what’s a duck to do and how do they compete? Kids have become far more discriminating in their musical whims. Just throwing it out there doesn’t make it attractive — to kids or their parents.

There are other problems with the duck thing at Christmas, too. Seriously. Every duck I know has flown far south for the winter. What in the world are they doing singing about a Winter Wonderland? I was worried when I looked them up that The Waddles would take a stab at some of the sacred songs of Christmas like O Little Town of Bethlehem or O Holy Night. Thank goodness they stuck to secular fare. But John Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War is Over)? Yikes. How did they ever get past the copyright cops on that one?

Sadly, a review of The Waddles website reveals what this really is — an amature attempt to market a sub-standard and ill-conceived product.

Look, we don’t want to be cruel. Singing ducks at Christmas might work as a skit. But as a CD for real money, no. You won’t hear this stuff on any Christmas radio station. You won’t even hear it in a cartoon.

The desire to display the most realistic tree has led to recent advancements in the artificial tree industry, with new technologies that offer more natural looking tips, colors, and tree shapes than ever before. One such technology is TruTip™, which uses a PE/PVC blend of material that is becoming predominate in the artficial Christmas tree market. Artificial Christmas trees featuring patented TruTip™ technology are designed to combine the best features of both live and artificial Christmas trees, with increased ratios of PE to PVC. The result is a sturdy tree that is warranted for 10 seasons, with tips and colors so realistic even to the touch, without the shedding of needles or the need to water. Trees using the TruTip™ technology are often termed “TruTip trees”, although TruTip™ is a technology, and not a brand.

One of the most popular trees featuring TruTip™ technology is the Fraser Fir, available unlit, as well as prelit in clear or multicolor incandescent lights, and now also with energy saving LED lights. The Fraser Fir is one of the most popular Christmas tree throughout the country, and the TruTip™ Fraser Fir lives up to its live counterpart. Each PE tip is carefully molded with a soft curve in each needle, while the hinged branches shoot slightly upward. The interior trunk and branches are wrapped in brown immitation bark, and interior foliage is a rich green PVC for additional density, while retaining the natural sparseness of a live Fraser.

TruTip™ technology injects polyethylene into tree molds using different base compounds to result in uniquely colored and shaped needles. Custom molds are taken from live coniferous evergreen, pine, and spruce trees to ensure the most realistic appearance. Multiple pigments are blended to produce natural shades of green, allowing each tree to look like it is freshly cut from the forest. When this method is compared to the traditional standard of securing strips of PVC to tips that are clipped at the ends, it is easy to see the difference. While PVC trees are still very popular, and mixing PVC tips throughout a tree results in a full, dense tree that is far superior to the trees from yesteryear, many consumers find that the PE molded tips are the more attractive choice.

And it blows the doors off of Christmas history as you know it.

Modern historians have long labeled the three wisemen as mystics or magicians, hence the name Magi. Some identified them as men of Persia, due to its proximinity to the Holy Land. Though the Bible supports the idea that they weren’t Jewish there is no actual evidence — until now — that the Magi had any actual connection to Christ. This manuscript declares that the term “Magi” is actually a title bestowed upon an ancient order dating back to the time and family of Seth.

Seth was Adam’s third son, a righteous high priest known to be close to God. The book indicated that Seth’s family were called and set apart to escort the Messiah into the world and to witness his birth. In vivid detail the book describes the sect’s anticipation of the great event, their communication and teachings from Christ and their eventual and miraculous journey to Bethlehem.

The story gives amazing insights into Mary and Joseph and even touches a bit upon the trials of Adam (who is none too pleased with Eve). Even more incredibly, the story stays fairly true to the relatively skimpy Biblical account of the story of the Magi.

A scant 100-pages in length, the Revelation of the Magi is an easy read and a must own for any serious Biblical scholar or student of Christmas history.

Let us look closely at the 60″ Sequoia Fir Wreath from Christmas Lights Etc as an example of the quality one can expect in a pre-lit artificial wreath. The 60″ Sequoia Fir Wreath is impressive in size – large enough and ideal for garages, barns, commercial buildings, indoors on a restaurant wall, and in banks. Because of its popularity with commercial and residential clientel, Christmas Lights Etc. has placed this wreath on sale, combining quality for affordability.

The 60″ Sequoia Fir wreath features a generous amount of lighting, with 400 clear lamps. Clear lamps provide a classical and beautiful look to any home or business. These bulbs are made with the highest quality,unlike most bulbs in the market. The lamps secure with locks, and have twist proof bulbs. The light sets are UL listed, which means they have been tested in accordance with standards by Underwriters Labortories, Inc., the most relied upon source for rating safety in seasonal and holiday decorative products.

The quality of the Sequoia Fir needles allows the wreath’s beauty to stand the test of time. The wreath looks incredibly full with 1200 tips, so fluffing the wreath to make holes undetectable would never be an issue. The needles are crush resistant, meaning the needles will not fold and create a crushed needle when stored, and flame retardant fpr safe use. The wreath’s needles are fade resistant and UV treated, allowing indoor/outdoor use that will stand against weather conditions and sunlight.

With such quality in the make of the wreath, the only thing you need to do is display it in the most beautiful way. The following steps will allow your pre-lit artificial wreath to truly show the beauty it’s capable of:

1. Fluff the wreath

After choosing the right size wreath for an area, the first step to prepare it for display is fluffing. With a quality pre-lit artificial wreath, you are already onto a good start. While the Sequoia Fir itself does not need much fluffing, due to the thickness of each needle and the fullness of each branch, most artificial wreaths do require some fluffing. With much practice, I have gained the best technique of fluffing that assures the most ideal look of the wreath. Take each and every single branch and bend it over your finger, almost as if you are curling each branch. Curl each branch so it goes with the flow of the circular pattern of the metal frame. Taking the time to properly fluff the wreath really makes a difference in its fullness and attractiveness.

2. Decorate the Wreath

The next step is to decorate the wreath in a syle appropriate for the desired decor theme. Decorating a Christmas wreath is a great idea for businesses looking to have a more personalized, glamorous wreath. Clothing stores love to decorate a very large wreath with funky-colored bows and ornaments to give a flashy, fun look to the area. Businesses, like financial institutions and museums, may find enough beauty and elegance in the size of the wreath and its branches, and choose to display in areas such as elevator halls for a festive greeting upon exiting the elevator. The wreath may be complimented in just the right way by adding a simple, red bow. Stores desiring the wintry look may opt for flocking the wreath in beautiful, bold colors. Consider the many ways to decorate a wreath and choose what will be best for your setting.

3. Hang the wreath.

Hang the wreath in a space that is a bit larger than the size of the wreath, so the wreath does not look crowded. Hang with the right clip or hanger that will be sturdy enough for the weight of the wreath.

4. Final Touch-Ups

Lastly, look at the wreath while standing back. Make sure it makes a perfect circle in the center and it is the same width all around the wreath. Slightly adjust small areas of branches to make sure the wreath looks just right. Areas that need adjusting may not be noticeable until the wreath is hung.

Most understand that the wreath is essential to holiday decorating, but many may not realize the sentimental impact the wreaths carry. Decorating with wreaths has been a practice for thousands of years, but over the past few centuries, the wreath has carried on the symbol of the birth of Jesus, with the circular pattern representing the everlasting life brought through Him. The Sequoia wreath in particular carries another meaning. Sequoia trees are some of the tallest and largest trees in the world and are known to live to an old age, from hundreds to even thousands of years. Sequoia branches are another way of representing the strength and nature of God who is believedby many to have no beginning and no end.

This season, instead of heading out to the store and buying the cheapest wreath you can find, consider the quality that comes with an artificial pre-lit wreath and the meaning it carries when displaying it. High quality artificial wreaths, like the 60″ Sequoia Fir Wreath, are sure to last for years with their high quality bulbs and durable needles. Fluffing the wreath with detail and hanging it with a sturdy clip will assure an elegant look. For added enjoyment and attractiveness, decorate the wreath with its own style and accessories. Remember His eternal love as you hang your beautifully pre-lit, artificial wreath and rest assured that this decoration will remain a tradition for years to come.

Bear in mind: this isn’t a movie. It is a showcase. Filled with background music in various styles you select the visual part of the DVD is just slowly passing images of Christmas lights like you see during any Christmas season — from all over the United States. But now you don’t need to wait until post-Thanksgiving to see them. You can watch it at any time. Here is one of their samples:

When I sat down to view the hour long video I wondered if I would find it boring. In fact, the very thought of just seeing Christmas lights on a television seemed to me akin to watching paint dry. But as I got it started and turned up the music the kids started to come into the room. As each brilliant display passed by us the room filled with an energy as we talked about each one. The room soon filled with laughter and got us talking as a family about our plans for our own lights this year.

In talking with the production folks who made the video they acknowledged that this video isn’t like sitting down to a holiday classic movie. It might be more appropriate, they told me, as background material for a Christmas party.

I tried to think of it in that context but as I watched this and the kids dribbled into the room I was amazed at the reaction. My children span a wide gap — the eldest is 25 and the youngest is 9 — with all age inbetween. Each of them were enthralled with the images!

It certainly set a Christmas tone in our home early and for folks who can’t brave the snow and the ice or who just want to see Christmas lights long before or after they are displayed this video is a real treat.

The newest version, Christmas Lights DVD2, is just $9.99 and includes free shipping. It is now available for ordering via their website or on Amazon.com at the link below: