We all like to have a plan for the holiday season. We know by when we need to cook, decorate, clean, and get gifts. But too often things don’t go as planned. As always happens in life, the unexpected can come up. Maybe you get swamped at work and have to stay late. Or maybe you get unexpectedly volunteered to make costumes or refreshments for your child’s holiday play. Or maybe some relatives decide that they are going to come stay with you at the last minute, and you have to unexpectedly play host. There’s a lot that could happen, and suddenly you find yourself scrambling last minute to get gifts for family and friends.

If this sounds like your life, consider an easier way to complete your holiday shopping: shop online. For the purpose of this article, let’s pretend you’re shopping for a stuffed animal. This is an easy example because stuffed animals are one size fits all, and can be an easy gift for anyone, unlike say, clothing, where you need to know someone’s size and taste to get them something appropriate. Plush toys are also appropriate for any age, and make a great holiday gift. So, here’s how to make online shopping your great time saver this holiday season.

Open All the Time

Unlike department stores, websites don’t close for business just because it’s after 9 at night. You can shop at any time that’s convenient for you. Maybe you wake up at 3 a.m. with insomnia, there’s no reason you can’t do your holiday shopping right then! The internet never closes, and so you don’t have to adhere to the store’s schedules, just shop whenever it works for you.

Saving Time

Shopping online is a really great way to save time. Say you need to buy some quick presents on your lunch break from work. You could drive to the store and fight with all the other shoppers during the lunch time rush to find a parking space. Then you could wait in line behind these same shoppers to make your purchase. Shopping online is much easier. Spend the time you could have spent traveling, parking, and waiting looking through the stores products. By the end of the lunch hour the stuffed lion and plush cat you picked out could already be on their way to your home, without any fuss from you.

Increased Choices

Online stores always seem to have more variety then anything in stores. Perhaps this is because there’s more space in their warehouses then in the stores, and things are less likely to be picked through and sold out. So if you’re looking for a stuffed lion, you can find many more varieties than in a store, and maybe find one that’s very unique.

Better Organization and More Categories

This is another way a shopping online can save you time. Good online websites put their products in easy to understand categories, which makes it easier to shop then running all over a big store looking for something. For example, if you looking for a plush cat, maybe there’s a category such as “Pet Stuffed Animals,” or if you’re looking for a stuffed lion there could be a category called “Jungle Stuffed Animals.” This way you don’t have to search through the entire toy department like you would in a physical store.

Save Gas

Not having to leave the comfort of your own home or work can not only save you time, but money, by not having to waste gas on another trip to the store. Even when you have to pay for shipping, you can sometimes save money, depending on how far away the store is. In fact, there are many online stores that have deals for free shipping, so then you definitely save some of your hard earned cash, and avoid polluting the environment. Here’s a tip for shipping: have it delivered to your work place. This way you don’t have to be at home when your stuffed lion or plush cat is delivered, and you don’t have to interrupt your day at all or have to make another gas wasting trip to the post office.

So as you can see, there are five great reasons why online shopping is better than regular shopping. It‘s a great way to save time and money. Find an online store that fits your gifting needs, and before you know it, holiday shopping will be a snap.

One of the greatest highlights of Christmas is Santa Claus whose legend turned him into a magical kind-hearted, noble, and generous “good fairy Godfather” today!

Santa was originally a Bishop who after his death became the legendary Saint Nicholas. Here is something that you may be surprised to know. He was Greek and Greek speaking! He is believed to have been born around 280 AD in Patara near Myra. Originally Saint Nicholas was the Christian Bishop of Myra (today known as Turkey). Back in those days Myra was predominantly populated with Greeks. The Turks didn’t arrive until the 11th century AD. This Bishop was a generous and kind-hearted man, devoted particularly to children. In 340AD after his death in Myra it is said that sailors stole his remains and took them to Bari, Italy where he remains today in the beautiful Basilica of Saint Nicholas specially built to house him. Medieval people believed relics of Saints had healing powers and every church had a store of them. The sailors increased his popularity in Europe with stories of his kindness and generosity which lead to increased devotion with stories of miracles.

St Nicholas became so popular, loved and adored by the people that he was honored as the patron Saint of just about everything! He was indeed the national Saint of Greece and Russia where churches were named in the thousands after him. Known by his red cape, flowing white beard and Bishop’s miter he also become the patron Saint:

- in Greece of sailors

- in France of lawyers

- in Belgium of children and travelers

In other lands he was patron of merchants, judges, paupers and just about everything else you can think of!

An official church holiday was created in St Nicholas’ honor some time around the 12th century. This was a time when thousands of churches across Europe were dedicated to him. A Feast Day in his honor on the 6th of December become the official day of his celebration and is the day of the anniversary of his death. In the early days of celebrations it was considered lucky to make large purchases or to get married on his Feast Day! Traditionally the day was honored each year with celebrations and marked by gift giving and charity.

How did his name transform from Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus? Some say it started from the Dutch naming of him. After the Reformation, European followers of Saint Nicholas dwindled but the legend was kept alive in Holland. Dutch children have a magical tradition where they excitedly leave their wooden shoes by the fireplace and “Sinterklaas” would reward good children by placing treats in their shoes. The Dutch colonists brought this fun tradition with them to America in the 17th century where the spelling of his name “Sint Nikolaas” was eventually and affectionately transformed to “Sinterklaas”. Hence the Anglican name “Santa Claus” emerged which is now the most popular name he is known by today! However others suggest the Anglican name comes from the Germans. As “Santa” is said to have come from the word “Saint” and “Claus” is an abbreviation for the name Nicholas in Germany.

What did he look like? Originally he appeared in Bishop’s robes holding a Bishop’s miter. When first arrived in America Santa didn’t look like the figure we know today. He was a thin, sad faced old man wearing a fur-trimmed knee-length coat. Santa’s back in the old days were usually dressed in blue, green or black with no red and white we see today in sight! It was by the mid 1850’s that the red and white fat jolly version we know today gained popularity.

The American image of Santa Claus developed from the Dutch austere Sinterklaas; a bishop in a red bishop’s costume who rode a white horse. Washington Irving in his comic “History of New York” is said to be the first to describe him as plump and jolly. The evolution of the image of Santa Claus continued in 1823 with the publication of the famous poem by Clement C Moore “A Visit From Saint Nicholas”.

In England by the mid 19th century Santa was a fat, red faced, jovial character who wore glasses and a crown of holly on his head. He appeared almost always tipsy accompanied by a steaming bowl of punch with either a glass of punch or ale in his hand. We know that around the world Santa has been depicted in many shapes and forms including the most popular being tall and thin or short and fat.

How did he become so famous? A transformation onto paper leads the way! Dr Clement C Moore (an Episcopal Minister) in 1822 described Santa Claus as a benevolent plump jolly man in a red suit. He originally wrote the famous poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” for his 3 daughters after an inspirational moonlight sleigh ride home from the market after buying a Christmas turkey. It was not published for another 20 years. Then fame didn’t take long to spread to children and adults around the world. It was much loved for its sense of fun and magic. This poem helped to popularize the idea of Santa Claus visiting on Christmas Eve.

We were taught that Christmas is Jesus’s Birthday and that day is to be celebrated as such. However, in our actions to me it was just another Sunday. Many Christmas’s as a young child we never had company or went visiting on Christmas. We spend the day at home like any other in-between (since the Amish only have church every two weeks we had in-between Sundays) Sunday. My mother would read (silently) the bible or the Budget (Amish newspaper) and we usually played games. The only present we sometimes got was one board game for the whole family.

One year when I was in 3rd grade I think we got a Monopoly game so then we played that all day. My Father loved Monopoly and he was able to win most of the time. Other board games we had were Aggrivation, Chinese Checker, The Game of Life, and Upwords. The only card game we were allowed to play was Old Maid, Go Fish, and Uno. Many Amish do play cards for a pass time but my parents did not like playing cards. In our young folks group we played Rook quite a lot.

For the most part I know that many families got together on Christmas and exchanged gifts but we lived far away from any immediate family and my grandparents had all passed so we never had any place to go on the Holidays. The only other difference from everyday life is that my sisters and I would make some special treats (recipes that were too expensive in everyday life) like: rice krispie bars, chocolate covered pretzels and coconut bon bons. I also remember baking extra pies and breads so we could give some to the neighbors. I really enjoyed that because I knew the neighbors loved my baking.

In school we celebrated Christmas a little different. We colored Christmas pictures to hang in the windows or on the wall, we made paper chains to hang from corner to corner with a colored bell in the middle. I don’t know why decorating was allowed in school but not at home. However, I also know that the extent of the decorating at school depended on who the teacher was. Sometimes the parents would complain on how much decorating was done at school.

At school we also exchanged names for gifts. The gifts were supposed to be fairly inexpensive because like my family, at one point there were 7 children going to school. A couple of days prior to Christmas we had our program. For that day we invited all the parents who brought food for the potluck. Once everyone got to school then we performed our program which consisted of singing Christmas songs and reciting poems. Then lunch was served and after that one of the dad’s would play Santa (no costume) and hand out all the gifts to the students. When everyone had opened their gifts the children would go home with their parents and Christmas vacation began and lasted until the 2nd day after when normal school would resume.

I hope this helps you to understand how the Amish celebrated Christmas.