One of the top choices for gifts for her is chocolates.  Now, before you say boring, boring, same old, same old, how about giving her a chocolates in an absolutely gorgeous personalized box?

Let me introduce you to one of my all time favorite chocolatiers on the Internet - zChocolat.

First of all, their chocolates are to die for!  I mean it - they are so good that its hard not to eat them all in one sitting!

But its the unbelievably elegant packaging of the chocolates that will take her breath away.  You can choose from a number of different engravable boxes, choose the chocolates and create a gift she will never forget.  Even better, the box is so beautiful that it will become a favorite trinket box for her personal treasures long after all the chocolates have been eaten.

To give you an example of the kind of romantic boxed chocolates you can get from zchocolat, consider their Eternelle chocolate diamond.  You can see the picture of it below.  Pure Venezuelan chocolate is pressed into a diamond shape, over a rich praline center with Piedmont Hazelnuts.  The mahogany box is finished with a diamond etched brass plate with your personalized message.  And that’s not all - your purchase comes with a personalized gift card that you can customize with a photograph.  Finally, you can have the zChocolat concierge service call her and let her know that a gift is on its way to her from Europe.  Extraordinary and unforgettable.

What are you waiting for?  Put a sparkle in her eyes and enjoy her startled gasp when she opens this beautiful gift.  Here’s the link - browse around and take a look at what they have to offer.  You won’t be disappointed and neither will she!

Visit zChocolate for Chocolate Perfection

by Sharlee Plett 

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

That was the 1897 response of the New York Sun Newspaper to eight-year-old Virgnina O’Hanlon’s letter to the Editor.  Virginia wanted to know if there really was a Santa Claus.  This famous editorial captures the magic that lives at the very heart of the wonder and pleasure of Christmas time.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Ever since then, children have been writing letters to Santa Claus and visiting him when he arrives in towns and cities all across America, whispering in his ear and eagerly awaiting Christmas to see what Santa Claus has brought them.

Post offices receive thousands and thousands of letters to Santa Claus.   In some cities, postal workers and other good hearted individuals volunteer their time and answer the letters.  The post offices in the U.S. and Canada have established procedures for routing that are addressed only with “Santa Claus” or “The North Pole”.  The Canadian post office even assigned Santa Claus his own postal code: HOH OHO!

 In the U.S., if you want your child to receive a letter back from Santa Claus, you simply enclose your child’s letter inside a  a larger, properly stamped First Class (or Priority Mail) envelope and send it to:

North Pole Christmas Cancellation
Postmaster
North Pole Branch U.S. Post Office
5400 Mail Trail
Fairbanks AK 99709-9998

Make sure your Santa letter has the appropriate postage and when you send it, allow time for it to arrive in Alaska prior to December 15th. This will ensure your letter can be processed and sent to the final destination prior to Christmas Eve.

An even better idea is to order a personalized letter from Santa Claus online.  One of the best online services offers letters on Santa Claus stationary, printed on beautiful heirloom-quality acid-free linen paper which will last for years as a treasured family keepsake.  What a great gift idea!  Here’s the link to the site so you can get more information:

Heirloom Quality Santa Claus Letter

by Sharlee Plett

For the last couple of years, I have been collecting vintage postcards from the late 19th century and early twentieth century.  These little penny postcards were really popular back then, people sent them to each other every holiday season.  Christmas was one of the biggest seasons for postcard sending and Santa Claus was the big favorite. 

What is really fascinating about these postcards is that Santa Claus is really different looking, depending on where the postcard came from and from what time period.  He doesn’t just wear read, he wears green, purple, pink, brown, blue.  He isn’t always jolly and he often looks rather forbidding. 

There’s a brand new website up now, it features vintage postcards that have been scanned, restored and enhanced from private collections.  Santa Claus has his own gallery where you can see nearly 300 vintage Santa Clauses.  Here’s the link to the Vintage Santa Claus Gallery.  Enjoy!

Vintage Santa Claus Postcard Gallery

by Sharlee Plett

Vintage Christmas recipes, desktop wallpaper, printable Christmas greeting cards and a wealth of fascinating articles about Christmas and Christmas traditions are featured every day on a new Christmas Countdown Calendar at 24kVintageArt.com.  A clock is running, showing how many days, hours and minutes remain until Christmas day.

Why does Santa Claus have reindeer?  Was there really a Christmas star?  Who was Saint Nicholas and his Boy Bishop?  How was Christmas celebrated in earlier eras?  Around the World?  These are just a few of the topics taken up each day on the Christmas Countdown. 

Click on December 3rd, and you’ll find desktop wallpaper featuring “Christmas Morn” from the famous Currier and Ives collection.  on December 6th an authentic Figgy Pudding recipe.   Every day has a new surprise and a free gift of some kind for visitors.

The calendar starts on December 1st, and runs through the Twelve Days of Christmas on January 6th.  With nostalgic vintage Christmas images and plenty of ideas new and old, you’ll find plenty of ideas you can draw from to make Christmas special this year.

Here’s the link to the Christmas Countdown Calendar:

Christmas Countdown Calendar  

Classy, elegant and very personalized.  That’s what comes to mind when you first see one of these beautiful custom jewelry boxes. 

The custom ceramic tile inlay is embedded so seamlessly that the only way you know that it has been inlaid is the personal message that has been imprinted over the artwork heat pressed into the tile.   This finely crafted custom jewelry box has a lustrous high gloss piano finish and a rich red velvet interior with compartments for jewelry and ring slots. 

When you open the box, the 18 note musical movement plays a melody that has been personally selected for the proud new owner of the jewelry box.

I think you’ll agree, this is one of those ultimate personalized gifts!

Choose from three different finishes - a warm cherrywoord, a black lacquer like finish, or a pristine white.

The artwork is an exclusive artist line featuring stunning images over softly blended backgrounds, the perfect backdrop for your message for your special someone.  Perfect for mother’s day, a wedding or anniversary gift, graduation or birthday. 

Check it out - I think you’ll agree - these are really a winner when it comes to a “wow!” personalized gift.

Here is a great personalized gift idea that is really quite affordable.  Add you photo or artwork to a finely crafted keepsake box.  The keepsake box has a multi-coat gloss painted finish which you find on fine furniture.   The interior padding is a white velvet-like material over a foam pad to safely store jewelry or personal treasures.

You create the box using the online box-builder.  Simply upload your photo or digital file of your artwork and lay it out over top of the easy to use template.  When you are happy with how it looks, press submit and it will then be imprinted onto a high gloss tile that is embedded into the keepsake box.

You can choose from a variety of finishes and shapes:

• The square keepsake box comes in black, green, mahogany, pecan and walnut.
• The oblong keepsake box comes in black, green, mahogany, and pecan.
• The oval shaped box comes in black, pecan or mahognay.
• The heart shaped keepsake box comes in blac, mahogany or pecan 

I thought of a number of occasions that these personalized keepsake boxes are perfect for:

• Scan your child’s artwork and give it to grandparents
• Add your own glamour photo to the heart box for Valentine’s Day
• Do you have vintage family photographs?  Create a family heirloom keepsake box.
• How about a family photo for Mother’s Day?
• Immortalize your pet on a keepsake box.
• Imprint a wedding photo for an anniversary gift.
• The list goes on!

Try it out yourself - upload a photo and see how great it looks on a keepsake box!

Click here to see all the keepsake boxes that are available

Click here to see the full line of photo gifts that are available

Time to time we all face, yet enjoy the daunting task of hunting for and giving gifts.