Christmas gift cards for loved ones | Christmas gift cards 2011

Christmas is approaching fast and you still have not decided anything about the Christmas gifts. Christmas Gifts are one of the major attractions for everyone, as all of us loves to receive gifts. Moreover, these Christmas Gifts symbolize love and unity. In case, you are unable to buy Christmas Gifts for your loved ones, there is no need to bother.

There is another option for make them smile and realize that you are concerned about them. Simply give Christmas gift cards to your loved ones.

Christmas gift cards are getting immensely popular among people. They are trendy as well as easy to use. Christmas gift cards are usually gift certificates and they serve the purpose of cash card. Christmas gift cards are usually made up of plastic and incorporate one magnetic strip. The cashier with the help of machine swipes this magnetic strip. There is one logo on the Christmas Gift Cards. On the front of Christmas Gift Cards, there is an illustration of sponsoring business.

Value of Christmas Gift Cards keep on changing and is quite flexible. These cards are getting immensely popular and are preferred more as compare to the paper gift certificates.

Christmas tree made with 80,000 plastic spoons

A team of young taiwanese students as created an impressive christmas tree out of 80,000 plastic spoons, in taichung city.

In their quest to deliver a message about the environment, this christmas, a team of six students from taiwan’s trans world university have created a unique christmas tree out of 80,000 plastic spoons. The young environmentalists entered a competition for the best christmas tree made of recyclable materials, and their original idea came up on top.

The 80,000 plastic spoons used in the making of the tree were provided by the taiwanese branch of kfc, who was probably looking for a way of improving its overall image. After the holiday season, the spoons will be taken to a recycling facility and used to create something useful. Impressed by the feat of these young students, mayor jason hu felt the need to send an environmental message of his own: “christmas must be celebrated in an Eco-friendly way, and it is the same when we choose clothing or when we take a shower.”

Abu dhabi luxury hotel | Million dollar christmas tree

An Abu Dhabi luxury hotel that boasted an $11 million Christmas tree decorated with gold and gems admitted Sunday it may have taken the holiday spirit a bit too far.

A statement from the Emirates Palace hotel said it regretted "attempts to overload" the Christmas tree tradition by adorning it with premium bling including gold, rubies, diamonds and other precious stones from a hotel jeweler.

The statement was a rare bit of reflection on the Gulf's ethos of excess. The tree was unveiled last week with full fanfare in a hotel that features its own gold bar vending machine and a one-week $1 million package that includes private jet jaunts around the Middle East.

But the hotel management apparently had second thoughts after questions arose about whether the opulent tree was innocent good cheer or unfortunate bad taste.

The hotel regrets "attempts to overload the tradition followed by most hotels in the country with meanings and connotations that do not fall in line with the (hotel's) professional standards," said a statement carried on the state-run news agency WAM.

The hotel even tried to distance itself from the 43-foot (13-meter) faux fir in one of its rotundas, saying a hotel-based jeweler was solely responsible for creating and decorating the tree.

"The hotel is just a venue for exhibiting the tree," the statement said.

The hotel also claimed the tree was not a stunt, but rather an effort to boost the holiday mood for its guests based on the United Arab Emirates' "values of openness and tolerance."

Although officially Muslim, the UAE features many signs of Christmas for its huge foreign population. Lights, carolers and Santas are fixtures in nearly every mall.

Christmas lights house | Outdoor christmas | Decorating house

Family christmas lights | Magic christmas | Xmas lights house

Decorating house with Christmas lights is always wake up great memories of childhood. So many people continue to do that through the years. Here are some of the biggest outdoor house decorations with christmas lights. They are mentioned in not particular order and of them are awesome and show how to celebrate Christmas with style.

The Faucher family House


Faucher Family Christmas Lights Extravaganza
The Faucher family has been putting up their Christmas light extravaganza outside their Delaware home for 23 years. And if you think 1,000 lights are a lot, imagine what 1,000,000 would look like. The family’s enormous endeavor lights up the neighborhood and slows traffic for miles around as folks stop by for a look at this holiday marvel.

Alex Goodwind 30000 GBP Christmas Lights


Alex Goodwind Christmas Lights for 30000 GBP
Alex Goodwind’s house is situated in Melksham, England. He starts planning lights in July and has spent 3,000 GBP this 2008 year alone on the lights that are now estimated to be worth 30,000 GBP. Last year the bill for electricity was 700 GBP.

Dominic Luberto’s House
Boston's House of Dominic Luberto

250,000 christmas lights on Dominic Luberto 8,500-square-foot house exterior. Dominic’s idea is to show about 47,000 people who drive by his home each day that Christmas should be celebrated in style. The house is one of the biggest single-family homes in Boston with 11 fireplaces.

Dick Norton’s Winter Wonderland
Dick Norton christmas outdoor decorations

Norton started creating his own family displays nearly 30 years ago. His house situated in Burbank, California. Nowadays Winter Wonderland display draws around 5,000 visitors each year. There are 10,000 lights involved in the display, but the animated elements are really what make it special.

Smith’s Xmas Lights House


Smith's House with Xmas Lights


Fiedler House


Christmas lights on Fiedler House
The house is situated in Ellicott City, Maryland. It’s owned by Fiedler family and photos are taken by jon.

Christmas lights on Miami House


Clot family Xmas Holiday Lights
For more than 30 years, the Clot family has brought a little piece of the North Pole to tropical southern Florida. This year there are more than 600,000 lights and 100 animated displays. Their monthly electricity bill is about $4,000.

Christmas lights on house in Philippines


Christmas lights on house in Philippines
House covered in Christmas lights in Mandaluyong City, eastern Manila. The Philippines has earned the distinction of celebrating the world’s longest Christmas season. Christmas carols are heard as early as September and the season lasts right up until Epiphany. Photos by EPA.

Brooklyn Dyker Heights enclave


Dyker Heights House in Brooklyn
The comfortable, old-fashioned Italian-American enclave of Dyker Heights. It’s famouse for the whole Brooklyn for its Christmas lights decorations.

Monkhouse Magic Christmas


Magic Christmas Display
Walter and Jackie Monkhouse are serious when it comes to holiday lights. They decorate their house for 12 years and last year it has over 100,000 lights.

Angel oak | The fairytale tree | Over 1,500 years-old tree

Angel Oak is one of the oldest organisms east of the Mississippi, believed to be over 1,500 years-old.


Before you start with the “It’s photoshoped” comments, check Wikipedia and you’ll see it’s very real. Angel Oak is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Charlestone, South Carolina. It has a height of 20 meters, measures 2.7 meters in diameter and it’s crown shades an area of 1,600 square meters. It’s longest limb stretches out 27 meters.


Its name comes from the Angel estate, but local legends say ghosts of former slaves sometimes appear around the tree, as angels.


Angel Oak has survived countless earthquakes and floods, as well as human interference. It was damaged by Hurricane Hugo, in 1989, but has since then recovered.

The 200yr old champion Lucombe oak tree | Oldest and largest trees in Devon

The 250-year-old Lucombe oak, in Exmouth, Devon, was the biggest of its kind in the world with a girth of 26 feet.

It was one of Devon's oldest trees and the centrepiece of Phear Park, Exmouth, which is itself only 100 years old this summer.

The great oak which had been attacked by a fungus for years toppled over on Sunday night despite only light winds blowing.

It had been failing for some time and is thought to have died as a result of its age.

The trunk snapped off with most of the roots left in the ground, where a huge hole opened up.

The so-called 'Champion oak' was donated to the people of Exmouth by the Phear family after the Second World War.

While its exact age is not known, since the first Lucombe oak was grown by William Lucombe in the 1760s, it could be up to 250 years old.

East Devon District Council gardeners now have the task of deciding what to do with the trunk.

Steve Gazzard, 60, who was born and brought up in Exmouth and climbed the tree as a youngster with his brother Martin, said: "It is a terrible blow.

"She really was an old faithful and we were all looking forward to the coming weeks when she would have looked her best, surrounded by a host of daffodils.

"I have seen her grow in the past 60 years. Bicton College collected some seeds from her a few years ago and I am hoping that perhaps offspring could be planted in the park to keep the family going.

"We will need a mature tree planted thereabouts as a replacement and I think it would be a good idea if we could keep the fallen trunk as some kind of climbing frame for the young people."

Most Artificial Christmas Trees

Upside Down Christmas Tree
The upside of this upside-down 7-foot pre-lit Christmas tree is that you’ll have more room for presents underneath! This strange tree was originally designed for specialty stores to display ornaments while using as little floor space as possible.

It’s $600 and is currently sold out at Hammacher Schlemmer:

Whoville Christmas Tree
In Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch may have realized that Christmas doesn’t come from a store, but in this case, the Whoville desktop Christmas tree does come from one!

Charlie Brown’s Pathetic Christmas Tree
Good Grief! If Cindy Lou’s Whoville Christmas tree above wasn’t sad enough, maybe you’ll like this one: Charlie Brown’s Pathetic Christmas Tree as featured in Charles Schulz’ excellent comic strip Peanut…. This tree needs you!

Afterall, Linus van Pelt did say "It’s not a bad little tree. All it needs is a little love."

Mountain Dew Christmas Tree
It’s probably too late for you to start doing this one: the awesome Mountain Dew Christmas Tree. It took about 3 months of soda drinking (approximately 400 cans of Mountain Dew) and 4 days of building.

Grolsch Beer Christmas Tree
Mountain Dew? Weaklings… Try Grolsch beer instead:

Knitted Christmas Tree
If you’re into knitting and crafts, why not knit yourself a Christmas tree? Like this big one done by about 1,000 knitters at Eden Project

The Shelf Tree
Don’t want to bother with shedding pine needles or the hassle of putting together an artificial Christmas tree?

World’s Most Expensive Christmas Tree
Last year, Singapore jeweler Soo Kee Jewellery created this Christmas tree with 21,798 diamonds totaling 913 carats and 3,762 crystal beads. The tree looked like (and was actually worth) a million bucks!

Giant Christmas Tree
This is the mother of all Christmas trees: a gigantic 7-story "tree" made from 350 regular-sized artificial trees! Approximately 70 staffers of Yilong Media company of China constructed a steel framing and then stacked this pyramid of Christmas trees.