Best and Worst Christmas Experiences

Thinking back over my many, many Christmases, it's easy to pick out which is the worst. The best Christmas is definitely more difficult to decide upon - any Christmas spent with family and friends is truly wonderful - but I would have to settle on ones from when I was a child.

The Worst:
My worst Christmas was relatively recent, back in 2007. My fiance and I live in different countries and on this year I travelled to the USA to be with him. Things were going great until perhaps a week before Christmas when he told me that he may to have to go out of State, over Christmas. I was almost 5,000 miles from home, knew no-one other than my fiance and his kids, and we were staying in a trailer home way out in the country. Now while I understand his reasons for going away, it was not 100% essential that he do so, he had a choice. What he chose to do was to leave me completely alone and stranded two days before Christmas, returning two days after Christmas. So on Christmas morning, I woke up alone in a trailer in the middle of nowhere and spent the entire day alone, eating a cardboard-like frozen pizza for Christmas dinner.

I'm sure that others have had worse Christmas experiences than this, but to me, this one was pretty bad!

The Best:
When I was a child, every Christmas was wonderful. My father was still alive and Christmas was a huge family event. What made it great wasn't the quantity of presents that my sister and I received from all of our relatives, it was the huge family gatherings that took place later in the day. Wherever we had Christmas dinner, there were up to 20 people crowded around the dinner tables. No-on in the family had a table large enough so all of the kids (myself, my sister and our cousins) always sat at a smaller table tacked on at the end of the main dining table. Being British, Christmas crackers were a must and everyone pulled their cracker, read the joke from inside and wore their silly paper hat. After dinner we'd watch corny Christmas Specials on television and play party games.

Nowadays Christmas is a much smaller affair in my family. The thing that makes it special for me now is to spend time with my niece, nephews and my great nephews on Christmas morning.

Christmas Feel Good Movies

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Plot: A rather unlikely looking angel helps a desperately frustrated man (James Stewart) by showing what life would have been like had he never existed.

Despite being an old black and white movie (there are digitally colorized versions available), It's a Wonderful Life remains a Christmas classic to this day. It demonstrates the ways in which we touch the lives of others and to some extent, the butterfly effect that our actions can have.

We give this movie ***** - five Christmas stars!

Free Christmas Card Giveaway

Until the 24th of November 2011 you can grab one of these wonderful holiday cards below absolutely free of charge. Only one free card per customer, shipping charges are not included in the deal but you can take advantage of an additional offer that WILL give you free postage (see below). Each card has it's own unique promotional code that MUST be entered at the checkout process.

HUUJSLCRSLTH	LDSNICGPWPXL	KTPXBTFOVOWK	JBSFGAEIUNVJ
FFSQSMAWQJTF	USBWBLHNSLTU	VTCXCMJMTMUV	CRFUTPISGCPC
BNMSOADRGFPB	YWFZFPJDWPXY	VYACCEJMTMUV	ADFNHJCQFEOA

In order to make this a completely free offer, you can also sign up for a FREE TRIAL of the Zazzle Black program that gives you free shipping for 30 days!! If you like the program and want to keep it after the trial, it $9.95 for a whole year's shipping within the USA. You can read more about Zazzle Black and the FREE TRIAL right here. Combine the free greetings card offer with this deal and you really do have a 100% free Christmas card!

100% of the card's net sale price (excluding shipping and taxes) is deducted when qualifying greeting card is purchased from zazzle.com and the unique coupon code is applied at checkout. Offer does not apply to create your own cards. Offer does not apply to card orders of two or more. Buyer is responsible for shipping and handling and sales tax charges. Failure to comply with promotional offer conditions may result in order cancellation. Offer is valid through November 24, 2011 at 11:59pm PT. Offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

Up to 75% Off Christmas or Holiday Cards

This is an amazing offer from Zazzle: 75% Off when you order 75 or more cards!! Okay, so 75 cards may seem like a lot if you only send Christmas cards to your closests friends and family. But, if that's the case you can team up with a friend, relative or neighbour to make up the numbers and you can both make savings! Or, since the offer isn't restricted to Christmas cards, you could buy all of your Birthday, Anniversary or other greetings cards for a whole year!

If you still can't manage 75 cards, then until midnight PT on October 20th 2011 you can grab 50% Off any number of cards.

After the 20th October, you can get 20% Off any number of cards until December 31st 2011.

Here are the codes that you need to use:

for 75% Off: JOY2THEWORLD

for 50% Off: CARD4HOLIDAY

for 20% Off: HOLIDAYCHEER

Visit Zazzle now

Cute Christmas Penguin Cartoon 
View other Christmas Cards

Zazzle has a huge selection of cards and almost all of them can be customized by you to make a more personal touch. There are also a large number that allow you to incorporate a photograph for a family or funny Christmas greetings card.

Family Photo Christmas Card Templates

Each of these fun festive cards can be customized with your family photo to give a truly personalized touch to your Season's Greetings. So whilst Christmas is still a while away, it's well worth while getting prepared early!

More photo template christmas cards here.