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Hayward is a small town of only 2,317 people. But don’t let small numbers deter you from visiting this quant town during the holiday because Christmas time is when Hayward shines…literally. The annual Christmas event, called A "Lure" of Lights, lights up the entire town, and put together and ran by volunteers. Hopefully that’s an indicator for you of just how full this small town is with the Christmas spirit.
The “Lure” of Lights is very family focused, with different events and activities for the whole family to enjoy. Events include parades, contests, lights shows, and of course their famous Hot Chocolate Crawl!
If you’re going to miss the “Lure” of Lights this year, plan ahead for next Christmas for you and your family to enjoy one of the most magical Christmas’ ever!
]]>Family For most people, Christmas is spent with family. It’s a time to put everything else aside and focus on enjoying the time spent relaxing together, sharing the celebrations, enjoying good food and making beautiful memories. For many, it’s this rare time that encapsulates the spirit of Christmas, and it’s what they look forward to each and every year.
Love For many people, Christmas is a time for love. We give gifts, spend time together, bask in festive cheer, right wrongs and patch up the past. The spirit of Christmas is spread by sharing this love and promoting nothing but good, so don’t be afraid to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.
Religion Although many non-Christians celebrate the holiday in a commercial sense, Christmas is still a Christian holiday. If your primary focus of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ, you’ve captured the spirit of Christmas in its truest sense.
Perhaps it is All of These No matter what you love the most about Christmas – even if it's the gifts – you can’t deny the warm and positive feeling that comes with the festive season each year. That special feeling is a combination of all of the above and perfectly defines what the spirit of Christmas could mean to you, or anyone else.
How to Include the Spirit of Christmas in Your Home To many people, the true spirit of Christmas is encapsulated in the Nativity scene – the birth of Jesus. One way to show this in your home is to include a Nativity scene of your own! Some choose to make their own, while others may find it simpler to order one that fits their festive decor. If ordering one is more your style, consider the range of Nativity sets here at MyNativity.com. Our options include:
One of the first things you can do, is start adding accents and simple touches to things you already have your yard decorated with. Have a birdhouse in your yard? For the Christmas season, you might quickly change your standard birdhouse out with one has a Christmas style, or simply add some Christmas style to the one you already have with some ribon and red bows. Even things like planters in your yard can be decorated this way. Why not also add some snowflake decals to different things. Simple strands of LED Christmas accent lights also go a long way to illuminate your now accented yard fixtures. Christmas wreaths on the windows, and front door add an elegant, and stylish touch.
An addition to any holiday yard decoration that I always love to see, and of course highly recommend, is an outdoor nativity scene. And if you've every made your own outdoor nativiy scene, you know that they are not only a lot of work, but they don't necessarily last from one year to the next. I'm certainly a bit bias here, but an outdoor nativity silhoutte, made from high quality materials that will last from one holiday season to the next, like the ones you can get from mynativity.com. An outdoor nativity set doesn't have to be difficult to setup to beautify your property, and capture the spirit of Christmas. Nativities from MyNativity.com are east and quick to setup.
The nativity scene, to me, istantly brings the spirit of Christmas, causes one to pause, reflect, and remember the reason for the season. So when you're trying to figure out what you're going to do for your holiday yard decorations, why not do yourself a favor this year, keep it simple yet elegant and beautiful. Adding accents to your existing yard fixtures, an outdoor nativity scene can be all you need to capture the Christmas spirit.
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Wash the tuna can and remove the label. One of the best ways to do this is with a vinegar and alcohol solution/mix. This will help make sure you get rid of any fishy tuna smell and sanitize the can in the process. A neat little trick, you can remove any glue that’s left after removing the label with WD-40 and a paper towel. Of course, you’ll want to be in a well-ventilated area when spraying.
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Using a drill bit that is one or two sizes smaller than your eye screw, drill a hold in the center of the tuna cans.
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Each of the tuna cans will have writing on the bottom of them. You can use Silver Rub ‘n Buff to cover them up, or you can even just spray paint them the color of your choice.
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You can use any stencil you like from your local craft store, and we recommend silver or gold paint. This will make your large outdoor ornaments look just as beautiful as your indoor ones.
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Battery powered lights, that is. Or you can even do candles if you wish, (just have to remember to replace them as they go out.) And there you have it! You’ve just made your very own large outdoor ornaments!
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Since these are essentially large glass balls, you’ll need to secure the base so they don’t go rolling and shatter. An easy fix for this, which also looks great, is using small wreaths as a base for each. Other ideas are using strips of silicone caulk on the bottom or furniture pads to both pad the glass and grip the surface. We don’t recommend securing the tuna cans to the light globes just to make it easy to turn the lights inside on/off. If you liked this article, check out Check out our 8 Favorite Outdoor Nativity Scene Ideas. Nothing shares the true meaning of Christmas quite like an outdoor nativity set.
]]>Sell Trees And Wreathes What better way to appeal to the spirit of Christmas than to sell trees and wreaths this holiday season? To coordinate this fundraiser, you would get in touch with a local tree or wreath supplier in your area. The earlier you can get in touch with them, the better. As it becomes later in the season, their supply will become much more limited. If possible try to contact them no later than October. The supplier may be willing to sell you the trees at cost or donate them to you. You can then sell the trees yourself by setting up in a parking lot. Be sure to advertise your sale. Keep in mind that you’ll need volunteers to help sell the trees and wreaths.
Jingle Bell Run This is another fun event that makes for an excellent fundraising opportunity. Executing this fundraiser would be much like organizing a 5K run. The one significant difference is that you would make this holiday-themed, putting up decorations around the track. Additionally, all participants can tie jingle bells to their shoes – hence the name “Jingle Run.” The one key component to this event is that it may be too cold to host the event outdoors, especially if you live in an area where it snows frequently. You don’t want your runners to risk injury, so perhaps consider hosting the event on an indoor track. You can provide participants with refreshing holiday treats after the race like candy canes and hot chocolate.
Wrapping Paper Sale This fundraiser allows you take advantage of one of the biggest “needs” of the holiday season, wrapping paper. Come Christmas, everyone needs to stock up on wrapping paper. Instead of having your friends and family go to their local store for the wrapping paper, you can instead, convince them to put their money to a good cause and purchase wrapping paper from you. For this fundraiser, you’ll want to look up suppliers who will allow you to take the most substantial profit margins. You will want to put considerable efforts into making sure that you plan for order forms. There is a lot of logistical planning into coordinating group orders. Consider only offering only a few products to help make it easier.
Do You Have Experience With Christmas Fundraising? If you have experience with a Christmas fundraiser, we invite you to share it in the comment section below. While we’ve included some of our favorites in this article, we would like to hear about your favorites too! What worked well? What didn’t work? What suggestions would you make to others? We look forward to hearing from you!
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