I know people who use Christmas cards to decorate during the holidays. I’ve seen folks stick cards on doors or refrigerators, hang them on strings to make mobiles or simply display them on a mantel. But many Christmas cards are opened, enjoyed, perhaps displayed for a short while, and then tossed in the trash with the torn gift wrapping and empty boxes after the festivities have ended. But what if your Christmas card was also an ornament that could go on the tree?

Christmas card ornaments with photos are just some of the many innovative and cool Christmas cards available online these days. They’re great for far-away grandparents and family members, and while not every person on your card list will want to put your ornament card on their tree, they will all enjoy receiving a personalized unusual Christmas card.

Pear Tree Greetings is one place that offers Christmas card ornaments with photos. Printed on 100 lb. recycled card stock, these stylish greeting cards can be personalized with your own photo and message, as you can see from the examples shown below.

To learn more about any of these Christmas photo cards, click any image below to visit Pear Tree Greetings and be sure to use coupon code SANTA15 to save $15 off an order of $100 or more.

Wood Grain Greeting

Ornamental Display

Merry Stripes

Ornamental Display

Strung Ornament

Swirling and Stylish

Find more Christmas card ornaments with photo, unusual holiday cards and cool Christmas cards.

Many people love the Christmas season, but it’s an especially wonderful time for children. Adults may sometimes feel like the holiday comes and goes much too quickly, but for a child, waiting for Santa can seem like an eternity, but they enjoy moment of this special period. So this year, remember what’s it like to be a child, and make some extra time to share the Christmas magic with your child. Here are a few ways to make the season last.

1. Watch Christmas Shows Together – Spend at least one night a week watching Christmas specials together. If you have a DVR, it’s easy to look for all the well-loved favorites, such as Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Little Drummer Boy and others. But you can also search for keywords such as Christmas, elf, reindeer or Santa to find new favorites. Some modern favorites to watch for are Elf, The  Santa Clause and Olive the Other Reindeer.

2. Get an Advent Calendar -Let the countdown begin! You can make or buy inexpensive advent calendars to help your child count down each day of Christmas. Drug stores, superstores and market such as Trader Joe’s often have cheap calendars that contain a small piece of chocolate or candy inside.

3. Write a Santa Letter – Having your child write a letter to Santa is not only a fun activity for both of you, but it’s a great way to create a keepsake that you’ll cherish for years to come. Sit your child down with some paper and a pencil, and help him or her create a letter to Santa. If your child is too young to write, have them tell you what they’d like to say and be sure to write it verbatim so you’ll be able to enjoy seeing their actual words years from now. If your child is old enough to write his or her own letter, give some gentle guidance on proper format, spelling and the limitations on what to ask Santa to bring. Then be sure Santa writes back! Check out sites such as Free Letter from Santa Claus.net,  Santa Letter Templates.com or Printable Santa Letters.com for free or inexpensive Santa letters to print at home.

4. Enjoy the Christmas Lights – From Thanksgiving to Christmas, many neighborhoods are brightly lit with lawn decorations and lighted displays. These days, you can often find houses that have even synchronized their light display with music you can hear by dialing a specific radio station. Make a plan to walk or drive around your neighborhood at least one night every week to look at the displays. Take a different route every time if your’e on foot or hop in the car and find the best displays in your area.

5. Do Some Craft Projects – Christmas crafts projects for kids can be simple or complex and everything in between and, fortunately, you don’t need to have Martha Stewart’s talent to do some homemade crafts. Simply look online for kids Christmas crafts and you’ll find plenty of fun, simple projects such as clothespin reindeer you can make cheaply and with few materials.

As Christmas approaches every year, children work extra hard to make sure they’re on Santa’s Nice List. The fear of finding coal in your stocking rather than great toys and gifts under the Christmas tree is enough to keep most kids on their best behavior. Hopefully, that behavior continues after the holidays, and one great way to both recognize good behavior and encourage it all year long is to make sure your kids know they’re on Santa’s Nice List.

Here are some ways to show your kids that their good behavior has paid off.

The easiest way to let your children know they’ve made it to Santa’s Nice List is to send a personalized letter from Santa Claus with a Nice List certificate enclosed. You can get Nice List certificates from most companies selling Santa letters, or you can save money by creating your own printable Santa letters and Santa’s Nice List certificate at home. Creating your own personalized letters from Santa Claus ensures that St. Nick will say exactly the right things. It also gives you control over when and how Santa’s letter arrives.

Another way to make sure your children know they’ve made it to Santa’s Nice List is to send a free Santa message video in which Santa shows who is on his Nice List. You can can create a free video from Santa at Portable North Pole.

You can also surprise your kids with their own personalized Santa’s Nice List Christmas tree ornaments from Zazzle. Santa loves to leave these special ornaments on Christmas morning when he delivers all the other gifts for good girls and boys.

Kids will love getting these extra goodies from Santa. They remind your kids that Santa always knows when they’ve been bad or good, so hopefully they’ll continue to be good, for goodness sake.

If you have kids who believe in Santa Claus, Portable North Pole.tv is a site you shouldn’t miss. This site lets you create free Santa videos personalized with your child’s name, age, location and other details. You can even upload a profile picture and up to two other photos that Santa will show when he’s looking in his Naughty and Nice List. And if your kids need a reminder to always be polite or to share with others, Santa’s got you covered; the site allows you to select from a list of behaviors and indicate whether your child needs improvement or some words of encouragement for already doing a great job.

This is the third year the site has been offering their amazing free videos, and they’ve added some new features this year. They’re now offering messages for specific user categories (toddlers, young kids or adults), more personalization according to each person’s profile and an application for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

This is also the first year Portable North Pole.tv will be allowing you to purchase a permanent copy of the video. (Right now, the site is still saying this feature will be available soon.) There’s no obligation to buy a copy, and if you choose not to, you will still get the same high-quality video with all the personalization features the site offers.

This is one site you won’t want to miss. Visit Portable North Pole.tv to check it out.

We all know Santa lives at the North Pole, but what ELSE do you know about this cold, snowy region at the top of the earth? Here’s some trivia about the North Pole so you’ll be ready in case you ever run into Santa and he gives you a pop quiz.

How cold is it at the North Pole?
During winter, the temperature at the North Pole averages from about -45 to -15 degrees Fahrenheit (-43 to -26 degrees Celsius). During summer, the temperature climbs up to a cool 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).

If it’s noon in Tokyo, what time is it at the North Pole?
Good question. In most places on Earth, local time is determined by longitude and time of day is more-or-less synchronized to the position of the sun in the sky (for example, at midday the sun is roughly at its highest). But this method of determining time doesn’t work at the North Pole, where the sun rises and sets only once per year, and all lines of longitude (hence all time zones) converge. So there is no assigned time zone at the North Pole. (Is this why Santa can defy time and fly all around the world in a single night?)

Does the sun still rise in the east and set in the west at the North Pole?
When the sun is visible in the polar sky (during the summer months), it appears to move in a clockwise circle above the horizon. The sun rises only once and sets once every YEAR at the North Pole.

Other than Santa’s Village, what other buildings are there at the North Pole?
The South Pole has some permanent scientific outposts, but the North Pole has no permanent structures. That’s because it’s in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and is surrounded by water that is and sea ice that is always shifting.

What animals live at the North Pole?
Other than Santa’s reindeer, very few animals have ever been sighted near the North Pole. The few that have been spotted near the top of the earth include the ringed seal and Arctic foxes, as well as birds such as the Black-legged Kittiwake, the Snow Bunting, and the Northern Fulmar.

Is Santa’s North Pole the only North Pole?
In addition to the geographic North Pole, which is the northernmost point on Earth, there is also a Magnetic North Pole, as well as cities named North Pole in Alaska, New York, Idaho and Oklahoma.

Yes, Virginia, there really is a North Pole. And if Santa Claus is sending a letter to your child this year, you’ll want to be sure your envelope has one of these special marks. During the holidays, you can get a free postmark from North Pole, Alaska simply by sending your mail there and requesting the special pictorial postmark.

Many people think you need to pay a Santa letter service for this special touch, but it’s easy to do yourself. You can save money by using a Santa letter template to create your own printable Santa letter at home and then sending it to Alaska for the North Pole postmark. All you’ll need to pay is the cost of postage to and from the North Pole.

The official North Pole postmark from North Pole, AK is available every year from Thanksgiving to Christmas. There’s no additional fee for the postmark. You just need to be sure to put enough postage on your letter to get it to Alaska and back. And the service isn’t just for Santa letters – you can send any of your holiday cards and family Christmas letters here for a special touch of Christmas magic, too.

If you’d like to add a North Pole postmark to your child’s Santa letter, the process is simple. First you’ll need create your letter from Santa Claus. There are plenty of places to get great looking printable Santa letters online. Once you’ve got your letter, seal it in an envelope addressed to your child and affix regular first-class postage. Then place THAT envelope in a larger one and send it to this address:

North Pole Christmas Cancellation
Postmaster
4141 Postmark Drive
Anchorage, AK 99530-99998

The postal elves at the North Pole will open the outer envelope, stamp the inner envelope with the special North Pole, AK postmark, and send it through the regular mail service to the address on the inner envelope.

If you want to be sure not to disappoint your child, be sure to get your Santa letter in the mail by the end of the first week in December. That should ensure arrival in Anchorage no later than December 15. Letters that are received by this date should make it back to their final destination by Christmas with regular first-class postage. If you can’t get your letter to the North Pole by December 15, you’ll need to use Priority Mail on the inner envelope to make sure Santa’s letter doesn’t arrive after the holidays.