Christmas Articles

I have written a number of Christmas and holiday related hubs lately on Hubpages and just wanted to share them all in one place!  I cover a number of aspects about the holidays from appetizers, to gifts, to movies and even photos.  

If you are looking for a healthy appetizer for a holiday get together, or even just a healthy snack try my recipe for stuffed celery.  A Healthy Holiday Appetizer: Stuffed Celery  

If you are low on cash but still looking for some ways to decorate this holiday season read my article on Holidays and a Recession: Low Budget Christmas Decorations  

Now that you have food and decorations taken care of, you need some gifts.  Instead of giving the usual high tech gift or a gift card why not try something a little more meaningful?  Why not Give a Gift of Nostalgia this Holiday Season!  

When wrapping those gifts from the past why don't you put on some great Christmas movies, find one from any category, comedy, drama from my list of The Best Christmas Movies by Category  

Finally don't forget to enjoy the season and taken in every moment you can check out some of my cool photos from Christmases past with Christmas Memories through Photos.

Find New Freedom With A Jogging Stroller

As a new parent, I found I had very little time to do much other than work, eat and deal with whatever sleep I could fit in. Our first little baby was really not very difficult looking back. But after the third in 5 years it's easy to say that. What I learned from the experience is that jogging is the first thing to go when you are sleep deprive and stressed out.

Jogging Strollers Can Bring Fitness Back

Let me share something with you. Although fitness is the first thing to go when we don't have time it should not be. We should all find time to exercise not matter what. I hear you laughing. It's also incredibly difficult when they are in the 6 month old range to either take them to the gym or jogging or anywhere else fitness related. Sure, some places have a daycare, but it's usually expensive.

A Jogging Stroller Is A Good Fitness Investment

Here's the solution. If you have a little one and you want to get out jogging, then buy a jogging stroller. It's a one time investment. Baby sitting is ongoing and can very quickly add up. A jogging stroller is a couple of hundred bucks. Mine was a little under three hundred for the single stroller I bought. Daycare at the gym can add up to much more than that in a few months.

A jogging stroller gives you an immense amount of freedom. Once your little one is able to sit up on their own, you can load them into your jogger without worry. You can then strap them in and hit the pavement.

You Can Regain Your Freedom And Your Shape

The first thing you lose when you stop jogging or exercising is your chiseled tone. When you are jogging daily, your muscles and skin keep taught and tight. After a few days of stopping, you find that you muscles don't swell after your workout. They start to adapt to your more sedentary routine. When your muscles are being worked, your skin doesn't stay as tight either.

You may also find you start to become fatigued more easily and lose energy. The path back to fitness and your shapely self is through your normal jogging routine. And the path back to your jogging routine with your little one is through a jogging stroller.

Black Friday, this is from community carnival to me-first melee

Examples of people cocooning themselves more over the past 20 years are too numerous to list. But one apparent counter-example is Black Friday -- even if only for a day, aren't people out-and-about, strengthening social bonds by buying gifts for others?

For awhile I didn't have too good of a feel for what this day has been about. I've avoided shopping on Black Friday for a very long time because I sensed that it was degenerate, totally unlike the mall during Christmastime in the '80s when it felt more like a carnival, everyone feeding and feeding off of each other's high spirits. After a little reflection and a look through newspaper articles from the '90s through today, it turns out not to be a counter-example at all.

The vague image we're given in the media, or that we invent ourselves, is of people who are so intent on buying so many presents for so many people, that they can't get in the doors early enough or behave themselves well enough. The competition to get the best gifts for others has just become too chaotic.

In reality, hardly anyone goes out on this day to buy gifts for other people; at best it's an after-thought or rationalization. Rather, buying a handful of things for others has become an excuse to buy stuff for themselves at deals that will never show up the rest of the year. Estimates from the 2000s were that anywhere between 50-75% of people were buying things for themselves while Christmas shopping, and that the average person's self-indulgence accounted for nearly one-quarter of all dollars they spent (around $150 out of $650 total).

The first references to this practice of Christmastime "self-gifting" (how's that for Newspeak?) appear in 1993. This is right as the crime rate is turning around, causing society to shift from the tragic-romantic side of the spectrum to the trivial-efficient side. Already by the early 2000s, this gradual change has moved far enough so that newspapers regularly comment on the self-centeredness of Black Friday shoppers.

What To Expect From Teeth Whitening Treatments

Teeth whitening services are becoming increasingly popular but there are still a number of myths surrounding the subject that need to be dispelled.

The first issue that many dental patients are concerned about is whether undergoing a whitening procedure will damage their tooth enamel and this is not true when the treatment is performed properly by professional dentists.

Trustworthy dentists will use safe levels of hydrogen peroxide to assist the whitening process because the chemical solution is the active ingredient in the gel which is applied to the teeth.

The use of hydrogen peroxide makes many people wonder whether teeth whitening is indeed safe or not and this is where it is appropriate to only trust dentists to perform the procedure.

Dentists will make certain that the hydrogen peroxide contained within the whitening gel is safely applied and not overtly exposed to the patient's gums or soft tissue of the mouth or lips.

Many people also wonder whether all teeth whitening gel is the same but this is not the case because there are some solutions which are available over the internet or in shops which contain varying levels of hydrogen peroxide.

Teeth whitening gel which contains a negligible amount of hydrogen peroxide will not produce noticeable results while if the levels of the chemical are too high, this can be potentially dangerous for the patient.

In order to make certain that your teeth whitening gel contains the correct level of hydrogen peroxide, it is important to have the procedure performed by a qualified dentist.

One of the main mistakes that people often make is that they expect that all teeth whitening results will be the same and every recipient will leave the dental practice with an identikit Hollywood smile but unfortunately this is not always the case.

Some people have unrealistic expectations when it comes to teeth whitening but the results often vary between each patient because there are a number of variables to take into consideration.

Results are often affected by the original condition of the teeth as an extremely stained smile which has been weathered by years of red wine and nicotine is unlikely to be shining bright after just one treatment.

Every person's smile is different thanks to the mineral composition contained within their individual teeth so the results are often dependent on genetics and some people are generally unlucky when it comes to their genes.