The hand painted Christmas stockings are 21 inches long including the 3 inch, dark pistachio green, ribbon, hanger loop. There is a 4 inch dark pistachio green, velvet cuff with the words Merry Christmas in white paint with silver glitter. There is a band of red, green and blue braid trim below the cuff with 6 green, red and blue, 2 inch tassels hanging from it. The body of the stocking is a winter scene with a midnight blue sky and white snow at the toe with iridescent white paint to represent fresh fallen snow. There is an 11.5 inch snowman in the center, singing Christmas carols. He also has accents of white glitter paint snow. He is wearing a red stocking cap with yellow stars and a matching red and yellow stripped scarf. His jacket is deep spruce green with adjustable red straps on the sleeves yellow cuffs and red and yellow pockets. He is standing next to a lamp post with a lighted candle for him to read by and a strand of green holly garland down the pole with a red ribbon at the top. Select this link to view our Christmas stockings.
Gifts: The Christmas spirit is all about caring and sharing with your loved ones. What better way to express these feelings than gifts. Christmas, in many ways is the season to give gifts to the loved ones, the tradition traces back to the birth of Christ.
In the legend, the magi from the East came with gifts to the newborn king. These three men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh as gifts for baby Jesus. The gifts the magi brought to Jesus symbolize faith, hope and love. Select this link to view our unique angel gifts.
The Candy cane: The white color of the candy cane symbolizes the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus. The hardness of the candy symbolizes the foundation of churches and the firmness of the promises made by God. The candies are made in a “J” shape to represent the name of Jesus and the shape of the staff of the “Good Shepherd”. And the three red stripes on the candy represent the blood shed by Christ to let us have the promise of eternal life.
Flavors of the season: No celebration is complete without a feast, and the Christmas feast is a special one too. Enhancing the Christmas season and spirit are delicacies that include the Christmas pies, cookies, Christmas cakes, ginger bread, turkey, Christmas pudding and eggnog. Some dishes that you can include in your menu this Christmas are almond baklava, apple squares, biscotti di vino, caramel popcorn, Turkish baklava, sour cherry bars, peanut clusters, nutmeg rolls and hot cranberry punch. Select this link to view our Christmas tree skirt.
The Nutcracker Story:
It's Christmas at the Stahlbaum home. There' s a huge tree, and many guests arrive to celebrate with the family. Clara's godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, makes magical toys. He entertains the guests with two life sized dolls that dance around the room. Then he gives gifts to the children, and gives Clara a very special gift of a nutcracker. Her brother, Fritz, is jealous, grabs the nutcracker and it gets broken! Clara is very upset, so Herr Drosselmeyer repairs the doll before handing it back to her..
Soon after, all the guests leave and the children go to bed. Clara gets up in the night and goes downstairs to get her nutcracker from under the tree. She falls asleep there, and is transported into Christmas fantasy where her nutcracker has grown to the size of a human. When the Mouse King attacks, the Nutcracker Prince tries to valiantly defend young Clara, but is struck down in the battle. Clara in turn saves her Nutcracker Prince by throwing her shoe at the Mouse King and defeating him.
With the nasty Mouse King out of the way, Clara runs to the Nutcracker Prince. When she kisses him, he turns into a human! Then she and her Prince are whisked away through the Enchanted Forest, where they see dancing snowflakes and other wonders. Then they travel further to the Kingdom of Sweets. Select this link to view our artificial prelit christmas trees.