[Adward]

Hi all trap17s, merry xmas. I'm sure all of you will stay at home enjoying delicious food this xmas. On the contrary I have to stay in my office alone since there are still boatloads of documents and emails waiting for me. The only thing I can make fun is surf the net and share you some interesting topix about Xmas.

Today we don't discuss those dear and rare stuff for the rich and extravagant, the topic is about economical and impressive Christmas gifts in creativity. I compiled some special gifts which are easy-to-get yet of interesting meanings. All items listed have been done by me and took effort, so I sincerely hope my list in the package can bring you a fantastic Christmas.

NOT TOO LATE YEA?

1. ecards: It's rather old story but still a great way especially you got some fantastic idea of making one card to the point. I always make ecard myself, focusing my specific clients. From the feedback of these two years, it's quite well and there're more and more people like it. I use PowerPoint to make sildeshow containing animation and music and then convert it to Flash ecard with PPT2Flash, one simple and easy-to-use PPT converter application.

2. T-shirts: I don't mean that you just pick a well-looking one at ebay or where else. You need a Christmas sweater of your own creation, and that's qiute easy, too. There are several sites online where this can be done. I recommend DesignbyHumans since it has so many new smart T-shirts everyday, you can also go to the forum and ask for more ideas in creativity. Yea my students often get theirs at here.

3. Books: take a look at some of the best sellers or the classics. They are inexpensive yet impressive. Of course if you can find some free e-books it's OK as well. This part it seems that Amazon will be a good choice. I rarely read book with ipod or on laptop so I've no idea where can get libraries of book on the Internet. Ask google for help.

4. Coupons: I'm sure that's the most charming stuff for every ladies, at least my wife does. She likes crazy shopping during the Christmas and that's always my tragic period of time, so why not search some coupons for her so that she can stay at home and buy something more useful at cheaper price to two of us. Thanks to all search engines Google, Yahoo, Bing and so on. It's quite long and boring to find the valid discount code offering a really garbain price among millions of online shops. Oh my Santa please give hand out more $ in the 2010 :-)

5. Videogames: Frankly speaking, videogames can be one of the most interesting yet cheapest entertainments for all people aged from 5 to 70. Among the three big bosses of videogame industry, Nintendo Wii should be the best one for family party and multiplay especially for kids and the old. If you want to hold a Christmas carnival with all family members taking part in, give a try.

=== ANY GREAT IDEAS LET'S SHARE TOGETHER===

This post has been edited by Adward: 23 December 2009 - 08:58 AM

[k_nitin_r]

Hi Adward!

I'm not exactly at home this Christmas. I'm vacationing in India and am enjoying the amazing weather that we have here. I've been spending time reading about philosophy (post-structuralism), surfing the Internet, sending out email to catch up with all of the people who I haven't emailed since I started my vacation, and planning to go about doing some open-source software development.

I've noticed that people don't really appreciate receiving eCards and prefer to receive actual physical greeting cards instead. Over the years, there have been more and more people sending out greetings and wedding invitations over the Internet, but it simply doesn't have the personal touch that they should have. You can create greeting cards with a variety of stuff, including glitter, sea shells, or wrapping paper. You can even find greeting cards made up of stuff you would never imagine, such as noodles, rags, and hair clips.

I believe coupons are not really a substitute for a present because it signifies a lack of thoughtfulness - "I didn't have the time to do any shopping for you, so I am handing you these coupons". I'm guessing you are talking about using coupons to buy presents for cheaper, which is a rather good suggestion since a lot of stores offer discounts and coupons for the festival season. If you can't think of anything to buy, you can always get a good book.

Video games are great for kids, but only if they don't have more than a few of them. Kids with dozens and dozens of games don't really appreciate getting another computer/video/console game. However, radio controlled toys top the list any day.

Merry Christmas to all.

[Adward]

Hi Nitin, Merry Xmas!

It's my duty creating ecards to my partners and clients although I don't like that way now. I used to consider ecards a simple and frugal ways of communication and celebration (in fact it really does), but when I find those fantastic paper (or what else like you mentioned) cards with amazing ideas, it seems that I'm quite out-fashioned. Perhaps I could learn how to make the easiest one someday.

Videogame is a double-edged blade to kids, many people get drunk into it including some of my students. I wonder if I can introduce more pretty cool and impressive entertainment style to teenagers and the young, like you say radio controlled toys, outdoor sport and even x-games?