Not me, that’s for sure. And I even have a few shops of my own, so that’s rather sad.

My favourite new items are their customized ornaments. Yes, I do realize it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, but that means you’re finally getting around to editing your Christmas photos, right? And now you’re ready to order (or win!) your special ornament to hang on the tree next year, right?

I thought so!

Actually, there’s Hannukah and even many ornaments that are generic enough to hang all year. You can also choose a full-bleed style with only a photo.

What I love about it is it’s simplicity. Choose your ornament, upload your photo, edit your text, click to order. That’s it. And being CafePress, you know it’s going to be delivered quickly and for very little money.

For fifteen bucks, this is a great ornament for your hard earned coin.

Win it! CafePress is giving one T.O.P. reader an ornament of their very own free-like-a-bird. To enter, check them out and choose yours. Comment below to enter. Due to technical issues, we’ve extended this contest to close at noon mst on FEB 24, 2010.

This weekend I’m planning to brave the mall so my kids can see Santa. Actually, the only reason I’m considering it is because I got some adorable frames for the annual Santa pics last year and I have a mental block to leaving the old pictures in them. Poor kids. A nicer mother would keep them as far away from the mall as possible and just go straight to SantaSpeaking.com.

Founded by Anne Gaskell (aka Elf Annie), a mom of three, Santa Speaking is absolutely top notch. There are a lot of sites out there that we’re asked to check out & recommend to you, and the one we’re consistently impressed by and the only one we’ve tried that we think is good enough to recommend at this point is Santa Speaking. Elf Annie is well aware that the mall Santa may not quite meet your expectations, so she developed this service to “offer personalized Santa Claus experiences that are modeled after the ideal Santa Claus figure.” The calls range from 3-5 minutes (single call) to 8-10 minutes (extended call). I highly recommend the extended call if you have more than one child or one that either really likes to talk, like mine, or one that may take a few minutes to warm up. My children are 3 1/2 and nearly two and their call from Santa Speaking was the absolute highlight of their year. This year, just like the last two, it was nothing short of amazing to watch them light up and tell Santa their Christmas wishes. They could hardly wait to call Grandma to tell her all about the phone call from the big guy, and were just bouncing off the walls with excitement all day! Whether your child talks for 10 minutes non-stop or just sits & listens, the well trained (and fully background checked) Santa will fill the empty space with questions and comments about your child’s life that only Santa could know. Even the skeptics will have their hearts opened by a call from Santa Speaking. You can get an MP3 of your child’s call via email and/or a mini-CD ornament to both listen to and hang on your tree year after year. We just listened to last year’s call and were amazed by the change in the sound of their little voices. Precious.

The set up of the call is as simple as can be, and they’ve thought of everything in terms of ensuring that Santa knows a ton of information about your child. He knew the names of my children’s best friends, their activities and hobbies and so much more – all of which I was able to effortlessly enter prior to the call.

SantaSpeaking.com is tracking Santa’s progress this Christmas Eve so be sure to check in. You can even have him call you five times throughout the day to update you on his progress. Santa also has a blog! At SantaSpeaking.com, you can read the North Pole Gossiper, dance to Santa’s Groovy Hits, get the recipe to make Santa’s fave hot chocolate and so much more. Whether you’re purchasing a call or not, it’s a great site to visit. However, once you experience a call from Santa Speaking you’ll likely be ordering a call every year. From $20 – $50, there’s one that’s affordable for most families.

Win it! We’ve got a $60 SantaSpeaking.com gift code for one lucky T.O.P. reader! That will cover the whole she-bang – an extended call and a mini CD ornament/MP3. We’ve only got a couple of weeks until Christmas eve, so leave your comment by noon MST on Monday 12/14/09, and the winner will be notified that afternoon./blockquote>

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Many of us are too concerned about health of our children and our earth to buy grocery store chocolate this Easter season. If you’re looking for a great alternative, consider GiftVenture. Previously reviewed here, “a Giftventure is a personalized treasure hunt service where all of the materials are custom made and delivered to you! You simply choose an adventure, a character, and a hiding place for a gift that you provide. Enter the location where you have the hidden gift, some of the child’s personal interests, (such as a favorite game, or a local landmark), and you’re all set! Using the information you provide, they create and mail a series of letters and puzzles addressed to the child who must solve the puzzles and follow the clues in the letters to discover the location of your hidden gift.”

Yes, it’s as cool as it sounds.

The hidden gift can be anything you can imagine. A stuffed animal, clothing, a new game, or a lovely basket of goodies that can even include chocolate. Organic & fair trade, natch.

From the TOP Shops: Save 10% on your Giftventure with the code TOP10CAN.

Looking for a last minute Valentine’s Day tee that you can wear all year?

This one’s made from 100% recycled sweatshop free cotton and printed using non-phthalate water-based inks that are good for you and good for the environment. And it’s not just for Valentine’s Day. Love is a never ending theme.

Use the code TOPLOVE for 15% off the entire line

We spent an afternoon a couple of weeks ago at the mall with friends doing some shopping and visiting Santa. My two and a half year old son enjoyed it well enough (for the first time ever) but my daughter – not so much. To her it was akin to torture. Whether your children enjoy the mall Santa or not, we’re bringing back our favourite way – hands down – for your child to contact Santa during this awesome season.

SantaSpeaking.com was founded by Anne Gaskell (aka Elf Annie), a mom of three. She knows that the mall Santa may not be all you were hoping for so she developed this service to “offer personalized Santa Claus experiences that are modeled after the ideal Santa Claus figure.” The calls range from 3-5 minutes (single call) to 8-10 minutes (extended call) and I highly recommend the extended call if you have more than one child or one that either really likes to talk or make take a few minutes to warm up. My not-usually-shy little guy happened to receive his call at what should have been his nap time on a day when he wasn’t feeling well so it took him that long to get across what he wanted to say. If you have an older child, they’ll may talk the entire time or they may just listen wide-eyed, but no matter what happens, the well trained (and background checked) Santa will fill the empty space with questions and comments about your child’s life that only Santa could know. Even the skeptics will have their hearts opened by a call from Santa Speaking. You can get an SantaSpeaking.com will send you a MP3 of your child’s call and/or a mini-CD ornament to both listen to and hang on your tree year after year.

The set up of the call is as simple as can be, and they’ve thought of everything in terms of ensuring that Santa knows a ton of information about your child. He knew the names of my son’s best friends, about his classes and hobbies and so much more – all of which I was able to effortlessly enter prior to the call.

SantaSpeaking.com is tracking Santa’s progress this Christmas Eve so be sure to check in, and Santa also has a blog! At SantaSpeaking.com, you can read the North Pole Gossiper, dance to Santa’s Groovy Hits, get the recipe to make Santa’s fave hot chocolate and so much more. Whether you’re purchasing a call or not, it’s a great site to visit. However, once you experience a call from Santa Speaking you’ll likely be ordering a call every year. From $20 – $50, there’s one that’s affordable for most families.

Win it! We’ve got a $60 SantaSpeaking.com gift code for one lucky T.O.P. reader! That will cover the whole she-bang – an extended call and a mini CD ornament/MP3. Being that it’s only ten days until Christmas (yikes!) we need to close this one off soon so get your entries in quickly! Leave your comment by noon MST on 12/17/08, and the winner will be notified that afternoon!

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

We are full to the brim with Christmas spirit around these parts. As anyone with a preschooler can attest, Christmas rocks. Having an excitable child in your midst makes the holiday season truly wondrous. There are so many traditions to pass on from our own childhoods and more to start fresh with our children.

One tradition that I was excited to start this year was Elf on the Shelf (caution: music loads automatically). I was excited when I decided I was going to do it, and now that the kids have experienced him I’m even more excited and thrilled that we’ll be able to use him every Christmas season to come and start a tradition that we hope our children will pass on to theirs one day.

Elf on the Shelf, founded by mom, entrepreneur, former teacher & writer Carol Aebersold, who teamed with her daughter Chanda Bell, also a former teacher, and award-winning illustrator Coë Steinwart to create The Elf on the Shelf in 2005. The tradition of the shelf elf began for her family when her own children were young.

She says, “Plagued by their desire to know how Santa really knew who had been naughty or nice, I searched through the Christmas decorations for a plausible explanation. Nestled among them was the answer; a small elf doll from my own childhood. With that discovery, the idea for the elf tradition was born.

At our home the elf would arrive around the holidays, usually at Thanksgiving. His sole responsibility was to watch my children’s behavior and report it to “Santa” each night. The next morning after the children awoke, they discovered the elf had returned from the “North Pole” and was hiding in a different place. My children would race each other out of bed to try and be the first to spy him in his new position.

Over the years the tradition was perfected and rules were even introduced. For example, to better preserve his mystique the children were not allowed to touch him; however, they were allowed to talk to him. For obvious reasons, he was not allowed to reply. Eventually, my children even gave him a name – officially adopting him into the family.

Unwittingly, the tradition provided an added benefit: it helped the children to better control themselves. All it took was a gentle reminder that the “elf was watching” for errant behavior to be modified.”

Seeing the look on my children’s faces when they first spotted the elf and their excitement as I read them the story was the best gift of the season thus far. Each morning as they wake and search for the elf the spirit of the season just keeps on giving. The gift of seeing that innocent wonder & bubbling excitement in a child is the best gift a parent can receive, and the Elf on the Shelf gives it to us every single day. Also a great gift? A little help with the crazy behaviour that comes with December. Just a little added bonus.

Elf on the Shelf sells for $30 US and is available for purchase from their gift shop (shipping to US & Canada) or by phone @ 877-919-4105 (for shipping worldwide or if you’d just rather not buy it online). I also spotted one in the card shop at my local mall for $40, but it was the last one and every other store I checked was sold out so online is the way to go if you’re as excited about getting this tradition started as I am. There’s an additional activity book available for $15.

Win it! We’ve got an Elf on the Shelf gift pack including the book & elf to give to one lucky reader. In order to allow the winner to use this for more than a few days, we’re going to make this contest a little shorter than usual.

To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on Monday, December 15, 2008. The randomly selected winner will be contacted via email within the hour and the parcel shipped that afternoon so that it can be enjoyed to the fullest this season. Good luck! (and if you haven’t gotten an email by Monday at 1 pm mst, order one! Your family will love it!)

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Robeez are some of the best & most popular baby shoes on the market today. My children have both worn pair after pair (and still are) and I’ve given a number as gifts as well.

You may or may not be aware that the Robeez line includes some fabulous holiday footwear in addition to their everyday pairs. Every little girl needs her “special shoes” and now even our boys can have some great footwear options for the winter season.

The Robeez Holiday Collection (newborn to 4 years – $28) consists of six special soft soled designs which capture the holiday spirit. With styles for girls and boys, these make a great reasonably priced gift for under $30.

The Robeez Made-to-Match Gift Sets (newborn to 18 mos – $40) each contain a pair of Robeez Soft Soles with 4 pairs of made-to-match socks. There are four designs to choose from for both girls and boys.

The Robeez Cozy Collection – my personal fave – (newborn to 2 years – $32 to $50) are lush & luxurious booties accented with faux fur that bring high fashion along with warmth and comfort to little feet. They’re also available in girls and boys styles. My daughter is sporting the black fashion booties this winter and they’re cute enough to melt even the hardest of hearts.

If you’re looking for a great gift for a little one this holiday season (or if your kids have feet – that’s reason enough) be sure to check out these great holiday picks from Robeez!

Win it! We’re giving away one pair from each of the above collections for a total of three winners! To enter, choose your line (holiday, made to match or cozy), visit the appropriate link above to choose your pair and leave a comment letting us know which pair from which line and which size you’d like to win. Contest closes at noon mst on November 7, 2008.

Additional entries available – up to four per person. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNERS EMAILED

With Halloween quickly approaching, a lot of us are scrambling to put together a cute and practical costume together for our little ones. The folks over at You Can Make This have gathered up some awesome ideas and tutorials for costumes.

I had the opportunity to sew up The Fancy Filled Tutu. I was a little intimidated at first not having sewn with Tulle before, however once I dived into the project it was fun and fast! I had the Tutu completed in a couple hours. I would recommend having someone watch the kids as you work on this project for the first time, if you are easily distracted like I am. I had to look over the instructions a few times to make sure I was on the right track, after numerous distractions from the kids.

The Fancy Filled Tutu turned out so well! I am absolutely thrilled with the result! My daughter picked out the colours for the tulle, then I went to the dollar store to find the filling. I figured since it would be inside the Tutu it would be safe (although the instructions do note to not place small items in the tutu if it is meant for a child under the age of three). Once completed, you start imagining all the other Tutus you could make!

My daughter absolutely adores it! The filling jingles as she twirls and jumps which is totally an added bonus!

You Can Make This has a lot of other projects for your little goblins, here are a few that you can find on their site:

– by Chelle

Win it! We’re giving away the Halloween pattern of your choice from You Can Make This. To enter, visit the site and check out their Halloween items. Come back and leave a comment with the one you’d like to win just in time for Halloween. Contest closes at noon mst on October 28/08.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

As Halloween approaches, I am thinking more and more about the crap that we feed our children in the name of obesity cancer heart disease diabetes bad habits fun. In great moderation, of course, candy is perfectly fine but there’s also interesting debate about the ethics of the major candy producers. So much so that I don’t feel I can purchase mainstream candy and feel good about where I’m putting my money. However, I also don’t want to be the family who hands out raisins (thought in my heart that’s who I am) because eggs just don’t look good on my house. This year, in addition to some chips for the big kids and playdough for the little ones, I’m going to hand out snack packs of Snikiddy Snacks. Remember them?

They’re delicious, organic, totally-almost-guilt-free cookies and snackies that are available in individual packages perfect for trick-or-treating ghouls & goblins. And Spidermen. And princesses. My personal fave are definitely the Chocolate Chippers but my son & daughter love the Banana Nibblers too.

The only problem? Keep them under lock and key or there won’t be any left on October 31.

Win it! Snikiddy is going to send an assortment of sample snacks to one lucky commenter – just leave a comment on this post before noon mst on October 27/08.

Additional entries available – up to four per person. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED.

This is a guest post from Tiffany of Nature Moms. At her fabulous blog, you’ll find tons of tips for natural and green living as it relates to raising a family.

Easter Sunday is two weeks from today. Here are some great ideas from Tiffany for making it a little more eco-friendly!

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What is eco friendly about Easter? Hmmm…not much. Cheap plastic eggs, plastic grass, candy with too much sugar and loaded with artificial coloring and flavors…. well at least most Easter egg hunts take place in the great outdoors. That is a start.

One of the first steps to having a greener and more eco friendly Easter is too make your own baskets. The ones you can by at the supermarket or Wal-Mart are just a bunch of cheap crap I find. It is not hard to gather little toys and healthy candies to make a quality basket on your own. In fact you can even grow real grass for them. Or use a paper shredder and shred some paper you have around the house. I also found really pretty paper grass you can buy too.

Don’t want to make your own basket? Check out these natural and fair trade Easter baskets.

Next up…consider ditching those conventional egg dying kits and dye your
own eggs using natural coloring techniques. I wrote a post about this last
year with instructions. But in general here is what you use for colors:

For pink and red colored eggs use cranberry juice, beets, or raspberries.

For yellow eggs use saffron or tumeric

For purple eggs use red wine.

For blue eggs use red cabbage leaves or blueberries.

For brown eggs use grape juice, rosehip tea, or coffee.

For orange eggs use yellow onion skins.

You can also use wool eggs! These are sooooo cute. Make your own or buy some from a mom knitter. Here is another cool link using plastic eggs as a form to make wool ones….youare still buying the plastic eggs but they will last for years with a nice wool covering on them.

They don’t have candy in them but… hey that’s a GOOD thing. And they are more expensive but they can be reused again every year. Have your kids find them and trade them in for some treat of your choosing. But make sure keep track of everywhere you hid them because you’ll want to pick up any they didn’t find.

Also, make sure to invest in quality baskets that you can reuse every year. I have an Easter basket collection going in my basement so in a week or so when I start to put my baskets together I will just go down there and grab a couple.

Perhaps the biggest struggle for natural parents on Easter is candy. I know I can’t afford to slip up too much with unhealthy treats or my kids will have a melt down…especially my daughter…it isn’t pretty. There is nothing like a beautiful little princess in her Sunday best throwing herself on the ground in a tantrum because she wants one more Tootsie Roll.

For healthier candy options try these:

Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops

Fruitabu Organic Smooshed Fruit Rolls

Squirrels Nest

Non-candy treats and gifts to consider:

Pineapple Flavored – Recycled Pencils

Soybean Crayons

Basura Coin Purse

Natural Finger Paint for Kids

Kids Gardening Kit

Bunny in the Box

Egg Shaped Chalk

Barefoot Books

Homemade Play Dough, Bubbles, or Silly Putty

Wool Flowers in a Metal Pot

The Velveteen Rabbit

Funky Stuffed Animals

Have a happy and green Easter everyone!

Waiting in line at the mall to see a creepy Santa with his beard half hanging off and garlic breath and then paying $15 for a crappy picture of my kid with him isn’t my idea of a great Christmas memory.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Santa. I love the idea of Santa and the spirit of kindness and giving that surrounds it. I just don’t love the mall in December. If you’re in the same spot, you may never need to go there again. To see Santa, anyway ~ the shopping’s totally your call. We’ve found an awesome new website that gives your children the kind of wonderful personal Santa experience you want for them without any of the hassle…

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Review by Raechelle, Contributing Writer

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When we were given the opportunity to review Santa Speaking for The Opinionated Parent, I was happy to do so.

SantaSpeaking.com was founded by Anne Gaskell (aka Elf Annie), a mother with three little ones under 7 who has experienced the scary mall Santa enough times to get inspired to create an alternative. And what a great alternative it is!

Little did I know how much joy one call could bring!

We just completed an international move and my three year old has had to be a very good little girl.

When we saw Santa Claus at the mall, she was at a loss for words and missed her chance to tell Santa what she truly wanted for Christmas.

My daughter was so overwhelmed with joy to receive a call from Santa. It took her a few minutes to warm up (so I was thankful we had the extended call), but once she was used to talking to him she opened up and shared with Santa what she wanted for Christmas! It was truly an amazing experience watching her trying to express herself to him. Talking to Santa was like talking to a celebrity for her.

After listening to the MP3 that SantaSpeaking.com sent us I had tears in my eyes hearing her talk with him so nervously. It was so endearing.

During all of the chaos in our lives, this was a moment to remember for all of us. It really helped us start off the season right and put my daughter’s mind at ease that Santa knew she had moved and knew what she hoped to receive.

The call from SantaSpeaking.com was so simple to set up. They have thought of all the little details and make the calls personal and very true.

There are a lot of features on their site to check out as well. They are tracking Santa’s progress Christmas Eve, as well as hosting Santa’s blog! You can read the latest issue of the North Pole Gossiper, groove to some cool Santa tunes and much more.

I want to thank Santa Speaking, and The Opinionated Parent for this wonderful experience.

When you’re out there looking for last minute gifts, stop and consider this amazing experience for the little ones in your lives.

Share the magic with your own little people!
Use the code OPPARENT for 10% off a $30 minimum purchase.

We’ve got a $58 SantaSpeaking.com gift code for one lucky T.O.P. reader! We’re on a deadline for this one, obviously, so get your entries in quickly! Email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com by 5 pm MST on 12/19/07 with Santa Speaking in the subject line and tell us the minimum price of a live call from Santa. (More than worth every penny in our opinion!)

Barring excruciating labour pains or hospitalization, a winner will be emailed Wednesday evening to give you time to schedule your call before Christmas so check your inbox! Congratulations Cassandara, and enjoy!

Now that my Christmas tree is up and the house is glistening with decorations, (shut up, I’m Canadian and Thanksgiving is earlier here) I’ve been, to my husband’s chagrin, listening to Christmas music. It’s one of my favourite signs of the season (along with the red cups at Starbucks) but it’s got to be good. The crap at the mall over the loudspeakers just doesn’t do it for me. When I received “Christmas Lullabies To Create Memories” by Paige Stroman I had a feeling I’d love it and now that we’ve been listening to it for a week I’ve got a funny feeling that you will too. It’s not your typical Christmas album in that it’s definitely made for the young ‘uns but its soothing and enjoyable and is just that little reminder we all need to slow down and enjoy the season with our children.

Listen to some song samples from Paige’s site. The CD can also be purchased there for $15.