With Thanksgiving falling on pretty much the last possible day in November, Christmas has come hurtling toward Moms and Dads like a runaway freight train with a turbo-booster. That means time is tight for shopping for Christmas presents for children, toddlers, and babies. Now, anyone with good parenting skills wants to provide a Merry Christmas (or other happy holiday) for their kids with plenty of presents without breaking the bank or raiding the college fund.
Additionally, no one wants to spoil their kids either. Add to that the fact that a lot of children already have more toys than they can play with, and you have parents torn between buying lots of toys for Christmas to fill up that space under the Christmas tree, and Daddies and Mommies wondering if they shouldn’t buy any new toys at all this holiday season.
Fortunately, it is possible to have it all when it comes to Christmas. The plan is simple. Get great deals on as many toys and presents as fit into your budget, thus satisfying both the no-overspending need AND the have tons of fun Christmas toys to play with on Christmas morning. What about the over-filled toy boxes and closets and shelves?
Before Christmas have a frank, but not depressing, talk about how not everyone is as fortunate as them. Use this as a time to play up how lucky your family is, and how great it is to be part of such a loving household, instead of dwelling on how sad it must be to be in the reverse situation. At the end of the conversation ask them to go through their toys with you and decide which ones should be donated to other kids who might have more fun playing with them. If you have a particularly green child, play up the recycling angle. If you have a got to have it all kiddo, play up the need for plenty of space to put those new Christmas presents.
Make the donation before Christmas to open up some room. As an added bonus, make sure to keep the receipt. Donations to charity are tax deductible, and nothing helps cushion the expense of the holiday season like parents saving money on taxes.
When it comes to finding the best deals online, there are too many Johnny-come-latelys, deceptive websites, advertising filled webpages, and sites pretending to list only great holiday savings deals links, when they are in fact, listing whatever links offer up the highest commissions to webmasters who send paying customers their way. Get suckered into using one of these bait-and-switch online "deals" scams and you could actually end up paying more than you would have by walking into your local store and grabbing the hottest toys right off the shelf.
To avoid these issues, use online deals websites that are community based. That is, online deal lists that are submitted by, ranked by, and commented on by an active deal community.
One of the best online deals websites is SlickDeals.net (notice the net, not com)
[That is not a paid link or an affiliate link or anything. Hover your mouse over the link and you'll see it goes straight to www.slickdeals.net, or if it makes you feel better, just type it directly into your browser. – The only ads I get any money from on this website are those Amazon ads and the Google Ads]
Slickdeals has a Frontpage that lists what the moderators have chosen as the absolute hottest deals as submitted by their readers. These deals are displayed as a simple list of links. Click on the ones you are interested in, skip right by the ones you are not. If there is a free shipping code or a 20% coupon code, you can be it will be listed there alongside the deal. No need to go find a great price and then hunt all over the Internet to find a free-shipping code or watch your entire savings go up in smoke to shipping and handling costs.
The best part about Slickdeals and their online bargain listing is that every listed deal has a link that says "Discuss". Click that link and you will find a huge user base going back and forth over whether or not any particular deal is a hot deal or not. Even better, you will also find people going back and forth of the quality, specifications, features, and brands of every television, video game, watch, jacket, dress, and toy listed. This is incredibly helpful if you are buying gifts that for that special someone that you aren’t very familiar with.
You will get a much more realistic impression of what makes the best cordless phone, or the top LCD television set by reading the ongoing discussions in the slick deals forum than you will by trying in vain to sort through which reviews are real, which reviews are fake, which comments were left by employees, or which commenters were paid to rate the product high.
Don’t even bother searching for something like best computer monitor. You’ll be on a shifty website before you can say widescreen. Instead, head over to slickdeals and read a few of the discussions about some of the computer monitors on there. By the time you are done, you’ll know what some of those numbers mean, and more importantly, why it matters whether or not it has HDMI inputs or built-in speakers. (Yes, if they are big on photos and videos. And then, no, if they have other computer speakers that they will probably be using anyway.)
Here is another money saving tip. Torn between whether or not to get the extended warranty? Don’t buy it from the store or website! Instead, check out the extended warranties from a company called SquareTrade. Good luck and Merry Christmas!
By the way, a couple of other deal sites that I have had good experiences with are GottaDeal.com (which also has a coupon code section) and DealNews.com.
Independence Day, July 4th, or the 4th of July, no matter what you call it, it all ends with a bang.
When it comes to young children, toddlers, babies, and other kids, what makes the best fireworks show isn’t necessarily the same as what makes the best fireworks show for adults. Fortunately, there are plenty of Denver Fireworks displays to chose from. There are numerous fireworks displays on July 3rd this year as well as July 4th. Consider using one of the Denver area fireworks shows on the 3rd of July to get an idea of how well things might go on the 4th of July.
Thinking of taking your toddler or baby to see fireworks on the 4th of July?
Don’t let preconceived notions stand in your way of fun. Yes, some kids are scared by fireworks, but not all of them. In fact, some younger children might actually do better with the loud noises and bright flashes in the sky because they don’t have the experience yet to know that such things could mean trouble for them. On the other hand, some toddlers scream and cry with the first firework shot in the air.
There is no faster way to a bummer of a night for July 4th than having spent and hour finding a good spot and waiting for the fireworks begin only to have to run to the car after two-seconds.
Here are some tips for enjoying The 4th of July Fireworks with babies, toddlers, and small kids.
Coming tomorrow, Undefeated Daddy’s Best Denver Fireworks Shows for Kids and Toddlers
Here is my list of Easter Egg Hunts in Denver.
If you are looking for a good big Easter Egg Hunt to take your children to but seem to be coming up empty, rest assured that most communities have several solid options for Easter Egg Hunts or Easter Egg Scrambles.
Searching Google sounds like a good plan but it can be frustrating because Easter is a transient event and Google’s ranking system rewards sites for longevity and the number of sites that link to them. Plenty of people link to their church’s website, but not so many people link to the event page for the local parks or recreation center, so the good Easter Egg Hunts might be pretty far down on the list.
To make a good Google search for Easter Egg Hunts or Easter Egg Scrambles requires using a couple of the fancier “advanced” Google tricks. Don’t worry, the aren’t really advanced, that is just what Google calls everything that isn’t just typing words in the standard rectangle box and pressing the search button.
Here is a step by step guide to finding good Easter Egg Hunts in your area.
Toddlers don’t like to be trampled under the feet of bigger kids and shouting at other parent’s is a sure fire way to have a junky egg hunt. So, look for egg hunting events where there are times broken out by age group. Ideally, you want an event with narrow age groups. A two year old is very different than a three year old when it comes to running around with a basket trying to pick up as many eggs as possible.
On that note, stick with the scramble-type Easter Egg hunts. With this type, the eggs are out in the open and the kids just run around picking them up. Assuming that there are enough eggs out there, your child will get a handful of eggs, have fund, be happy, and be done, before it drags on long enough to stop being fun.
Also, make more of it. Grab breakfast or donuts or sandwiches and have them before and after the hunt. Then head to a toy store and buy the little guy a bunny or something. Then, play with them all day. If Easter is sacred to you, there are plenty of events held on the Saturday before.
If all else fails, go to the zoo. Usually they give colored eggs to some of the animals for fun!
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