A Blogger Secret Santa Exchange With JCPenney

What’s Christmas without at least one Secret Santa exchange? The mystery, the excitement, the anticipation. It’s just so much fun! Since I don’t work in a traditional office any more to do a work exchange, I was THRILLED to team up with JCPenney for a blogger Secret Santa. Yeay, a real exchange within my virtual office. The big reveal for Secret Santa is next week (my gift should arrive Monday!), but in the mean time I wanted to show you this cool thing JCPenney has come up with for gift giving. It is like the Secret Santa’s secret weapon

First a little background:

Do you know what a QR code is? A QR code is basically a modern bar code. You’ve probably seen QR codes on lots of things, you just didn’t know what it was. The cool thing about QR codes is that they can be “read” by smart phones (with tons of different apps). Since just about everyone has (or knows someone who has) a smart phone these days, QR codes can be used to pass special messages or promotions onto customers. It’s like a hidden clue with a secret decoder.

Ok enough tech, back to JCPenney’s Santa Tag.

JCPenney has given the QR code a Christmas spin by creating QR gift tags. The gift giver can record a special holiday message for the recipient  then when the gift is given the recipient can reveal the message using a QR reader. How cool is that? Want to see the tag in action? Check out this video about how the process works.

After choosing the perfect (I hope) gift for the recipient of my Secret Santa gift, I received a Santa Tag. I was a little afraid that somehow I would mess it up, after all I usually leave anything technical to my hubby. But it was SO easy! I already had a QR reader on my phone, so I just scanned the code. Scanning the code took me to a special website that asked for my phone number, less than two minutes later my phone rang with instructions to record my message. I recorded a holiday greeting and poof I was done. All that was left was to stick the code on the wrapped gift like a normal gift tag.

Of course, I wanted to test to make sure I did it right, so I scanned the code again and was easily able to download and listen to my recorded message. How’s that for high-tech gift giving. (In case you, or your recipient, don’t have a smart phone readily available. Don’t worry, you can still play. You will just have to call an 800 number and enter the number associated with the Santa tag.)

Santa Tags are available at all JCPenney locations at JCP services (where you would find gift boxes). And anyone who purchases a gift from JCPenney after 11/15/11 is eligible to receive a Santa Tag for free (just show your receipt). Learn more about Santa Tags. Since it is a free service for JCP customers, there’s no reason not to snag one of these cool QR codes and totally impress your friends and family this year.

Next week I will share with you more about what I sent my Secret Santa recipient and what I got. Oh goodie! The anticipation is killing me, I swear I am like a big kid!

Disclosure - I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of jcpenney and received a JCPenney Secret Santa gift and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Christmas Decorating With Sears #SearsRealCheer #CBias

Decorating for Christmas is a big deal in my family. My mother takes days to transform her entire house (top to bottom) from every day to a Christmas wonderland. It truly is beautiful. In fact, one Christmas my family was surprised by the doorbell to find a man with a giant trophy standing on our doorstep. We won the neighborhood award for best Christmas decorations! I have a lot to live up to.

My decor is not nearly as elaborate, but it is very important to me. I start itching to get my decorations out as soon as I put Halloween away. But I am patient (a little bit) and wait until Thanksgiving weekend to get things going. While my daughter and I pull indoor decorations from six large tubs of Christmas decor, my husband goes to work hanging the lights. We used to have several outdoor friends, but over the years they break and this year we were down to just a Mickey Mouse blow up and a light up tree. It looked pretty, but in our neighborhood, that’s not nearly enough. Outdoor decor is a big deal around here, and I wanted more.

So, thanks to Sears, I set out to find more. Since it is was already late in the season for holiday decor (12/11), I decided I should start my shopping online to see what’s available. There were TONS of great options online. The only problem is that I knew there wasn’t time to ship, so I narrowed my search to items that could be picked up in store. Luckily, most of my favorites had this option. (Yeay.)

The first thing I spotted were these reindeer.

We used to have reindeer, and I loved them. But they broke years ago (I still have one of the broken ones I was going to try to resurrect). No question, I had to have them. But my online shopping showed only two left in store. I wasn’t taking any chances, I decided to order all of my decor online. Then I could head into the store to see if there were any other goodies I needed, but I didn’t want to miss out!

Back to shopping…

As much as I loved this six foot Mickey Mouse (my daughter would go nuts). I decided two Mickeys were over kill. Plus, he would make my little Mickey look so sad. Unfortunately there wasn’t a blow-up Minnie, otherwise she would have been in my cart in a heartbeat!

After a full hour (plus) I decided that Rudolph needed to come live at our house. I knew he would be a hit with K. (Note the online stock image, there would be no snow around our little Rudolph – LOL.)

As I put everything in my cart, I was happy to see that my late-season shopping was paying off. Everything was on sale. Plus shopping online was going to pay off too. There was an extra 10% off ending that night and I found a $10 off $100 coupon code. After everything, I would be able to get everything for $96. Not bad considering full price Rudolph alone was $89.99.

The next day I loaded up the girls to pick up our decorations. As we checked out the Christmas Shop, I was SO happy with my decision to order the decor online for pick up. The boxes were fairly large, and I had S strapped to me — no way I could carry three boxes. (Sometimes I am so smart!) The decor options were pretty picked over by now, but I did get a few other great ideas from looking around. After a little shopping, we pulled the car around to the Merchandise Pick Up area and a Sears employee loaded up the car for me. (I am in LOVE with this store pick up option, guess who will be shopping this way again!?!)

Next week I will show you the before and after pictures of my yard and the rest of my shopping adventure. (We were so excited to decorate, we already have the reindeer up. They look great.)

If you need a little decorating inspiration, check out the Sears Cheer Tree where customers are uploading pictures of their decor.

Disclosure – This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s Better To Give… #CBias #DisneyCFK

I get to do a lot of neat things thanks to blogging, but being given the the opportunity to use my blog to give a Christmas stocking to a child who might not otherwise find one on Christmas morning, well now that’s neat. And turning that opportunity into a life lesson on giving back for my daughter, that’s the real gift.

Our mission – fill a stocking with Disney goodies.

With our mission in hand, we headed out to Walmart. Upon our arrival we discussed (again) with K that we would be buying toys for someone else. She agreed to be my helper, and we decided we would fill out stocking with Disney Princess goodies. (After all, that’s what we are best at shopping for.) She was excited to help pick out just the right gifts, and off we went.

I originally planned to head over to the stocking stuffer section, but we got so sidetracked with Princess items along the way we never made it that far before our stocking was filled and perfect! Each time we came across something Disney K announced, “This would be perfect for the little girl!”

Disney does such a great job at merchandising there were so many great options, we could have filled a stocking three times over and still not put in everything we saw. We actually put back many wonderful options. Having never shopped for stocking stuffers all at one time, I was pleased to see the quality of toys I could pick up for $25 even at full price (you know I rarely shop full price – LOL). After much debate, we picked five toys for $5 each (plus some stickers) instead of more cheaper items because each of the toys we picked would make K happy if she found them in her stocking on Christmas morning. 

In the end we decided on:

• Mini Sleeping Beauty Doll
• Sleeping Beauty Jewelry Pack
• Ariel Squinkies
• Princess Nail Polish Set
• Princess Microphone
• Princess Stickers

See more pictures from our entire shopping trip in my Google + slide show.

We created our stocking to give to a local organization that provides support to one of the most impoverished communities in Orlando. Many of these children suffer from chronic hunger, so one of the neat things this organization does is to collect used household items and such to sell at garage sales. Then they use the money raised to buy food for these families. It’s and easy way to help feed the children in our community. Obviously, this time of year they are also collecting new toys, so I was happy to give them my stocking along with some other toys I picked up for them and several bags of items for their garage sale.

Learn more about how you can get involved in giving back with Champions for Kids’ monthly service projects at www.championsforkids.org. rel=”nofollow”

Disclosure – This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Hallmark’s Family Christmas Traditions ~ Giveaway

Have you been into a Hallmark store yet this holiday season? If not, you are missing out on cool stuff. We stopped at Hallmark while at the mall over the weekend, and my husband and I were amazed at all of the cool stuff. From the return of our favorite annual tradition, the singing plush snowmen, to tricked out Prep and Landing gear and the Peanuts gang in its own musical band, the “toys” at Hallmark have gone totally interactive. It was all we could do to keep from filling our shopping bag with all the goodies, but we were able to hold back and managed to make it out of there with just the three cards and snowman that we planned for.

The holidays are all about making family memories, and Hallmark has some great things to jump start your memory making. In addition to the toys at Hallmark being just plain cool, Hallmark does an excellent job of creating traditions with series like our snowmen that return year after year. Of course, we have to have the newest snowman in the series each year!

The newest addition to our family’s Hallmark Christmas traditions, not including our snowman of course, is the Countdown to Christmas ornament. K is really into the Christmas countdown with her advent calendar, so the ornament was a perfect addition. Everyday, she taps the ornament to see it light up and wants to know, “Now, how many days till Santa.” (Even though she does this several times a day, it is still adorable.) The countdown ornament is a perfect fit to our Christmas tree of memories.

Hallmark’s recordable story books, are another great way to start a holiday tradition. We are lucky that in our family, both sets of grandparents live in town. But for those who aren’t able to spend the holidays with extended family, recorable story books are an excellent way to stay connected.

Not to be out done by the toys, Hallmark will always be known for its cards. If you are purchasing personalized greetings this holiday season, use the coupon code SOCIAL20 on purchases of $20 or more to get 20% off. (Code valid through 1/12/12.)

Giveaway – One lucky reader will win a Countdown to Christmas ornament and the Recordable Storybook – A Charlie Brown Christmas to bring a little Christmas tradition home.

To enter – Please use the Rafflecopter form below to take advantage of your entry opportunities.

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Disclosure – I was provided promotional products to facilitate this review, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Elf on the Shelf Ideas

Is there an Elf on the Shelf in your house? Are you struggling to keep up with daily ideas to amaze and excite your kiddo’s morning search for their Elf? Keep the Christmas magic alive with these Elf on the Shelf ideas. I’ll be adding to this post with images of our Elf, Kringle, daily so stay tuned.

Still need to name your Elf? Here are 50 Elf name ideas.

Host an Elf Breakfast for a special Christmas morning.

Click on an image below to enlarge it, and then you can scroll through the large images.