Christmas in July

There are still six whole months left until the holiday season, but that's no reason to be a humbug. Christmas is all about celebrating with your loved ones and being thankful for your blessings, so why not keep that holiday spirit alive all year? Here are four easy ways to celebrate Christmas in July:

1) Browse through a Christmas store.
When the sun is hot, the last things you may be thinking about are Christmas trees and stockings -- but all that changes once you walk into a year-round Christmas store. There are 3 that I know of in the Bay Area --Seasons at Pier 39, San Francisco, Kris Kringle in downtown Carmel and Christmas by the Cove, Pacifica . There's also one called Dorthea's in Folsom, near Sacramento. These stores sell all kinds of Christmas ornaments and decorations all year round, so you're sure to find a special one to suit your taste.

2) Volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen
When the holidays come along, toy barrels are overflowing and volunteer spots at food banks, shelters and other non-profit organizations fill up quickly -- but you can help your community any time of the year. You can spreed Good Cheer and Gill Will To All Men by serving up food at a soup kitchen, packing school supplies and backpacks for needy kids or just cleaning out your house and giving the stuff you don't need to a homeless shelter.

3) Plan a trip Down Under
Don't forget, July is wintertime in the Southern Hemisphere! If it's your year to splurge, you can go skiing in New Zealand, build a snowman in Chile or make snow angels in Australia. So dig out those earmuffs and gloves and get ready for a White Christmas in July!

4) Beat the holiday card rush
It's never too early to start planning your Christmas cards! I always like to send out photo cards, so around this time of the year I like to start thinking about the kind of photo I want on my holiday cards. Good photographers' schedules fill up quickly starting in September, so if you book early you get your choice of photographers, dates, times and locations. You can even start checking out card designs -- check out the ones on Storkie.com.




Merry Half-Christmas, everyone!

Disclosure:This is a compensated post, courtesy of Storkie, via Global Influence. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.