Tonight is the night. Christmas Eve. The night where Santa Claus and his trusty reindeer soar across the skies to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls around the world. But tell me— do you know where Santa Claus is right now?
Christmas music makes the holiday season just that much more enjoyable. And the folks over at Google must be feeling the holiday spirt since they are making Michael Bublé's Christmas album free for a limited time. The Grammy Award winning artist debuted his Christmas album in 2011, and it went on to top the Billboard charts and snag a nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
If getting Christmas presents ready ahead of time has never been your forte, be assured that it has never than easier than before to assemble together a last-minute Christmas gift for all your loved ones and favorite people (and maybe not-so-favorite people you are obligated to buy gifts for) on Christmas eve.
Time is running out. Christmas is almost here, and you still haven't worked your way through that holiday shopping list yet. But don't worry, there's hope yet— thanks to social buying websites like Groupon, LivingSocial, SocialBuy, Eversave, Tippr and BuyWithMe.
Christmas Balls and Mason Jars. I used Dynamic light, Camera+, and Phototoaster.
A group of nano-scientists from the University of Glasgow have created the world's smallest Christmas card, measuring in at 200 micro-meters wide by 290 micro-meters tall. (BTW, a micro-metre is a millionth of a meter, and the width of a human hair is about 100 micro-meters.)
Beautiful animation with a sinister twist by Beijing Motion Graphics house, 39 Degrees North: "We started down a rather unconventional route for our Christmas card this year and there was simply no turning back. The pull of the dark side was just too strong.
The crew from NASA's International Space Station wish planet Earth a heartwarming Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. (Check out flight engineer Cady Coleman's hair. Zero gravity is awesome.) For the nostalgic, the legendary Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, wishes the world Merry Christmas in s live television broadcast from lunar orbit, December 1968:
Learn how to make a beautiful Christmas tree bauble ornament. Step 1. Gather your materials.
Learn how to make a fairy Christmas ornament to place on the top of the tree. Step 1. Gather your materials.
Want to wrap your Christmas gifts in a memorable way? Give your gift recipient a DIY super-secret book safe, and while you are at it, hide a small gift inside the the secret safe. Or, if you plan on giving a gift card, create a snow globe out of a mason jar and water and glitter, and insert the gift card at the bottom of the jar so that it is held upright by superglue.
If you're tired of using the same old ornaments on your Christmas tree year after year, then it's time to experiment with borax snowflakes. It's not only a fun decoration to make, it's a great science project to try out with family and friends. All you need for to make DIY crystal snowflakes at home are pipe cleaners, borax, a wide-mouth jar, string, a pencil, and boiling water.
You don't have to be a professional artist to make sweet crafty gifts out of the humble Sharpie pen. On a budget, you can easily make personalized yet visually pleasing gifts for your favorite people out of Sharpies and a blank canvas in the form of ceramic mugs, T-shirt, tote bags, canvas shoes, ornament balls, lampshades, and more.
If the idea of baking perfectly-shaped sugar cookies in time for Christmas is an intimidating prospect for you, you can make your own no-bake holiday treats simply using a microwave and a few simple ingredients.
This three dimensional Sierpinski tetrahedral structure was created with a lot of help from my Year 10, 12 and 13 classes. It is inspired by the Sierpinski triangle fractal.
Decorating your Christmas tree does not have to be an expensive ordeal. You can easily make personalized, unique ornaments for your tree by using things lying around your home, like toilet paper tubes, paper towels, wine corks, old newspapers, CDs (remember those?), plastic water bottles, and even dry pasta.
A Merry Christmas beatbox medley, courtesy of 19-year old Daichi, YouTube's favorite Japanese beatboxer. Daichi also makes some fabulous looking HowTo's, but unfortunately they're in Japanese only.
A croquem-what? A croquembouche is not the easiest dessert pastry to pronounce, but trust us, once you've made this sugary, fluffy French dessert once you'll never forget its name again.
Downtown Vancouver, WA
I used Hipstamatic (Tejas lens, Blanko film) and Camera+ ( Nostalgia effect).
In this video tutorial, we learn how to create a lighted X-Mas tree with Trapcode Particular (TP) and Adobe After Effects (AE). Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide. Create a ...
When you can't quite figure out what to get someone for Christmas, turn to your inner creativity for a more personal, homemade holiday gift. To help give you some ideas, here are some DIY presents that never fail.
General Electric isn't known for their Christmas lights, but maybe they should be, because their GE Color Effects are pretty awesome. Especially the LED Color Effects G-35 String sets. And especially when someone named Darco hacks them.
Christmas just wouldn't be the same without cookies. Besides the gifts, it's the one thing that keeps the family (not to mention Santa) coming back each year. As with any family gathering, there's bound to be some chaos this holiday season, but as long as you've got a good supply of Christmas cookies, there should be peace and harmony.
We all love it when the Google logo changes to celebrate or commemorate special events— pop-culture touchstones, civic milestones, scientific achievements and holidays— their latest one for this holiday season is a Christmas card to everyone— an interactive Google Doodle with 17 artworks from different artists, each depicting a seasonal greeting from a variety of cultures and countries.
If you've run out of time to shop, or just want to avoid the crowds at the malls, you can make your own delicious Christmas chocolate at home. You will need a baking sheet, wax paper, chocolate melts, sweet sherry and cherries. Make delicious homemade chocolates as holiday gifts.
After becoming addicted to basic sonobe modular origami, I decided to make ornaments for relatives as Christmas gifts. I tried using fancy paper from stores like Paper Source, and cutting it to proper origami size, but I could never get the tight folds I wanted with non-traditional, non-origami paper. I ended up using this metallic origami paper that folds beautifully, and I'm pretty happy with the tiny models I ended up with. Forgive these pictures (iPhone/Instagram), I don't have my regular...
Congratulations to Bryan Kiguchi for Dreaming Little Bird, our winning shot of the Phone Snap Double Exposure Challenge!
Meet Krampus, St. Nick's evil companion of traditional Alpine mythology. According to Wikipedia, the freaky tradition was particularly popular with the Austrian Nazi-allied fascists, circa mid-1930s:
Are you expecting a lot of guests for an upcoming holiday party? To make your home smell like the holiday season, simmer orange peels, cinnamon sticks, cranberries, and cloves with water on a stovetop for several hours to make your indoor space smell really good.
Gift-giving to your loved ones shouldn't be too time-consuming or strain your savings. Immortalize your special Instagram moments with family and friends by turning them into refrigerator magnets.
There are very few times (if any) the word poo and delicious belong in the same sentence, but any fan of South Park (or chocolate) will appreciate this awesome Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo treat, created by Degroof.
Edible decorations are the best kind of decorations—not only do they look good, they also serve a purpose. An edible centerpiece is a great way to entertain your guests and gives them something to tide them over while you're cooking if you're serving food.
In an ideal world, the art of gift-exchanging is a joyous, wonderful thing that makes both parties feel equally good. But as many of us already know, gift-giving is also an emotionally charged social minefield that can leave many of us feeling... awkward.
Forget those boring evergreen wreaths with the thick red ribbon and the pine cones that everyone else has hanging in their homes. Make your own DIY upcycled wreath using newspaper, paper shopping bags, cardboard coffee cup sleeves, toilet paper tubes, or even that trashy paperback novel you bought for a dime at the local thrift store that you're probably never going to read.
The next time you buy bread, tortillas and other produce or baked goods items that come with twist ties, don't throw them away. These handy pieces of plastic-covered wire come to good use when you need to build a garden trellis, organize your power cords, replace your zipper pull or securely tie your Christmas ornaments to your Christmas tree.
Our favorite (clever, scantily clad, and South American) HowTo vixen GiannyL has yet another use for burnt out old light bulbs. Christmas tree ornaments! Eco-friendly, yet elegant, Gianny's latest craft trick makes a tired and boring tree pop!
