Hallmark Holiday Goodies Giveaway

I shared some of my favorite items from the Hallmark holiday line for 2012 last week.  I know it's early for me since I like celebrating my holidays one at a time, but I had to share the fun.  And now it's November, and I'm going to quickly get behind in my shopping and card making if I don't watch it.  I figure the least I can do is help you out, right?

I have some help for everyone on the card making side.  Hallmark is offering 30% off your personalized greeting order.  Now through 12/31/12, you can get a 30% discount on customized greetings and photo cards with the code BLOG30.  While that provides a a wonderful savings, it unfortunately doesn't provide that deadline I need to get my cards out on time!  Everyone likes New Year's cards though, right?

For the shopping, I can also offer a little help.  I shared many of my favorite Christmas items, and I get to give some of them away!

I talked about the keepsake ornaments and the wide variety Hallmark now offers.  We choose ornaments each year that mean something to us, ones that the wee ones will take with them one day when they have trees of their own.  Since Little Miss was my amazing Spider-man this year, I love that Hallmark has a Spider-Man ornament.  While Little Miss doesn't look nearly as fierce as this Spidey, it's a great way of remembering my girl who beats to her own drum.



And I may have waxed poetic just a little bit about the recordable storybooks Hallmark offers.  I received the new book Santa Claus is Coming to Town, but there are so many more available.  A Charlie Brown Christmas is still the first Christmas book I read when I go to my parents' house, thirty years after they originally gave it to me.  I may have at one point colored on some pages with crayon, and some of the pages may be slightly ripped, but that is my all time favorite story - and A Charlie Brown Christmas is available as a recordable storybook.  I love that the recordable storybooks make it even easier to create those memories since children can listen to the books before they can read, and parents can record their voices reading the story for posterity - and for $19.95.  You can bet that I am recording my voice this year for the book Santa leaves the wee ones!



Beyond the fact that there are multiple titles I think would make me cry to even try to read them (think: Under the Same Moon - which is $29.95 and not $19.95 like most of the recordable storybooks), I am enamored of the fact that Hallmark offers a Spanish language recordable storybook, La Primera Navidad (The First Christmas).  With Little Miss in a Spanish immersion program, I search high and low for Spanish books to add to our collection, and I have to say, trying to find a Spanish language Christmas book from Santa last year was tough.



So why am I repeating this?  Because I get to make your Christmas shopping just a little bit easier.  I have a Hallmark Spider-Man Christmas ornament to give away, and not one but two of the recordable storybooks (not necessarily the ones I showcased here).  There will be one winner who receives all three items, and I'm excited to get to play Santa.

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Tuesday November 20 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 24 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me - how do you make holiday memories?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):
1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter, then tweeting this contest with the following tweet: Holidays are coming. Get ready with @HallmarkPR and @honestandtruly. Ornament & recordable book giveaway: http://bit.ly/PV1z0o (leave a link to your tweet as your comment and make sure you do all the steps!)
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.
4) Earn one additional entry by liking Honest & Truly! on Facebook. (Yay, it's legal again, so long as you know you have to leave a comment here to enter and that simply liking me isn't the entry, along with acknowledging the fact that Facebook has nothing to do with this giveaway whatsoever.
5) Earn an additional entry by putting me in your Google Plus circle. Am I already in your G+ circle? No problem - just leave a comment letting me know that you've added me or already have me there.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received some Hallmark holiday items as described in my post about the Hallmark holiday line for 2012.  I received no other compensation.  As always, all opinions expressed remain my own.

Hallmark Christmas Collectibles

Shh.  I know Halloween isn't tomorrow.  And you all know I hate rushing my seasons one on top of the other.  But I got the coolest package in the mail from Hallmark, and I couldn't wait to share it anymore.  I love Christmas, and when I was in New York in August and saw all the awesomeness that Hallmark had in store this year, I drooled.  Possibly literally.  I swear there is something for everyone - and quite a few things for me!

Hallmark is known for their collectible ornaments, and they have not disappointed with the ornaments they're featuring this year.  Every year, we purchase one ornament that is the "family" ornament for the year as a memory and keepsake.  Looking at the trees Hallmark had decorated, it was hard to decide what type of ornament best fit us this year.  Was it the Merida ornament from the movie Brave that we all watched together and loved?  Was it the Imperial Storm Trooper Lego ornament - so up Mister Man's alley?  Or the Scooby-Doo or Avengers or Spider-Man?  After all, Little Miss is dressing as Spider-Man for Halloween tomorrow!  There are even Twilight and NFL ornaments (except I'm still waiting for my Minnesota Vikings AP ornament), as well as Peanuts and an ornament with space for a photo and recordable message that was oh so cool.

My personal favorite (and don't tell anyone, but it almost "fell" off the tree into my purse that day), however, was the countdown clock.  It is shaped like an old-fashioned radio and the knob turns to count down the days to Christmas beginning on December 1.  The coolest part though is that it is "reindeer radio" and has little updates on what's going on.  I can't wait to break this out come December 1, and I know it will be a favorite of the wee ones, too.  It does require 3 AAA batteries, but I have plenty of those around the house.  For $24.95, I'm one happy camper.

Hallmark has also created a whole line of recordable storybooks, and they've continued to expand not just the books but the creativity surrounding how they're marketed.  We also do one Christmas book a year for each of the wee ones that we will save forever and send with them when they grow up and move out.  I still have all of the books from when I was growing up that Santa left me, and the memories sparked each time I pick them up to read them give me a warm glow.

This year, the recordable storybooks come in even more flavors.  I received the new version Santa Claus Is Coming to Town that features music in addition to the audio story.  I love that you can listen to the pre-recorded voice or record the story yourself so that your children can hear you read it to them anytime you want.  The storybooks range from $19.95-$29.95.  This one is a $29.95 version.

I love the creative drawings and new text that is part of the stories.  The pages are nice and thick, and the book is built to last - including the ability to change out the batteries when your child has listened to it too many times!  This is a children's book, but I am confident that my seven year old Little Miss will love listening to it and reading it.

As I said, the storybook collection has expanded from what it originally was.  There were other types of recordable storybooks that I fell in love with that I wasn't sent, and I have to tell you about them, too.  There are two fascinating new concepts - well, new to me at least.  The first is the Interactive Story Buddies.  They are stuffed animals - a bunny, bear, dog, etc., even Scooby-Doo! - who are activated when certain phrases from the book are read aloud.  They will bark or sing or talk in a way that makes sense with the book.  It is incredibly cool.  These books also come with a read-along CD and more for $34.95.  There are seven Interactive Buddies available now (my favorite is Bell the Husky Pup).

Brand new is the Be a Part of the Story, which allows children to chat with the main character of the story as they read the books.  They can have conversations and answer questions that the child has to answer for the story to continue moving.  This is such a novel and neat way to get children interested in reading and understanding the magic of books.  Each of these is $24.95, with three titles available this year.  When we saw them, they were just in prototype still, but A Day at Fairy Grandmother's was very very cool.  I may have to go out and buy this one myself!

And of course Hallmark has cards for every occasion.  While I tend to do primarily photo cards now, there are still some cards that I send or make for Christmas that I want to personalize and hand write long messages.  I'm such a fan of receiving and sending "real" mail - and my friends get such a kick out of it when they receive something from me.  It's a great tradition to maintain.  (And yes, Hallmark now does photo cards, too, from magnetic cards to ornament cards to more traditional cards - did you know that?)  There are also fun cards from the Santa's Secret 'Stache card to an origami star that turns into an ornament, as well as cards that are interactive, just like the storybooks.  I love the recordable wish list card, although I'm glad the wee ones haven't seen that one yet.  I can only imagine how many times they'd change what they recorded there!  And yes, Justin Bieber fans, there are more Justin Bieber Christmas cards than I could possibly count.  I love the handmade cards, especially since I used to make my own Christmas cards (yes, this was long before children), and I appreciate all the time and talent that goes into designing and creating them.  Hallmark's cards range from $1.99 to $7.99, depending on the card and what it does.

So what are your plans to create Christmas memories?

In the interest of full disclosure, I received the products shown above from Hallmark for review purposes.  I was not provided with any additional compensation.  As always, all opinions expressed remain my own.