holidays

I tend to get a little romantic around the holidays. Not in the candlelight dinner with my husband kind of way, but more in the drink hot chocolate, nibble on cookies, music playing softly in the background while my pajama-clad children …

Seeing family and friends over the holiday break is wonderful way to round out the year, but sometimes getting to where you need to be involves traffic jams, travel headaches and long delays in airports with really bad food courts. No th…

I recently did a round-up of great videoconferecing options for connecting with family over the holidays. But if you're one of those families that travels for the holidays, you will be happy to know that Skype just announced it is offeri…

By now, the Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 family competitions have become a big part of holiday time rituals. If not, it totally should be. Do you know the photo opps you can grab of one precocious 4 year-old making a go of an Abba Da…

Do you growl through the holiday card aisle, wishing there was a smart card as geeky as your smartphone? Is your holiday card in another castle? Are you missing out on the 011010100110111101111001? (That's joy in binary, BTW.) Geeks rejo…

If you're a social media geek like me, you'll understand why I cracked a smile the second I saw the #WhatIWishIGot / #WhatIGot wrapping paper . The outside represents "hope" (or greed, depending on the recipient) in which you can imagine…

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here, and it's starting to sound that way too. Consider freshening up that tired holiday playlist with a lovely new collection of classic Christmas carols from none other than Dan Zanes …

Confession: My handbag addiction has now extended to iPhone cases. And since I don't wear much holiday garb, I figured that a holiday smart phone case might be a better option. So while I was perusing my favorite shop Case-Mate , I stumb…

I'm holding onto my Christmas cheer with two hands, refusing to let it be sullied by the endless ads and 1,000th version of Dominick the Donkey. And I've also got the prettiest and, yes, sunniest Christmas song on heavy rotation from one…

Usually opening the Advent Calendar is the biggest thing my kids do on December 1st, but this year, they gave Santa a haircut. And a shave. And then dyed his hair pink. And none of it put them on Santa's Naughty List. Yes, Toca Boca , on…

If you grew up playing Tetris on your Game Boy during family road trips, these adorkable gift tags are probably making your thumbs twitch right now. Just look at those juicy red buttons. And how fun and awesomely ironic would it be to ti…

While most people are dreaming about what foods they are going to (over)eat on Thursday, my picky eater is already loudly proclaiming everything he hates about Thanksgiving: Mashed potatoes are yucky. Turkey is yucky. Pie is yucky. You g…

So, not to scare you or anything, but I went to my local drugstore today and there was a Christmas display up. Santa Clauses, lights, snowglobes. Oh, how I wish I were kidding about this. But! There's good news--especially if you have a …

When my kids were little, I couldn't wait to take them to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. Unfortunately, they didn't want to stay up that late, hated the booms and generally made it hard to relax and say my required "oooos" and …

If you were lucky enough to score a Best Buy gift card from Santa, or just want to get a jump start on your New Year's resolutions, our co-founder Kristen, along with a Best Buy Geek Squad agent, can help you out. Check out this video in…

From Liz, Kristen, Beth, Christina, and everyone at Cool Mom Tech, we wish you a peaceful, happy, wonderful day, filled with good family, good food, and hopefully not too many plastic clamshell packs to have to pry open. And thanks to al…

Before the kids go to bed and Santa's elves get busy wrapping gifts, we spend Christmas Eve drinking egg nog, playing games, and watching movies with the kids. But now that we have the iPad, we'll probably add a round or two of a digital…

It's Christmas week, and if you are like me, the ears could use a break from the same old Christmas songs that have been blasting across radio stations and throughout department store PA systems since the day after Halloween. Let's just …

This weekend on Cool Mom Picks , we uncovered an awesome custom video from Santa , and our readers are going nuts for it. As are our own children. So much so, it would be gross holiday negligence for me not to share it here so even more …

The holiday cards are starting to trickle in and it's always such a treat to receive greetings from dear family and friends from near and far. With each one, I'm reminded that we need to get moving on ours as well (as opposed to our Happ…

Finding the perfect fitness gift for that exercise lover can be a little tough, let alone finding something that doesn't offend the person who wants to get in shape but isn't quite there yet. ( Here honey...rice cakes !) Forget the yoga …

For the third post in our Holiday Tech Gifts series...well, we think you're going to like this. Now that our tech is part of our every day, we think it should be as fashionable as your favorite everyday handbag. Fortunately, there are to…

As the holidays fast approach, I give thanks for having family nearby, especially when I feel myself nodding sympathetically to those endure the many hours-long car rides to get to relatives' houses. For them and for all Cool Mom Tech re…

With holiday car travel hitting its peak this week (oh lord, I'm fearing I-95 on Wednesday), we know that the iPad has become the new DVD player--a good way to keep the kids occupied, happy, and of course, quiet. Here, just a few of the …