Beautiful Christmas Paintings

15 Christmas Ornament Reflection Self-Portrait Pictures

The holiday season brings lots of tidings, joy, and ornaments. With glass ones, it’s always tempting to take a picture of your distorted reflection in them. Here are 15 self-portraits of those who couldn’t resist the temptation.

Happy Holidays! by seanmcgrath

Christmas Mirror by photine

image by loupiote

My Christmas Balls by Jeff the Trojan

AHHHH!!! Christmas! by Evil Erin

A Trimmed Tree by B Tal

Merry/Happy by Usonian

Blue Christmas by amanky

Two spheres by oskay

Morning has broken by Melissa Maples

Christmas 07! by Lin Pernille

Curious Orion by Dylan Parker

Broken Reflection by Valerie Reneé

silly face in an ornament by MNicoleM

golden place by hlklgjk

Happy Holidays Greetings - Tis the Season to be Jolly

Warmest Wishes for this Holiday Season!

Everybody gets jolly in their own special way, but we all seem to agree to include the same objects and individuals: some dude called Santa, some decorated tree (inside or outside the house, real or plastic), some glamorous booze and ten million pounds of wrapping paper (a discarded pile of which can be used to hide you from prying eyes if too inebriated).

With "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and Jack Frost nipping at your nose, you'll be all set - provided you put your red-hot credit cards in the freezer to cool them off, and made plans for stress-free holidays immediately after these ones. Best and warmest wishes to everyone! Cheer on.

Vintage season shopping:
(click to enlarge)


(image credit: plan59)



Radical Christmas Trees

First, some yummy ones. Conveniently consumed after use:




(image credit: Happy Chyck)


(image credit: Kuidaori)

This upside-down tree is good for stores with limited space. Plus you can put a lot more gift packages under the tree:



If really pressed for space, use this idea:



Dr. Seuss presents: Who-ville Christmas Tree -



400 cans of Mountain Dew and 3 months to construct it:



Grolsch bottles make a very imposing tree:



Knitted yarn tree! Made by the joint efforts of 1000 knitters:



For a book-lover:



Most expensive: a million-dollar tree made from approx. 21,000 diamonds
(One jeweler in Singapore makes it every year. Apparently, it sells)



This one is appropriately made from the dressed-up rat. The trick is to hold the mouse while decorating it:



Christmas Wookie tree:


(image credit: Crystal)

Dog "tree" -


(image credit: Olivia Joy)

Decorated bench:


(image credit: Olivia Joy)

Santa has a few adventures on his own

Coming back from his vacation:





Making good time:




(original unknown)

Commanding his army of snowmen:



Assembling his alternative team:






(image credit: Eden Gray)


Here is Jack Frost with a Russian flavor:
("Ded Moroz")


(art by Bilibin)

His Canadian helpers:


(image credit: GooseGoddessS)

Need better brakes:



Arrested by Stormtroopers!



According to this piece of news, Imperial stormtroopers took over the North Pole Santa's Factory today and set up the Emperor to preside over Christmas. The Emperor assured the concerned world that "Xmas will continue as planned", but Santa himself will pay for his irresponsible merry-making ways and using the Force to fly his reindeer sled.

Winter Wonderland awaits!





Christmas Understatement:


(original unknown)

Five Christmas Islands

If you want to go to Christmas Island for a holiday, you are spoilt for choice. There are several islands going by that name, and by dint of majority, Australia wins the crown as the true Christmas country hands down.

There are five places around the globe that share that name, of which one is an exception, while the others share some characteristics. Let’s start off with the exception.

Christmas Island, Nova Scotia

Christmas Island is not an Island, but a community in Cape Breton. Its name is not derived from the feast day, but from the family name of a native who presumably took his name from the feast. Christmas Island hosts a Gaelic music festival every year in August, and its post office receives letters from stamp

collectors from around the world for its Christmas Island post stamp.

Image source

Christmas Island, Kiribati

Today called Kiritimati (pronounce the ‘ti’ as ‘s’ to get the sound right), a direct transliteration of the English Christmas into the local Gilbertese language, the island is part of the Republic of Kiribati. Christmas Island was discovered (by European standards) on Christmas Eve 1777 by Thomas Cook, and hence got its name. Before that it had formed part of the Polynesian trade route for centuries. Today, the entire island is a wildlife sanctuary. The world’s largest coral atoll is also the place that first celebrates New Year.

Image source

Little Christmas Island, Tasmania

Little Christmas Island is a small island off the east coast of Tasmania. It forms part of the Schouten Islands, named after the Dutch navigator who rounded the Cape Horn (which he named after his birthplace of Hoorn) in 1616. Little Christmas Island is a Nature Reserve under that name since 2008. Part of its attraction is the abundance of Little Penguins.

Image source

Christmas Island, Tasmania

Christmas Island in the Bass Strait is part of the New Year Islands of which the largest, King Island, was discovered in 1798. The island is again a nature reserve. Tasmania holds the distinction of having 19 national parks which cover 40 percent of the territory. All but two of these nature reserve parks are open to the public.

Image source

The Territory of Christmas Island, Australia

The Australian territory is the one we normally think of when hearing Christmas Island. Geographically, the volcanic Island in the Indian Ocean lies much nearer to the Indonesian island of Java than to Australia. Together with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands it constitutes the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. William Mynors named the island when he arrived there on Christmas Day 1643, but he and his men were too craven to disembark. In 1688, the pirates of the Cygnet under William Dampier were the first to go on land and find it uninhabited.

Image source

The highest elevation on the island is Murray Hill (no, nothing to do with Tennis or Wimbledon), named after the explorer and geologist John Murray. And when phosphate and lime were discovered, the Island was finally annexed by the British Crown in 1888. Originally administrated by the Crown Colony of Singapore, it was transferred to Australia in 1957.

Image source

What seemed like a good idea at the time has turned out to become a permanent embarrassment. The Australian government had to deal with streams of refugees from the late 1980s onwards and has led to legislation that seems, coming from a nation dominated by Europeans, to be racist. Had the same legislation been passed by Singapore, nobody would bat an eye. The law states that Christmas Island is not part of Australia proper (so to speak), and that any refugees arriving there may be shipped back to wherever they came from.

Image source

Christmas Island is another nature paradise. The migration of the red land crabs is usually named as one of the wonders of the natural world. The crabs suffer from the invasion of a foreign belligerent ant, against which no measures taken so far have proven effective. Two thirds of the island is a nature reserve. Though several local species have gone extinct since the advent of settlers in the 19th century, the islands fauna and flora are still rich and of immense value to science.