holidays Archives | Cool Mom Picks

8 thoughtful tips if you’re hosting kids with special needs for the holidays

by Kate Etue | Thinking : Parent, Tips + Tricks

Nothing gets me emotional quite like the Folger’s coffee holiday commercial, with the sentimental mother-son reunion at 5:30 AM over a cup of coffee. (I’m not joking, I cry every time.) But that’s not quite most people’s reality when we travel...

12 of the coolest Advent calendars this year, to make the countdown even more fun

by Christina Refford | Holiday Picks

I am usually a big advocate for letting Thanksgiving have its own precious time before shifting my focus on to Christmas. But, with Thanksgiving falling so late in November this year, those of us who celebrate Christmas will want to have a cool Advent calendar ready...

11 top-rated veterans organizations offering everything from adaptive housing to service dogs to support exclusively for women

by Liz Gumbinner | Doing Good

I actually moaned when I saw an ad on TV this weekend that said something like, our veterans fought hard for our country, and now we’re fighting hard to bring you these great deals at our annual Veteran’s Day sale… I mean, are you kidding me? I love...

Holiday craziness and stress: Let’s sloooooow things down a little, please? | Spawned ep 174

by Cool Mom Staff | Health, Fitness + Wellbeing, Holiday Picks, Podcast, Tips + Tricks

If you feel like the holiday season came sooner this year — along with the holiday ads, the holiday sales, the Mariah Carey videos, and the holiday pressure, it’s not in your head. There are lots of reasons we’re feeling it more this year, and social...

80+ creative Easter egg decorating ideas: Your ultimate egg decorating resource!

by Liz Gumbinner | DIY

For more than a decade now, so many of our writers have searched the web to compile the most creative Easter egg decorating ideas, from simple to wow, from traditional to modern, from designs for toddlers to designs for teens — and everything in between. And so,...

8 lovely children’s books to help teach our kids more about Islam

by Caroline Siegrist | Books for Kids

Like many parents, I’ve been reeling ever the New Zealand mosque shooting last week, which was just followed by yet another horrific racist attack only yesterday: a fire deliberately set at a mosque in Northern California. So as a non-Muslim myself, I’ve...

Home with the kids New Year’s Eve? These 12 festive (and easy!) ideas can make the night memorable.

by Kate Etue | Party Ideas, Tips + Tricks

These days, New Year’s Eve parties are more about me trying my very best to stay up till midnight (though 10 PM is more like it) and drinking sparkling cider with our kids as we watch the ball drop on TV. And, honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way....

12 acts of kindness you can do with your kids over the holiday break, to make the season about more than presents.

by Christina Refford | Doing Good, Tips + Tricks

On the first day after Christmas, Santa will be back at the North Pole, the toys will all be unwrapped, and you’ll have at least a week to entertain your sweet, energetic children while they are home from school. If there’s ever a time to let the kids...

The best list of last-minute holiday gift ideas that let you skip the $$$ shipping

by Liz Gumbinner | Holiday Picks

I totally get the last-minute holiday gift problem. Believe me! I mean, we may have started amassing ideas for our 2018 Holiday Gift Guide in, like…February, but hey, we’re busy moms. And we’re busy shopping for you sometimes at the expense of our...

Creative holiday gift wrap and printable gift tags: A roundup of our favorite ideas

by Liz Gumbinner | DIY, Holiday Picks

If you’re like me, you’re already kind of dreading the annual, late night “OMG we have to wrap every one of these gifts after the kids get in bed” conversation on the 24th. Or, if you’re like half the people in my Instagram feed,...

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Picks in 2006 to help make life cooler, more meaningful, and more fun for parents of all kinds.

Trivia: It was called Cool Mom Sh*t for the first two days. (Yeah, we rethought that.)

We had no idea our site would grow to become a major lifestyle network, that we'd end up sharing our finds with the TODAY Show and Martha Stewart, that we'd be able to make a real difference for so many small businesses and women-run companies, or that we'd end up with an incredible community of the coolest readers on the planet. (If we do say so ourselves).