Links and Book Review: Celebrations Edition

• Life as Mom gives her perspective on Christmas planning for gifts and atmosphere. In fact, she's blogging about it all week!
• Another Christmas in July post by Jill at Living on A Dime
  
• Life as Mom also has some neat birthday cake ideas here.
• Money Saving Mom tells us about birthday freebies from Toys "R" Us
• Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam talks about birthday traditions
• Molly from Econobusters shares this neat cake decorating idea
• Homemaker Barbi's thoughts on kids' birthday parties: Are They Out of Control?
• Joy from Happy to Be At Home gives us 13 Frugal and Low-Stress Birthday Ideas
• And one more cute birthday cake idea for your guy that loves baseball at Cooking During Stolen Moments!

As far as books, I guess I'm cheating a bit. My recommendation is actually a magazine. Family Fun magazine is great for birthday party ideas as well as any other celebration and their ideas are for real parents with real budgets. Every time I get a free subscription offer, I sign up because I'm sure to find lots of neat ideas for both celebrations and everyday celebrations.