An Express Passport to a Better Christmas Shopping Experience - Expedited Passports

Ahhh, Wal-Mart in December…screaming children, endless lines to check out, and shopping cart traffic jams blocking the aisles. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Wal-Mart may be the quintessential American Christmas shopping experience, but this time of year makes me dream longingly of Europe’s Christmas markets. A tradition that started in Germany and has now spread all over Europe, Christmas markets feature lots of food, drinks and unique items to fill your family’s stockings. There’s also glühwein, hot mulled wine that’s often fortified with brandy. If that won’t get you into the holiday spirit, I’m afraid you must be an incurable Scrooge.

According to Wikipedia, the tradition of the holiday market dates back to 1294, with the city of Vienna’s “December Market.” Here’s the scoop on 5 of the oldest and/or most popular holiday markets today:

• The Nuremberg Christmas Market runs until Christmas Eve. The Nuremberg Christmas Angel presides over the ceremonies, which attract about 2 million people each year. Canned Christmas carols are strictly verboten.
• The Dresden Christmas Market dates back to 1434 and is one of the oldest holiday markets. It also runs until Christmas Eve. Highlights include handblown glass, handmade candles, traditional handmade toys, wine punch, rum punch, and a list of delightful-sounding goodies like stuffed apples and deep-fried cheese balls. Also, Santa goes through the market once a day and delivers a toy to each and every child. Magical.
• Stuttgart’s Christmas Market is probably the largest in Europe. It’s also one of the most heavily visited, attracting around 3.5 million people every year.
• The Christmas Market in Birmingham, England is the largest in the UK. Like the other markets, it features lots of German goodies, live music and presents.
• The Fira de Santa Llúcia, in Barcelona, Spain, has been held since 1786. It is famous for amazing handcrafted sculptures made of cork. Another claim to fame: little figurines of people relieving themselves. Called caganer, these figures are commonly placed in nativity scenes.

Of course, to get to a Christmas market before Christmas Eve, you’ll need a last-minute flight deal and an express passport if you don’t already have one. Express passports can be obtained at a Passport Agency office, but given that there still only 21 of them open to the general public in the entire US, a private passport expediting company like RushmyPassport is probably a more convenient option.

We deliver your express passport application to the Department of State, for processing times as low as 24 hours. Beat that, Santa!

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Christmas is almost here, which means that people all over the country are traveling to see their families, both inside and outside of the US. The Sacramento Bee reports that each year, 1 million Mexican citizens return home to Mexico over Christmas break. That’s a lot of people, and that’s not even counting members of their families who are US citizens and likely traveling with them.

Holiday trips are more complicated when your family lives out of the country. Remember, if you’re crossing the border, even into Canada or Mexico, you’ll need a passport if you’re traveling by plane. In fact, it’s a good idea to have a passport even if you’re driving, just in case something comes up and you need to fly back. In the article referenced above, many Mexican citizens were getting passports from the Mexican consulate, which was able to issue them immediately. What about American citizens? How can they get 24 hour passports? If you’re a US citizen planning on going out of the country for the holidays, hopefully you already have your passport ready to go. But what if you don’t?

At this point, you’ll need to get a 24 hour passport to spend Christmas out of the country. The best way to get a 24 hour passport is to go through a private passport expediting agency like RushMyPassport.com. A private passport expediter can deliver your passport documents to the US government by hand the same day, and then rush your newly issued passport back to you. For extra piece of mind, some private passport expediters even let you track your 24 hour passport order through every step of the process.

Need a 24 hour passport? Let us help!

The holidays are here! Most people have time away from work and kids are out of school, so now is a great time to travel. Holiday events and festivals make this an especially magical time to visit someplace new, and you can often find last-minute travel deals that make traveling more affordable.

If you have kids, why not take them to visit Santa?  Where does Santa Claus live, anyway? Every child knows that Santa lives at the North Pole. However, geographically speaking, the North Pole is at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. In reality, Santa maintains a number of different residences and workshops.  Since 1953, he has lived in North Pole, Alaska . Every year, the town has a North Pole Christmas in Ice Festival. Among other attractions, this year’s festival features a giant, illuminated ice sculpture of a frozen turkey. Don’t try to take a bite, unless you want to end up like the kid in A Christmas Story! Of course, there’s also the Santa Claus House, with Santa Claus, his reindeer and a gift shop selling Santa-approved presents.

Before Alaska claimed him as their own, Santa lived in the Lapland region of Finland. You can still visit him there year round at Santa’s Village. (How does Santa manage to live in two places at once? Magic!) Santa’s Village features Santa Claus, his workshop, snow, igloos and reindeer galore.

If you want to take the kids to see Santa in Lapland, of course, you’ll need passports.  Don’t forget to get child passports for the kids-even babies need child passports to leave the country. If you’re just going to Alaska, you don’t need a passport if you have a direct flight. However, if you have a flight that stops in Canada, or if you plan on crossing the border into Canada, you will need a passport.

If you don’t have a passport and would like to go before Christmas, all is not lost. You can use an expediting service like RushMyPassport.com to get a passport (or a child passport) in just one day!