A little bit of Christmas

I thought I could write a little post talking about a few of my favourite things about Christmas and traditions and such to give you an insight into how I celebrate the Holidays!

Top 5 Christmas Films

• Love Actually*
• Elf*
• Polar Express*
• Barbie in the Nutcracker*
• The Nativity*
• (and I couldn’t help but add The Nightmare Before Christmas* although typically I classify it as a Halloween film)

Favourite Festive Songs

• All I want for Christmas is You ~ Mariah Carey
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ~ John Denver
• Fairytale of New York ~ The Pogues
• Santa Baby ~Eartha Kitt

Christmas when I was little

Christmas has always been a happy and beautiful time in my household filled with festivity and quality family time. As a child, we’d always decorate our bay-window with a festive scene varying from a Nativity story to a Winter Woodland scene. We’d spend hours sticking, cutting and glueing together images and indulging in yummy food whilst listening to Christmas songs. These are some of my fondest memories and I’m happy to say my mum continues the tradition of decorating the winter display for when my brother and I return home.

Decorating the tree and visiting Garden Centers to acquire some new decorations was also something of a tradition and something I long to do when I have a family of my own.

As I stated before Polar Express is one of my favourite Christmas films and that stems from the fact that it was one we watched every Christmas when I was growing up. On Friday evenings we’d sit down and do something as a family, be that watch a film, decorate the window, go for a walk or take a trip out; Friday was always our family time and during the build-up to Christmas, one of these Friday’s was taken up with the 3 bags for £1 Sainsbury’s sweets while watching this adorable film.

On Christmas morning itself I have always (and will always) wake my brother up and we will toddle downstairs to open our ‘Santa Sacks’ together before often watching the First Snow of Winter. After the movie, we would show each other what we’d received and I was lucky enough that despite the fact we are 20 and 24 now we did this once again this Christmas.

Boxing Day always has had a similar schedule for us. We have a lazy start, go on a long brisk wintery walk, play lots of board games, take naps and read many books and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

 

Short Christmas Q&A:

• What sort of tree do you have? At my dads, we have a fake Christmas tree with autumnal colours such as browns and golds along with some of the baubles myself and my brother have had since we were little. Whereas at mums we have a real tree outside with glass decorations and inside we have a very slim fake tree with gold baubles! We’ve had such an array over the year but I have to admit my dads is my favourite tree (no surprise given I was there when we got all the decorations!).
• How do I choose presents for my family? In my family, we’ve always shared ideas of what we’d like and allocate a present each, for example, this year my dad asked for walking socks which I bought, however, I’ve always been a sucker for buying small little extras for everyone when I see things they’d like.
• What is my favourite part of Christmas dinner? I LOVE most of the food in our lovely roasts but I have to say the Brussel sprouts, roast potatoes and pigs in blankets are my absolute favourites!
• What was my favourite Christmas advert this year? Although I haven’t seen it have much publicity my favourite was the Waitrose advert with the robins ~ it was just so cute and the animation was really high standard and it just made me feel all warm and fuzzy.
• Do we open presents before or after our dinner? In my family we always watch dad open his Birthday presents as soon as we get up and then we open our Christmas presents just before dinner.
• and finally… Who is my favourite person to buy presents for? I have to say, my mum, because there are always things I spot which I know she’ll love or are family related and memory related and I think I can always get her things she’ll like.

 

What does Christmas mean to me?

Christmas is traditionally a Christian celebration, however, I myself am not religious and therefore use Christmas in order to celebrate my family, my life, share my love and embrace the goodness in the world. I could not imagine spending Christmas not surrounded by my family making memories and exchanging how grateful we are for each other in both words and with gifts. For me, Christmas means a time for love and happiness and I hope it always remains that way.