Hello my friends! I hope the festive season is filling you with excitement and wonder!! 

Before we start this post I just wanted to say that I did truly believe I was going to post this last week and do something cute and artsy this week but my life kinda imploded. I’m not a superstitious person, but I’m a great believer that things come in threes so when I awoke last Friday (the 13th) I found that my heating system had completely broken down and won’t be fixed until after the New Year (it is soooo cold right now!) Later in the day I fell down the stairs – my own fault I wasn’t paying attention, but I was so very very sore and by the time I was able to sit and prep my post I just thought ‘ya know what its not worth it, it might be the third thing!’ It wasn’t but I was glad I didn’t tempt Fate!

But I’ve decided that I’m a big girl and I’m not going to let the fact I’ve got no heating ruin Christmas as I’ve already got everything more or less sorted, so onto a more festive up beat thing…

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Currently I’m sitting writing this wearing thick fluffy socks (and several jumpers) with a large oat milk white hot chocolate and thinking about traditions and how we plan our lives around them.

Also I’ve only just discovered white hot chocolate and my mind is well and truly blown!!

Its all very merry and is making me contemplate all the little things we do as a family at this time of the year.

Christmas is a big thing for my whole family, not only as a super important religious festival celebrating the brith of Jesus Christ but also a time for coming together. We try to do all the cliche things baking, games nights, foraging for greenery, the works – some things turn out better than others but its amazing how simple things can improve your mood and relieve stress and anxiety. Its something my mum started when we were young and as a family its just grown more and more each year.

I think one of the main focal points of prepping for the festivities is decorating the tree, I love decorating Christmas trees there’s literally one in every room of my house – most of them are only 50cm or so tall but they add a little cheer. I actually had a good cry whilst I decked the halls as my brother bought me some tiny clear baubles and suggested I put a little of Hetty’s fur inside a couple so that she’s still a part of Christmas (which was a beautiful idea) I have a little pot of her fur and when I picked some of it out I just burst into tears – it had only been 10 weeks but I’d completely forgotten how soft and fluffy she was and I’m really grateful to my brother for the idea even though it made me a bit sad in that moment.

One of my favourite festive things is that in my household once we hit December its wall to wall Christmas movies all month. Which is awesome as I totally love a soppy hallmark-style movie. I’m not even a slightly ashamed to admit it! (If you’re looking for a series of soppy feel-good movies check out Christmas in Evergreen). We recently sat and watched That Christmas which is a new animated Netflix movie and its so so good!

My brother Milo has a really old stocking and we put all the names of our favourite movies in it and pull them out a random, to watch whenever we’re together. Then we will just sit down as a family and enjoy each others company. Normally we each have a craft (I’ve become addicted to crochet!) or someone might be reading book/playing on a tablet, sometimes we don’t even talk to each other but there’s such a feeling of comfort and zen.

It’s also fun to have a feel good movie on in the background whilst finishing the last few handmade gifts, or doing a group craft or even wrapping presents. This year we had a family day and all got together to make as many paper snowflakes as we could and decorated all the windows with them I even made a few crochet ones!

Pretty much every year those of us who are crafty/creative all try to make each other something its not even done in secret but it still means the world. For example this year I’ve made my mum a crochet hot water bottle cover – she knows about it, picked the colours and is still excited to receive it (she still has things I made her as a kid) and she has lovingly knitted me a pair of slippers (I know because she had me try them on!). 

It doesn’t make the gift any less special just because its not a surprise.

Baking is another great tradition and a wonderful way to spend some quality time with each other, we had a baking sesh the other day and made a huge batch of melted snowman cookies to share with friends and family. My brother even bought tiny chocolate carrots to use as noses, which was genius and totally improved the whole look of the thing! I was so pleased with the little army we created…although a few didn’t make it through the decorating process.

Coffee, music, biscuits and good company, what more could you need in life.

My mum actually calls it our Christmas bubble, sort of a coping mechanism to escape the stress of the real world…its one of the things I look forward to all year, quality time with each other.

Plus it totally ups the excitement for the big day.

Now I come to think about it we have quite a few Christmas traditions that I probably would need to spread over several posts to share them all with you…either that or write one rather long essay!

So that’s just about it for this weeks Christmassy post…I really hope you liked it! Do you have any Christmas traditions? Next week I’m hoping to (possibly) post an end of year recap before we start 2025. 

As always thank you so very much for reading my friends, I hope you have a lovely pre-Christmas week!

And I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

K

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