No tags yet.
As it's nearly two month since my last blog post and Christmas is fast approaching it felt only right that I added another blog page to my website. Anyone who knows me well will know how obsessed I am with Christmas. Netflix have upped their Christmas film game and I'm making it my personal mission to get through as many as possible before the big man arrives and M&S have their festive sandwiches back on the shelves and I am excited! However, I've been excited for months. I'm one of those annoying people who start listening to Christmas music on September 1st and wish Halloween would end so Christmas can officially begin. I'm the person who can be seen sniffing tinsel in the range with the biggest smile on my face mid October and getting more excited than the kids at the thought of Santa coming!
But it's not the presents that really get me excited. It's the Christmas spirit. And for the 'first time in forever' I don't mean the festive gingerbread cocktails and endless bottles of baileys I usually consume. I'm talking about that feeling you get when you watch a Christmas film with it's typical holiday story line that you can't help but cry to, or see the Christmas lights lighting up the streets. The feeling you get when you hear your favourite Christmas song on the radio, or you see your favourite seasonal treat back on the menu at Costa (new gingerbread hot chocolate is my go to this year and I even braved it and went alone for one the other week which was lovely).
It's the beautiful Christmas decorations in your home and everywhere you go - I even managed to get mine up a week early this year by sheer luck and it brings me so much joy just looking at my beautiful tree in the corner lit up. We go together and pick a real tree for our house too and I love that that's one of our traditions. That's another amazing thing, the traditions. Whether it's wearing the worst Christmas jumper you can find, an annual night out with friends, a board game you always play with the family, traditions make Christmas. I HAVE to watch Muppets Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve. I don't even remember how far it dates back! It's my favourite Christmas film and I love watching it. I also have to wear my Christmas socks at every possible occasion, I always leave my Christmas shopping until December because I love the buzz and I always go out with the girls on the last Friday before Christmas.
I don't really know where my Christmas spirit comes from. James once said that he thinks I'm part elf because I love candy, singing Christmas songs loudly and I'm obsessed with Christmas. Maybe that's true, but my Mam has never been very excited about Christmas so I don't think it's her half. Luckily her best friend more than made up for that when I was growing up. She showed me what Christmas was really about, she got me excited every year from being a child and even now every year we put up her decorations, wrap her presents, dance to Nat King Cole (Frosty the Snowman is our favourite) and she is an absolute angel who I am so grateful for because she is without a doubt the reason I'm so in love with Christmas and I love how much I love Christmas. I hope I can pass down the love she's shared too, (the fact my niece actually asks to go to The Range to see the singing Santa and the decorations bodes well though). We always have to go to Wynyard's Christmas Fair with her daughter who is my Godmother, my sister and our Mam. This is always mid November and is the beginning of the festivities for us!
And after all, spending time with loved one's is what it's all about. That day at Wynyard always starts us off and then I've also been lucky enough to have a wonderful trip to Edinburgh this year, a work Christmas night out where the band sang Christmas songs and even a Christmas Wedding yesterday which was amazing. All of this has got me feeling extra festive this year.
But I also know what a difficult time it can be for people as well. If you're stressing about money and presents I urge you to watch Martin Lewis's Christmas show - presents can never replace your presence and your mental health is more important to your friends and family than a new designer handbag or the newest craze. If you're stressing about how you look, or how much weight you might gain over the Christmas period, I urge you to check out my Instagram feed at the minute. I'm taking part in not one but two Advent challenges. Now as much as I love eating a chocolate out of my advent calendar every day (meanwhile James has ate two whole ones already, can't cope with him!) these advent calendars are a little bit more special than Dairy Milk. They're self love challenges. The first one is being ran by Mel Wells (@iammelwells) and this week saw me dancing around my Christmas tree to Christmas songs, as well as taking a relaxing bath, talking about why I love myself and why I'm proud of myself and also talking about what I'm grateful for. The second challenge is being ran by an amazing friend of mine I met through Mel's academy. Her name is Sarah (@selflovesarah_) and her challenges are just beautiful! Today's challenge is to spend time away from your phone, which is ironic as I'm sat typing this to share on social media, but I will be taking some time out later today and I did have time out earlier while me and James cuddled up watching Love Actually! Self love might not seem like the most obvious form of Christmas spirit but to become a better person, we need to start by being nicer to ourselves.
Christmas spirit makes everyone nicer. As Santa says in the new film The Christmas Chronicles (available now on Netflix haha) "Christmas spirit is more powerful than you could ever imagine. People need Christmas to remind themselves of how good they can be". There's something about the whole Christmas season that makes people happier, even the scrooges and Grinchs of the world are a bit cheery, after all, even they end up loving Christmas at the end! And how could you not be? So make sure you're spending the time this holiday season to spread Christmas spirit wherever you go, even a smile, a compliment, a Merry Christmas can make someones day and if you need a bit more self love in your life definitely check out the girls above!
So I think I've talked about Christmas enough now - I could go on forever! But I just want to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas! I am so grateful for the feedback from this blog and I have loved doing it and will continue to do it next year too. I will definitely be back before the new year to help people get over the idea of having 'lose weight' down as one of their new years resolutions but until then, I'll leave you with this amazing poem:
"So remember while December brings the only Christmas day, in the year let there be Christmas in the things you do and say, wouldn't life be worth living, wouldn't dreams come true, if we kept the Christmas spirit the whole year through"