Every year since they were born I have created Christmas Eve boxes for my nephews and niece, and its one of my favourite traditions 😊
It’s just a little christmassy box of goodies to enjoy on the eve of Christmas and I’ve included different things over the years!
Here’s what I will be including this year for KS2 aged children (why do they grow up so quickly 😭) its super fun getting things you know they’ll like.
I have included Prices and shops where possible.
Let’s take a look!
Giant Chocolate Coins – Flying Tiger Magic Snow, Build your own snowman – The Works £1.50Wall climbing Grinch – The Works £3Capybara Bath Bombs- Primark £1.30Gonk teddy – The Works £2Make your own Reindeer hat – The Works £2Christmas Bouncy Putty – The Works £2
Hopefully they’ll enjoy these fun little bits and bob’s.
Here are some fun, festive craft activities to keep the kiddies occupied this Christmas! Guaranteed to get you into the festive spirit ✨️
Painting
Reindeer Rudolph printing.Gingerbread printing.Christmas Wreaths.Handprint Christmas cards.Create their own festive masterpiece all wrapped up for family. A great present.
Festive fun
Design your own Christmas jumper.Finish the Christmas lights.Build a chimney for Santa.
I love Christmas lights so when my mother in law invited us along to our local light trail with herself and some of her friends, how could we say no!
And it was brilliant.
We actually went to this display last year for its inaugural year but it was in a different park in my hometown and it was very expensive. This year the trail was set up in a different park and the layout of the park worked much better for this event. It had a more natural trail with paths as apposed to last year when the lights were in big open areas, which wasn’t quite as effective. They have also made it much more affordable which is great!
There were loads more lights, lovely atmospheric music and smoke to add to the magical vibe. There was also a nice little food court in the middle which served delicious hot chocolates. My mint one was so yummy I had two 😋 🤣
I also liked that you could go around the trail more than once, so we did!
The only annoying thing was the torrential rain haha – not ideal! But it was so wet you kinda just had to get on with it by the end haha. It was still a lovely, festive evening.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the trail!
We’re back here for day two! And we can really get into some festive fun now.
Blogmas starts on December 1st and so does one of my favourite Christmas traditions… advent calendars!!
So, I thought I would share mine with you 😊
I crack my pop up Harry Potter advent calendar out every year! It’s so beautiful. I love the pop up tree and the lovely and festive great hall scene on the base. You open the little windows and get a little Harry Potter themed charm to hang on the tree.
The first charm for December 1st was Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Lovely.
My husband very kindly got me a Terry’s Chocolate Orange advent calendar. We always buy each other one. I bought him a Lindt one.
I also have a Dairy Milk one that my friend from work very kindly gave me. I’m keeping that one at work to treat myself each day when I get to work 😌
This super cute little traditional picture advent calendar was only £1.49 in a craft shop in town so I thought it would be cute to have this to open too.
And finally, when we were decorating I found this cute Harry Potter advent calendar, that you fill yourself. I bought this a few years ago. When my husband saw it he said he would fill it for me. 😊 Safe to say I won’t need to buy any chocolates in December with 3 little daily chocs available to me haha.
It’s that time of year guys, December has arrived and with it another month of festive blog posts – BLOGMAS 2025 IS HERE!!
For those of you who haven’t heard of ‘Blogmas’ before, its basically a blog post a day, every day, leading up to Christmas day. An advent of blog posts if you will. Very fun.
This is my 10th year!!! (WHAT 😱) of taking part in Blogmas and I am very much looking forward to sharing some of my festive plans with you, as well as some fun gift ideas, recipes and of course BOOKS.
I also have a little something different planned for one of my posts to mark the 10th year of me doing Blogmas! So keep your eyes peeled for that 👀
So, if like me you love Christmas and all things Christmassy then stick around 🙂
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, New years, and are surviving through the longest month of the year! Gotta love January.
I got some lovely books and bookish presents for Christmas, so I thought I would do a little haul post for you.
Let’s take a look!
‘The Woman on the ledge’ by Ruth Mancini
‘I Died on a Tuesday’ by Jane Corry
Both of these thrillers were chosen for me by my twin sister. I love it when people choose books for me! (Although I have been told that it is harder to do these days due to the amount I’ve read 🤣)
I have read ‘I died on a Tuesday’ and really enjoyed it.
‘Stranger Things’ novels
My Mum picked up these two ‘Stranger Things’ novels for me for Christmas.
‘Book Love’
My mother in law bought me this very cute little book that is perfect for any of you book lovers out there! It’s full of cute little illustrations, bookish quotes, and comics.
I also got a few book themed presents.
A little purse/zip bag.
A very apt sign! I will be hanging this by my bookshelves.
A cute little book themed tote.
I also got a few National Book token vouchers, a Waterstones voucher, and a voucher for my favourite independent book shop! So, all in all, I am sorted for my book purchasing for a little while.
I am very lucky ✨️
I have bought a couple of books so far with my vouchers…
From Waterstones…
The first two ACOTAR books. My friend has been suggesting I read these for ages!
The 2024 Booker Prize Winner ‘Orbital’ by Samantha Harvey
That’s all for now, folks!
I hope you got some lovely books this year 📚 I can’t wait to get stuck in.
Thanks again for all the views on my Blogmas 2024 posts- I hope you all enjoyed them.
I thought I would include a little bonus post, rounding up the last few Christmassy days that followed the end of Blogmas, on Dec 25th.
Enjoy!
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve light Hunt.Christmas Eve meet up with friends and a final festive beverage.The end of my Hotel Chocolat hot choc advent calendar.Delivering Christmas Eve boxes to my niece and nephews.Starting my final festive book ‘Home for Christmas’ by Heidi Swain.Getting ready for Santa with my nephews.We finally found the newly released Premier League sticker books.Putting out my stocking for Santy Claus.
Christmas Day
Opening Christmas presents with my husband, at home.Our traditional Christmas day breakfast of DIY pan au chocolats.Visiting/exchanging presents with Mum and Dad.Christmas dinner 😋Me enjoying the festivities.Present exchanging with the Byfords.All my family coming around for Christmas day evening fun, presents and food.The Gavin & Stacey Finale 🥹
Boxing Day
A Christmas dinner take 2, at home.Watching the Wallace & Gromit new episode.A relaxing bath with my Christmas Capybara bath bomb.Playing games with the fam at Mum & Dad’s.Birds names. The ultimate Christmas game.Merry Christmas 💗
Christmas with the Byfords
My lovely husband Tim 💗A lovely walk.Our traditional family walk.Me & Tim.The Byfords.The buffet in the evening after our walk.More games, of course!Watching the football.
Other holiday fun…
Biscuit making with my nephews.Our Gingerbread biscuits.Me & Tim at the lights trail.My favourite lights on the light trail.The Colchester Zoo lights trail.A chilled New Years with friends, playing games & watching the fireworks on tv.Seeing in 2025 with my AC villagers as tradition dictates.New Years Day, family fun, food, and games at my Aunties.
Me and my twin sister met up with one of our oldest friends, as tradition on Christmas Eve (we’ve known each other since we were 3!!) Obviously, my nephews came too, so we all enjoyed a festive Costa.
I delivered Christmas Eve boxes to my niece and nephews! It is one of my favourite traditions. I love putting these together.
We went out in the evening for our traditional Christmas Eve Lights look out around our town. We all loved the festive Skeletons and this brilliant charity effort.
We got my nephews ready for bed and, more importantly, Santy Claus. We then enjoyed some picky bits (a Christmas Eve Camembert is a must!) We also played a new game. I got a little while ago ‘Scream The Game’, which was a fun little, fast-paced interactive game based on the film.
The we went home & I popped my stocking at the end of my bed and went to sleep.
I’m also a big fan of Christmas Eve as we have lots of fun traditions on that day that make us feel super festive.
I hope you’ve all had a lovely day and enjoyed yourself whatever you have been doing.
We’ve had a great time spending the day with family, that’s what it’s all about. And the Christmas dinner was fantastic.
Until next year, that’s me over and out for Blogmas 2024. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
Last week, we got the opportunity to have a look around a Christmas light trail. It was at a park nearby and we had a free evening so we thought, why not!
Let’s take a look!
It was a lovely festive evening. All cosy and wrapped up, the lights looked really cool, and they even had some lovely real christmas trees with warm lights, so simple but lovely.
We grabbed a nice hot sausage roll to eat whilst we walked around from the cafe in the park.
I love Christmas lights so much. They are one of my favourite things about Christmas (the more, the better!!)
As a new little tradition that we started last year, we go to the light trail at Colchester Zoo. We go after Christmas so it doesn’t appear in Blogmas, so it’s nice that we’ve gone to one during Blogmas so we can share it.
Every year, for the last few years, at least, I have included a post like this, and simply, it is just a collection of festive photos, of various subject matters that I have taken throughout the festive period.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m very fond of this time of year, and I love taking festive snaps to capture christmassy feels or moments.
Roseanne Byford 