Sunday, December 22, 2013

How I spend Christmas Tag


1. What are you usually up to on Christmas Eve?
Christmas Eve is my favourite day of the Christmas season - even above Christmas Day itself. My plans vary year on year depending on friends and families plans. There was the year my friend and I booked tickets to see the Nutcracker but didn't get past the restaurant we started drinking cocktails in before. There was another drinking Winter Pimms in jugs with friends that resulted in a very late night and a very hungover Christmas Day when I was barely able to open presents and last year the one drink after work which lead to 5 bottles of wine to the less boozy ones spent at our local Carols on the Green and the children's Christmas service in church.

This year I will be at work in the morning followed by some lunchtime drinks. Then it's hot footing to meet my friend and her family for drinks and then a meal with my brother our parents etc. Slightly different this year will be spending the night with my friend and waking up with her and the cutie that is Charlie (who you saw in this post) Christmas Day morning.

2. Who do you spend your Christmas Day with?
My parents. My brother will visit with his family in the morning to open presents and then mum, dad and I will crack open the champagne and enjoy a 'civilised' Christmas lunch together before the madness that is Boxing Day when all our family descend for what I see as a the proper Christmas celebration.

3. Do you enjoy giving or receiving gifts?
I would be a liar if I said I didn't enjoy receiving gifts but you can't beat the look of pleasure on someones face when they open something you've brought for them, especially the children. I can remember one year buying my friends daughter a pair of Timberlands. I suspected that they would be opened and discarded quickly as children can find clothing boring but she immediately put them on and called them her jumping boots and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening jumping about in them - priceless.

4. What does your outfit consist of on Christmas Day?
I tend to go for something nice but casual saving the dressier options for Boxing Day. This year it will likely be jeans and a jumper with a statement necklace as I won't really see people other than parents etc on the day.

5. Do you enjoy shopping for your loved ones gifts?
This all depends on what's been requested. Previous years have been spent shopping in New York which was great fun finding items that couldn't be purchased in the UK. Once I put together an American food hamper for my brother and his wife filled with all sorts of treats which was great fun and I can't deny I love a trip to Toys R Us for the kids on my list. This year I was very sensible and stuck to a budget and did a lot of the shopping online or went for one specific main gift. Mum and I are especially bad at buying lot's of random gifts for one another but this year we said keep it specific. Likewise with the children,  my niece and nephew are lucky enough to get treats throughout the year, my nephew has just had his birthday and my nieces is 2 weeks after Christmas and they can get so overwhelmed that they have two gifts to open from me on the day rather than lot's off odds and ends that they'll forget about in the long term.

6. Have you ever received a gift you disliked and pretended you liked it?
I'm sure everyone has been in this position but generally I'm very lucky as my family divert to mum who has the list I've issued and she just purchases and/or divides the gifts out to those who want to give me something. One amusing year was spent with an old boyfriend. I had heard how bad his family were at presents and once we returned from the family gathering his dad walked in with a large bin bag and everyone literally opened and the dropped the random selection of gifts into it. I actually lucked out as a new entry to the family and mostly received chocolate which made everyone rather jealous!

7. What would your ideal Christmas be?
I'm quite happy with how my Christmases are spent. Being single and with parents that are easy going about the day itself I can do as I please and so year on year plans can vary but ultimately I enjoy seeing my niece and nephew opening their presents, the quiet time alone with my parents and the noise of Boxing Day. I wouldn't say it's my 'ideal' Christmas but I would love to host a Christmas myself for friends, like you see on Friends for something different but naturally everyone is separated by their family commitments.

8. What is your least favourite thing about Christmas?
It's a toss up between wrapping Christmas presents and writing Christmas cards. I take wrapping presents so seriously and want them to be wrapped so perfectly and no one cares like I do so it's almost a wasted effort but it's one I do every year.

9. What is the best gift you've ever received?
One year I opened a surprise gift from my parents which was a framed Betty Boop drawing. They had seen it on an antiques jaunt and admired it and thought of me but as an original drawing it was slightly more than they wanted to spend for a random gift. On arriving home my dad kept thinking about it and ended up jumping back on a train into London to buy it for me. That picture still hangs in my flat today.

10. If you could choose one person to spend Christmas with who would it be and why? (other than family)
Bradley Cooper? George Clooney? Do they count?! Jokes aside as I've mentioned I manage to spend a lot of the Christmas period with a complete mix of friends and family and I guess I kind of answered the question earlier in that a friends Christmas Day would be fun but this year I'm waking up with one BFF Christmas Day morning and the other will be joining my family on Boxing Day so I think I'm doing ok.

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9 comments:

  1. I'm with you. Christmas Eve is THE BEST day. All the excitement, the anticipation, sheer joy. Utterly lovely. Christmas Day? It's all clearing up paper and eating too much!

    xx

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  2. Great post! Love to hear how others spend the holiday. Merry Christmas!

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  3. I love Christmas eve best as well, that feeling of its still all to come. Great post x

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  4. Your Christmas sounds completely wonderful! I'm not a fan of wrapping gifts either, but only because I'm SO bad at it! Thankfully everyone knows by now that their gift won't be wrapped nicely, they expect child-like wrapping skills ;)

    Jennie xo | sailorjennie.com

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  5. Lovely, especially the Betty Boop drawing. Merry Christmas! I can't wait to see what Santa brings you! :)

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  6. Great tag post - as for wrapping, I cannot for the life of me wrap presents! x

    Heather | Of Beauty & Nothingness

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