With the holidays well and truly upon us, I thought I’d take a moment to share the 5 things I love most about Christmas. It’s always wonderful to receive your comments, so if you’d like to share your favourite part of the festive season, whichever holiday you celebrate, I’d love to hear from you!
- Good Food. It’s fair to say my love of all that is delicious and edible has become somewhat of a joke in my family, and so it stands to reason I should start here. We stick firmly to tradition in my household—turkey, golden roast potatoes, sausages wrapped in bacon, honey-glazed parsnips and crunchy red cabbage, all swimming in gravy and creamy bread sauce. The Christmas dinner is definitely one of the highlights of my day!
- Buying Presents. Much as it’s wonderful to receive gifts at Christmas, it’s the buying for others I really enjoy. I find it incredibly rewarding browsing the stores, both online and on the high street, searching for that certain something for friends and family. Then, when I happen upon the perfect gift, one I’m sure that special someone will love, it gives me a warm glow inside. Cheesy, I know, but true!
- Festive Music. My other half is one of those people who’s sick to death of hearing the same old Christmas songs year after year and groans whenever one comes on the radio, but I love them! I only have to hear that instantly recognizable opening to Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody or Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day to recapture the magic of my childhood Christmases. Nothing puts a smile on my face or gets me in the festive spirit more than the music.
- Playing Games. This has always been a tradition in my family, and one of the things I most look forward to. Once we’ve gorged ourselves on turkey and Christmas pudding and the table has been cleared, it’s time to dig out the board games. We split into teams for a few increasingly boisterous rounds of Dingbats or Articulate, before moving onto the finale—the annual battle of Trivial Pursuit!
- Family Time. I’m saving my favourite part of the festive period until last. We don’t have a large gathering on Christmas Day—just my mum and brother, my sister and her husband, their two young children, and myself—but I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with the people I love most. To make 2018 extra special, I moved in with my partner earlier this year and this will be our first Christmas spent together.
Thank you so much for following my blog and reading my books this year. It means the world to me. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous 2018!
