Blogmas Day 2: The Ultimate Christmas Tag

Hey Guys!

 ⭐ Welcome to Day Two of Blogmas ⭐

Originally I was going to do 'How To Decorate Your Student House on a Budget' but I've pushed it back as I wanted to do 'The Ultimate Christmas Tag 2018' created by Kat from www.femenish.com. I wasn't tagged by anyone but after reading Kat's Blogmas Day One post I wanted to do the tag too! I thought it would be a great post while it is still the beginning of Blogmas instead of later on ❄

The Rules 

Link back to the original post by Kat (Femenish) when you have written yours and link back to the person who tagged you!

Tag as many bloggers as you like ❤

Answer the questions! If you want to you can make up your own questions to ask the bloggers you have tagged, or you can use these ones!

The Questions

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
Do you have any Christmas traditions you CANNOT forget about each year?
Is there a song that just gets you into that Christmas spirit?

What is your favourite Christmas movie?
Which food is your must-have at Christmas time? 

If you had to choose between Michael Buble’s Christmas album and Justin Bieber’s Christmas album, which one would you choose and why?

What is your favourite memory about Christmas?

When do you start decorating your place for Christmas?

If you were at Christmas Karaoke, which 5 songs would you choose to play?

What are your top 4 Christmas movies?

What does Christmas really mean to you?
How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa?
What do you think makes Christmas so magical?

Share your favourite photo from a previous Christmas.

My Answers 

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?

Now that I'm 20 years old, nearly 21 my favourite thing about Christmas is going from university back home for three weeks to celebrate the festive season, see all my family, eat way too much Christmas food and have a break from the busy student life ❤ Christmas for me is a time I get to see all of my family, spend quality time together, watch great movies all together, drink way too much prosecco and play loads of family games! 

Do you have any Christmas traditions you CANNOT forget about each year?

We recently changed our Christmas tradition again by staying back in England for Christmas when we would normally go away to Lanzarote to celebrate the festive holiday. But one tradition we have is no matter where we plan on spending Christmas we always decorate the house till it looks like Christmas threw up and we always have either a Christmas meal or a Christmas bar crawl with all of my extended family. All of us meet up for the day, have either drinks or a big meal and spend quality time together catching up. 

Another Christmas tradition that is very important to our family is wearing either our Christmas jumpers or our Christmas t-shirts. We had personalised t-shirts ordered for us all to wear together on Christmas Day ❤ (you can see them in the photo of the group of us)

Is there a song that just gets you into that Christmas spirit?

There are two songs that always get me in the Christmas spirit! 'All I Want For Christmas is You' by Mariah Carey and 'Last Christmas' by Wham! Whenever they are on, either it is on the radio or in a shop it puts me in the festive spirit straight away. At Newcastle's Christmas lights switch on this year they played All I Want For Christmas Is You and straight away I was singing and bopping! Christmas is one of my favourite times of year and Christmas songs are one of the best parts!

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

My ultimate favourite Christmas movie is The Holiday. Which is hard because I love all Christmas movies, I have a huge list of Christmas movies I HAVE to watch in December. But The Holiday is the actual best Christmas movie. I know a lot of people debate it isn't really a Christmas film like Elf or A Christmas Carol but it is a film I have always watched when the countdown to Christmas begins so it is my all time favourite ❣

Which food is your must-have at Christmas time?

Pigs in blankets and stuffing from the Christmas dinner; then turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches from all the leftover food and the party food we have on Boxing Day! Party food is always the best ❤  I love all the food we have at Christmas!

If you had to choose between Michael Buble’s Christmas album and Justin Bieber’s Christmas album, which one would you choose and why?

Definitely Michael Buble's Christmas album! Justin Bieber's song Mistletoe is a great one, however, his album will never beat that of Michael Buble's ❄ Michael Buble does some classic Christmas tunes and then adds some of his own and I think others can agree that when Michael Buble's Christmas album comes on you know it's Christmas time!

What is your favourite memory about Christmas?

I have so many memories from Christmas that are my favourite, but I have two that are the ones I always remember and look back to. My first memory is when I was much younger, we were celebrating Christmas at my grandparents, all my family were there and my grandma had done the best Christmas spread, there was so much food! I just remember my grandma getting a huge sack full of presents out and putting them in front and me and my cousins and we all sat together on the floor opening all of our presents. My auntie got me Disney Princess pyjamas with my name personalised on them! I got changed into them straight away and there is now a lovely picture of me with all my cousins in the arch of my grandma and grandad's living room with me wearing my new pyjamas  ❤

My second favourite memory is our second year spending Christmas in Lanzarote. Unfortunately, I was really ill with either a bad cold or flu but I spent a lot of it indoors trying to get rid of it, but I remember having cocktails on Christmas Eve in one of our favourite bars, getting ready on Christmas Day with my little reindeer antlers and we had an amazing Christmas dinner! Every night after coming back from having dinner out we would put on a movie and all snuggle up on the sofa with some prosecco, it was such a fun Christmas ❤

When do you start decorating your place for Christmas? 

Well because I'm at university until the 15th December we decorate our student house in November so we can make the most of celebrating Christmas together as a house. Then at home, my parents decorate on the 1st December so all the decorations will be up when I'm home for Christmas, but my dad waits till I'm home to put the special ornaments on the Christmas tree 🎄 

If you were at Christmas Karaoke, which 5 songs would you choose to play?

Firstly, I love Karaoke so if I was to do Christmas Karaoke you wouldn't be able to take the mike off me! The songs I'd choose are Last Christmas by Wham, Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande, All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, Santa Baby by Kylie Minogue and It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas by Michael Buble ❄

What are your top 4 Christmas movies?

I love nearly all Christmas movies! Christmas movies and Christmas songs are the two main things that get me into the festive spirit. But the four that are my top choice are How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Holiday, Elf and The Polar Express ❤ If you haven't seen any of these Christmas movies you need to add them to your Must Watch Christmas List because they are some of the best Xmas movies!

What does Christmas really mean to you?

For me, Christmas means family time, food and relaxing! When I was younger it was all about going through the Argos Catalogue and choosing what I wanted for Christmas, but now for me its about spending that special quality time with my parents and the dog, seeing my extended family (even those I've only met a few times), relaxing and doing Christmassy things like going to Christmas markets, drinking mulled wine, finally getting to see my best friend again (after 4 months!) and seeing my friends ❤

How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa?

I actually can't remember when I stopped believing in Santa as it feels like so long ago! I did believe in Santa for a long time though. My parents did such a great job of making Christmas so magical, so that is probably why I believed for so long. My parents would put fake snow in our living room from the fireplace to the Christmas tree and would put boot marks in the snow to show how Santa Clause had come from the chimney to deliver my presents ❤ Thinking about it now, it must have been an absolute nightmare for my mum and dad trying to clean up all that fake snow! But they really did make it a magical Christmas every year, and they still do ⭐

What do you think makes Christmas so magical?

I think what makes it so magical is that it is such a widely celebrated time of year. You go out into the city centre and there are Christmas trees and decorations everywhere, everywhere is selling mulled wine and hot chocolate, Christmas movies are all on the TV and Christmas songs are all being played on the radio. Everywhere you go its Christmassy and I love that everyone gets so excited and happy for the festive holiday! 

But I think it is important to remember for some people Christmas is the worst time of year, so we should respect that not everyone wants to celebrate Christmas.

My Christmas Photo From Last Year

We spent Christmas Day in the pool playing games and drinking Prosecco 🍸

I Tag

Hannah from @han_bookshelf 

Ellie from @ellieblakeney

Meg from @a_meg_life

Katy from @KatyMackenzie19

Hannah from @justhannahhere

Soph from @Sophlouisep

Jade from @jade_allesse

Abby from @abbyclareblog

Emma from @lifeofemmax

Chanel from @coc0chanel_


Tag me on Twitter if you do the Ultimate Christmas Tag too. I'd love to read your posts!

See you tomorrow for Day Three of Blogmas ❤

Amy x  

Blogmas Day 1: Christmas Reading List

Hey Guys!

⭐ Welcome to Day One of Blogmas 2018 ⭐

Christmas is a great time of year for sitting in front of the fire with a cup of tea reading a book, especially when it is freezing cold outside! So, to kick off Blogmas I wanted to talk about three books that are on my Christmas reading list. Other than all the Christmas specials and movies to watch there are plenty of books to read as well ❣

If there are any books that you guys recommend for some Christmas reading let me know, I'd love to add them to my list ❤

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Girls Made of Snow and Glass was sent to me back in October and I was so thrilled to finally get to read it. This is the book I'm currently reading, but unfortunately due to deadlines at university and getting all my work completed before the Christmas break I haven't had a chance to read it a lot, which is why I plan on finishing it over the Christmas break while I'm relaxing back home with a mug of hot chocolate sat with the dog. 

Plot

At sixteen, Mina's mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone --- has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do --- and who to be --- to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything --- unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

So far the book has been so good! The type of book I really enjoy and only takes me a short amount of time to read. It's a shame I haven't had the chance to properly sit down and read it while not stressing about uni work. So, I look forward to finally getting the time to enjoy it. 

Amy Snow by Tracey Rees

I received Amy Snow quite a few years ago, started it and then never got past the first 20 pages so this Christmas I want to finally tackle the book (it's quite a big book compared to the other two) and finally have it on the completed pile. Especially as from the first few pages it was so gripping, I just didn't have the time to finish it. 

Plot

Left to perish on a bank of snow as a baby, Amy has never known love, never known family.

Reluctantly given shelter at nearby Hatville Court, she is despised by the masters and servants alike.

The beautiful Hatville heiress, Aurelia Vennaway, is Amy's only advocate - she becomes the light of Amy's life, and the centre of her existence.

So when Aurelia dies young, Amy's world collapses. But Aurelia leaves Amy with one last gift.

A bundle of letters with a coded key. A treasure hunt that only Amy can unlock.

A life-changing secret awaits... if only she can reach it.

Books like these are always great when wanting to relax for a few hours in the cosy living room where you can just dive right in!

A Nightingale Christmas Wish by Donna Douglas 

I've had this book on my reading pile for years, and by years I mean years! I brought it from Tesco when I was still living back home way before moving to university and I still never got the chance to read it. I always ended up putting it to the side to read something else. So, this Christmas I'm dedicating myself to finally getting round to picking it up and enjoy a Christmas read.

Plot

As Christmas 1938 approaches, the staff at the Nightingale Hospital have their own wishes for the festive season.

Ward sister Frannie Wallace is hoping she won’t have to live through another war like the one that claimed her beloved fiance. But with bomb defences going up all around London, it seems as if her hopes are in vain.

Staff Nurse Helen Dawson wants to find happiness again after the death of her husband Charlie. A handsome stranger seems to offer the chance she wants. But is she looking for love in the wrong place?

Matron Kathleen Fox struggles to keep up morale amongst her nurses as the hospital faces the threat of evacuation. But while everyone else worries about the future of the Nightingale, it’s for her own future that Kathleen truly fears.

As the country prepares itself for war, one thing is for sure – by the time next Christmas comes, nothing at the Nightingale Hospital will be the same again…

This book may sound a bit sat for a Christmas read, but I enjoy reading books like these! Especially when it includes more than one storyline ❤

What is on your reading list for this Christmas? Let me know in the comments below!

See you guys tomorrow for Day Two of Blogmas ❄

Amy x