I’m sure I’ve done this tag before but it’s Christmas Eve and I haven’t actually posted that many Christmas blog posts so please enjoy this!
1. Where will you be celebrating Christmas this year?
I’ll spend the morning in my flat then head to my Mum’s for most of the day. I’ll probably come back earlier than usual and celebrate by myself.
2. Who are you celebrating with?
There will be my Mum, my step-dad (unfortunately) and my older brother Ian. Mum normally spends time with her neighbours on Christmas Day as well as they’re close friends and can walk back to their own houses if they’ve had a drink so we’ll probably see Sam, Eddie, Holly and our other neighbour Shirley as well.
3. Do you own any ugly Christmas jumpers?
Ugly is subjective, I don’t think any of mine are ugly but if I had to pick my ugliest it’s probably the red one with a giant reindeer head on the front. I mainly wear Christmas dresses instead of Christmas jumpers, some people might consider them ugly but I love them. I wear something Christmassy every single day throughout December.
4. How do you spend Christmas Eve?
I normally wake up and have a chill morning before meeting up with my Mum and nephew. We’ll grab a quick lunch then go to see the local pantomime which we see every Christmas Eve. After the pantomime sometimes we get more food although I think I prefer cooking my own tea for myself later on. Once my nephew goes home me and Mum might do a couple of things before she drops me home, like I’ll give her her Christmas Eve box. I want to start a solo Christmas Eve tradition but outside of watching a Christmas movie by myself I can’t come up with anything.
Sometimes the evening is shaken up, for example one year me and the girls did our present exchange on Christmas Eve which was a lot of fun.
5. When do you put up your decorations?
As a kid it was whenever my Mum felt like it but now I have my own flat I get to decide so my tree goes up on December 1st. Mum likes to wait until a weekend day so she gets more time to put it up but I don’t mind taking the evening to decorate.
6. Do you have a decorating theme?
No, I don’t really get people who change up their theme every year. My favourite part of Christmas is getting out the old decorations and being like ‘ooh remember this one!’ I just like having lots of decorations of any shape, size or colour!
7. Do you have a tree topper?
Not the perfect one yet. I do have one but it was left with the tree and wouldn’t have been my first choice. Next year I need to find the perfect tree topper!
8. What’s been your least favourite gift that you have received?
I’m lucky enough to have never been given anything too bizarre. I remember when I was younger my step-mum used to give me a bar of dark chocolate every Christmas and birthday until I finally told her I wasn’t actually too keen on dark chocolate – we have a laugh about it now. There was also the year that as a joke my Mum got me and Jess matching jumpers that said ‘Squad Goals’. But nothing too ridiculous!
9. What would you like to find in your stocking this year?
I actually put my own stocking together this year so I wasn’t too surprised when I pulled everything out this evening! I put in a lot of chocolate, a copy of The Polar Express book, some Christmas shower gel and a couple of scratch cards.
10. When did you start buying gifts this year?
It was actually much later than usual and I started in October. Before you all jump down my throat I need to spread out the cost of Christmas and luckily I enjoy buying gifts so I don’t mind spending ages looking through stuff because I physically can’t buy everything in one afternoon like my friend Becca does. I need plenty of time to look through and consider every option!
11. Have you ever recycled a gift?
Yes – I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It’s better than keeping clutter in my home. I’ll either re-gift or it’ll go the charity shop. I appreciate every gift I’m given but we can’t keep hold of everything forever! I would obviously never tell the person who gave me the gift what I was doing and would expect the same if someone recycled a gift I gave them.
12. What’s your favourite Christmas food?
I think this was asked again further down (I’ve done this tag in a weird order) but I will also add that I love Chocolate Santa’s. Chocolate tastes better when it’s the shape of something – it’s one of the reasons I love Easter Eggs so much.
13. What do you leave out for Santa?
As a kid I’d leave a glass of milk and three chocolate digestives. If Santa had left any digestives in the morning then I’d eat the rest and tell my Mum he’d eaten all of them.
14. Have you ever been carolling?
Not like from door to door, I normally go carol singing at church. In 2020 we did ‘Carols on the Door Step’ because we couldn’t go to church which was cute but it was quite cold! I do love an opportunity to sing some Christmas carols.
15. What do you usually have for Christmas dinner?
Normally my step-mum cooks Christmas dinner and she knows I don’t like turkey so she normally does lamb as well as turkey so I can have that instead, I’m not sure what Mum will do this year. Then we normally have veg, potatoes, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings… My stomach is rumbling just thinking about it!
16. When do you open gifts?
At Mum’s I’d open them when I was awake – when I was a kid I’d wait as long as I possibly could before waking up my Mum and she would come down with me and we would have a quiet Christmas morning while she watched me open my presents and my brothers had a lie-in. Then I’d play with the toys while my Mum got ready and then my brothers would eventually come down and open theirs.
We do similar now, me and Mum sit in the living room and I open all my gifts and she opens hers from me and other family members but saves any from my step-dad until he can watch.
At my Dad’s we wait until everyone’s there and then it’s chaos as we open all our presents at once. It’s okay now I’m an adult but as a kid it was agonising being awake for ages with my sibling waiting for all the older siblings to finally get up. We both had a stocking to keep us going but it was still agony. Last year and in 2020 we didn’t open our presents until after lunch which is just wrong!
17. How do you spend Boxing Day?
Because I have divorced parents Boxing Day is normally Christmas Day 2.0 which I loved as kid but now I’m an introverted adult I normally have social burnout by Boxing Day so I kind of wish I could just spend the day watching movies and chilling by myself. Normally I go to Mum’s because I’ve spent the day at Dad’s so I guess this year I’ll go to Dad’s but I do get annoyed because he’ll just leave me in the house whilst he does his own thing and it’s like why am I here? I’ll see what happens.
18. Describe a Christmas present you wanted badly as a kid, but never received
The only thing I longed for as a kid was a dog but my Mum put her foot down and said no every time which I respect now as an adult to be honest. Most years I got everything I desperately wanted. One of my favourite years was when me and my sister each got a DS Lite after months of begging.
19. Have you ever kissed anyone under the mistletoe?
Ew, no.
20. What’s your favourite character from a Christmas-themed movie, book or TV special?
I love The Snowman, I LOVE him, he’s so sweet. I also love Raymond Briggs version of Father Christmas, I like that he’s a bit grumpy.
Speaking of Raymond Briggs, may he rest in peace. I was so sad to hear the news.
21. If you were Santa Claus, what treats would you want left out on Christmas Eve?
Hot chocolate in a flask so it stays warm and then some chocolate digestives. Maybe something savoury every now and then like a sausage roll would be nice. Or a nice cheese and ham baguette.
22. What’s your favourite Christmas movie?
It’s a direct tie between ‘Home Alone’ and ‘The Snowman’. I really wouldn’t be able to narrow it down any further than that.
23. Have you ever had a White Christmas?
No, in the UK we tend to get our snow around January/February time if we get any snow. I’m not too fussed about a white Christmas anyway because I spend pretty much all of my Christmas indoors.
24. Where do you usually spend your holidays?
I normally spend mine at my Dad’s because I don’t get on with my step-dad so refuse to go to my Mum’s on the actual day. Unfortunately he upset most of the family last year by being a grump so now my step-mum and sister are refusing to spend this Christmas with him so it looks like I’m going to Mum’s this year. I thought about spending it alone because I don’t normally mind my own company but I do think I’d get a bit lonely on Christmas Day.
25. What is your favourite Christmas song?
This is difficult because I actually have so many! I have a Christmas playlist that I have perfected on Spotify. My top three are probably ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ by Chris Rea, ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ by Andy Williams and ‘Underneath the Tree’ by Kelly Clarkson. But I love the majority of Christmas songs!
26. Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?
My Mum has started a Christmas tradition of getting the two of us a pair of matching Christmas pyjamas that we can wear to bed but this year she decided we had more than enough pairs of pyjamas so she got us matching sequin jackets. In 2020 after such a shit year and not being able to go out at Christmas I also put her together a Christmas Eve box which has turned into a tradition that I will do for her each year and in return she’s started making me a ‘December 1st’ box with treats and things to use throughout December.
We take my nephew to the local pantomime on Christmas Eve and the one year she got us matching outfits to wear to the pantomime which was a lot of fun.
27. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
I have managed to in the past but let me try again – Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Dancer, Prancer, Dasher, Rudolph… Is that all of them?
28. Which holiday traditions are you looking forward to this year?
Back in 2019 me and the girls went to ‘Winter Wonderland’ in Hyde Park and decided to turn that into a yearly tradition. COVID kind of shat on us in 2020 and then in 2021 when it did reopen only me and Becca went because we were there anyway to watch ‘The Nutcracker’. This year we went together (minus Hirst) again and it was so much fun.
My favourite tradition is also definitely the pantomime on Christmas Eve, I normally prefer Christmas Eve to actual Christmas Day and I was disappointed in 2020 when we couldn’t go anywhere. I really didn’t know what to do with myself! So I’m glad we can go out again now.
29. Is your Christmas tree real or fake?
Mine’s fake – I spent my first Christmas in my rented flat last year and as I knew I was going to be moving out not long after Christmas I considered getting a real tree. My flat wasn’t very big so I didn’t want to get a tiny fake tree only to move into a bigger flat where I’d need a bigger one in the future…
As luck would have it my sibling moved into a flat where the owner had left behind a Christmas tree so they very kindly gave it to me and to be fair it fit perfectly into my flat. I was a bit worried it would look too small in my new flat but it’s actually a perfect fit, I think a bigger one would take up too much room!
30. What is your favourite holiday treat/sweet/food?
Not to toot my own horn but I love my Christmas biscuits – I normally only make one or two batches at a push but last year, with my own kitchen, I would whip up another batch whenever mine emptied up. By Christmas Day I was slightly sick of the taste of them so I may need to tone it down this year but I do love them.
My favourite part of Christmas dinner is definitely the pigs in blankets – you really can’t beat a pig in a blanket!
31. Be honest, do you prefer receiving or giving gifts?
Honestly I love both just as much. I love spending months sorting out my Christmas presents for my friends and families, sitting down and wrapping them, watching their faces when I know I’ve absolutely aced a particular gift. Giving can also be quite stressful though, not knowing if they’ve already bought it for themselves or if you’ve miscalculated and they’re actually not that fussed.
But I do also love receiving gifts. Nothing wrong with that!
32. What is the best Christmas present that you have ever received?
My favourite kind of changes as I grow up I guess. Last year my Mum got me a ticket to see ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in March and I remember getting really stressed as everyone around me was getting COVID and I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to go but we both went and it was one of the most amazing shows I’ve ever seen.
As a kid I still remember looking for something in my Mum’s bedroom and finding the Pixel Chix and Password Journal that I’d been begging her for – I was so excited that I rang my friend Olivia to tell her that I’d found them. I managed to look surprised on Christmas Day but honestly accidentally finding them in advance spread out the excitement a bit if that makes sense?
33. What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic really kicked off I booked myself a Christmassy trip to Disneyland Paris and was meant to visit in November 2020. Obviously that didn’t go ahead and I rescheduled for December 2021. I could’ve gone but I wanted the trip to be absolutely perfect because the likelihood is that I won’t be able to afford to go again for a long time. So I rescheduled for December 2022.
It finally went ahead this year! It was so much fun getting to be there during the Christmas season, I’d definitely go around Christmas again one year.
34. Are you a pro wrapper or do you fail miserably?
Definitely fail miserably. I can neatly wrap a box but anything else is a mess of paper and cellotape, and there’s normally quite a few strands of my long hair thrown in there. It’s a shame because I do absolutely love wrapping presents, I love having a day in December to sit and wrap all of my Christmas presents at once whilst watching a Christmas movie but I’m definitely not good at it!
35. Most memorable Christmas moment?
I’m not sure what would be most memorable so I’ll share some of my favourite Christmas memories from last year. Getting to meet Santa Claus with Becca in Winter Wonderland, doing the Snowman trail in Birmingham with the girls, having to do our Christmas present exchange online for the first time ever because someone (Jess) selfishly went and got COVID, visiting the garden centres with my Mum, getting picked on at the pantomime on Christmas Eve… Christmas was so much fun last year; I hope it’s just as fun this year!
36. What made you realise the truth about Santa?
Having divorced parents didn’t help, I’ll be honest! At Mum’s house Santa brought the main presents that were from her – so I knew she had gone to the shop, purchased them etc. but I thought Santa then took them, wrapped and delivered them. At Dad’s he brought us each a stocking and the main presents were already downstairs under the tree on Christmas Eve.
I only remember having one Christmas Eve where I fully 100% believed in Santa as I willed myself to fall asleep otherwise he wouldn’t come. After that I definitely had doubts and then one year my sibling told me they’d heard their Mum swearing as she banged her knee putting our stockings into place so that kind of confirmed what I already suspected.
37. What makes the holidays special for you?
Honestly, everything. The decorations, getting to spend time with my family and closest friends, the Christmas events that are put on… I just love everything about the Christmas season!
There we have it, the Jingle All The Way Christmas Tag – if you do this tag then please feel free to tag me so I can look at your answers! And have a lovely Christmas.
Hozzie Writes 