Getting Ready for Christmas | Christmas Prep
Getting ready for Christmas entails all sorts of different things for different people. There are many traditions that people like to uphold, and different things that they like to get done and ready for the big day. Our household is no exception - the only difference this year is we have also had to prepare for the arrival of Little L at the same time!
Preparing for the Arrival of Our Elf on a Shelf, Belle
Last year was the first year that we welcomed our magical elf sent by Santa into our home. As R was a little to young to fully understand the concept of an elf on a shelf, I simply left Belle sitting on our mantel beside her magical elf door.
This year I prepared a little earlier by investing in a beautiful new door, that is handcrafted in clay by Claytastic Cake Toppers, and some little accessories to go with it. I have also been doing daily posts of all her antics, which you can see by checking out my Facebook, Instagram or Twitter feeds!
R has really enjoyed having her around, and seeing what she has been getting up to. There has been much laughter and fun in our home every morning, when we see what she has been up to!
Cracking Out the Christmas Jumpers
Almost every year we have some new form of Christmas clothing added to our collection. John and I have always enjoyed wearing Christmas jumpers, and both of us have been lucky enough to be allowed to wear them at our work places too.
Now that we have children, Christmas clothing has extended beyond the usual jumpers and leggings to include dressing up outfits, dress, t-shirts and pretty much anything cute and Christmas themed.
We don't always wait until December to start wearing these items either - nowadays we start to wear them from the day the lights get switched on in town.
After all, if you can't dress up for the grand light switch on event, then when can you?
Decorating Our House for Christmas
Decorating the house for Christmas is by far one of the most exciting parts of preparing for Christmas, especially now that we have Children! I have always loved adding all the decorations from the small ornaments to our Christmas tree.
There is something amazing about having loads of Christmas items around our home. It never fails to make me feel relaxed and happy - you just can't help smiling when you see the pretty colours and shiny tinsel!
You can read a fuller coverage of how we decorate our home in one of my recent blog posts, Decorating for Christmas // 2016.
Buying and Wrapping Christmas Gifts
Some people may find it strange, but I absolutely love wrapping gifts - although the shopping for them does not hold the same enjoyment that it used to.
This year, due to the issues I had throughout my pregnancy, I wasn't able to do much in store shopping anyway. The majority of my shopping had either been done by my hubby, or online. Thank goodness for the internet!
Once the shopping has been completed I organise all the gifts into gift bags - selecting one for each person, or family depending on what gifts we have bought for them. This means that I can more easily choose which wrapping paper to use, get started on the wrapping, and also check that we have all the gifts that we need for each person.
Once they have all been organised, I get started on my favourite part - the wrapping. Sometimes I will go all out with beautiful paper, ribbons and bows. This year I didn't bother, as I simply wanted to get it done. The quicker it was sorted, the more I was able to concentrate on resting and getting Little L here safe and sound.
Still, I love the paper that we have, and had so many different fun choices!
Preparing to Count Down to Christmas
Obviously at this time of year, one of the important things to prepare is the advent countdown.
As most people do, we have advent calendars - which you can read about in my A Handmade Christmas post. Alongside these less traditional fill it yourself versions of this Christmas tradition, we also like to buy an Advent candle.
These days, we tend to light the advent candle at night, as it is much safer than. With a toddler and two cats running around the house, you can never be too careful!
There are so many things that come together to create the perfect Christmas for our family, but it would take me forever to list them all in one post. Instead I will simply say these are some of the top things that we do to prepare each year, and everything else that I love about Christmas can be read in all my Christmas posts here.
For more posts about Christmas, visit the Christmas category page. If you have any questions about my family at Christmas which I have not covered in this post, feel free to ask in the comments section below.
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