Enjoy the holiday season this year – tips on how to focus on friends, family and having fun!
Christmas can be a strange and weird time of the year. It can also be a really stressful time at work and at home, especially when you throw family into the mix! Routines are tossed out the window as school holidays start, trading hours are extended and social gatherings ramp up. […]
Christmas can be a strange and weird time of the year. It can also be a really stressful time at work and at home, especially when you throw family into the mix! Routines are tossed out the window as school holidays start, trading hours are extended and social gatherings ramp up. The weather takes a turn for the warmer (or colder for our northern hemisphere friends). Before you know it, it’s Christmas complete with gifts, expectations and for some people exhaustion and maybe even overwhelm.
Over the years I’ve embraced a calmer and simpler approach to the Christmas season and have tried to focus on helping my family and myself enjoy our time together.
My approach is centred around a few key themes:
Family and friends. Instead of gifts, we focus on spending time together. Cousins reconnecting and catching up, making time to catch up with each other sharing meals together. We aim for simple, easy to share meals.
Creating memories. My sisters and I all love taking and sharing photos. Photo books, framed prints and capturing the moment are all super popular in my family. Sometimes we also just live in the moment. Laughing, chatting and just spending time together. No photos, selfies or pressure to be looking your best! Just enjoying each others company and creating great memories together.
Less focus on gifts – more focus on the thought that goes into the gift. I have always loved taking the time to create or select the ‘perfect’ gift. Nowadays, my focus is on creating gifts that have meaning or buying gifts that can used and are ethically made.
How does you celebrate and make the most out of the Christmas or holiday season?
Enjoy xx
Christmas gift ideas for all ages: books, books, books!
We are a family of book-lovers.
Self-confessed book-worms who can all pass the time reading, poring over the pages of beautiful illustrations and talking about how our favourite characters reacted.
So, it is no surprise then that we all have a wish list of books we would love to read over the Christmas break or, […]
We are a family of book-lovers.
Self-confessed book-worms who can all pass the time reading, poring over the pages of beautiful illustrations and talking about how our favourite characters reacted.
So, it is no surprise then that we all have a wish list of books we would love to read over the Christmas break or, if we are super lucky, receive from Santa.
Here is the tribes literary wish list for Christmas (sounds a lot like Dr Seuss!):
- Little L’s list for littlies (0-5) – first readers (the Reading Eggs books are fab), Winnie the Witch, The Day the Crayons Quit, any of the Flower Fairies books
- Flashdance (6-9) – anything by Andy Griffiths, The Little Lunch Series, How to Train your Dragon series (Cressida Cowell), Non-fiction books about bugs or anime (how to draw Japanese cartoon characters)
- Captain Jack (7-12) – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (JK Rowling), Lord of the Rings – separate volumes, rather than the all-in-one book (to make for easy holiday reading), Mapmaker Chronicles (A. L. Tait), non-fiction books about sea creatures, dinosaurs. volcanos or robotics
- The Mini-Fashionista (7-12) – The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), Quidditch through the Ages (JK Rowling), The Chronicles of Narnia, any of the Thea Stilton series
- Ladies and Gentlemen (that would be my lovely husband and I) – Pip Lincolnes fab new book, Beci Orpin’s new book, The Great Zoo of China – the latest from Matthew Reilly
Enjoy xx
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