Thursday, December 5, 2013

New Christmas Traditions

For the last few years (OK,15 years or so) I've been pretty unimpressed with Christmas. The crowds at the shops irritated me, the carols and songs grated on my nerves (except Wham's Last Christmas, I will NEVER get sick of that cheesy ballad) and a small part of me wanted to yell to kids in line to sit on Santa's knee "HE IS FAKE!" I just detested the busy craziness that accompanied this time of year. Yep, I was a bit of a grinch.

Until now.

Anna is totally pumped about Christmas. Her enthusiasm is completely infectious, and I've found myself taking so much pleasure in sharing it all with her. We play the Christmas radio station on Pandora (awesome, get on it! Lots of vintage songs and Dean Martin) and we talk about Santa and the reindeers. This year is the first year that Lucy is starting to understand what's going on and she is very excited as well.

And...nothing beats being able to play Santa to your own kids. Am I right? My husband and I are having a blast choosing gifts for them.

Last year I bought a Christmas themed book for Anna and included it in her stocking, and she LOVED it. The book was Slinky Malinky's Christmas Crackers. I decided that I would include a Christmas book in their stocking every year.

So this year I bought Spot's Christmas for Lucy - she loves Spot!


The last few months Anna has been trying really hard to learn the alphabet and she is doing really well, so I   thought I would get her an extra special book - The Jolly Christmas Postman.


My siblings and I had a copy of The Jolly Postman when we were kids and we LOVED it. Each page sees the Postman deliver a different letter or card to someone, and you can take them out and read them. So much fun and very interactive, with great humour that entertained us until we were much older. I hope Anna feels the same way about this Christmas version.

Finally, if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you will have seen my pictures of our Elf on The Shelf getting up to some cheeky hijinks. I saw the Elf around on few blogs and on Pinterest last year and I knew our kids would love it, so I ordered it a few weeks ago and introduced it to the girls last weekend.


The girls have really embraced it and Anna gets up every morning and searches to find where the elf is and what he has been up to overnight.



I'd love to hear your recommendations for other great kid's Christmas books, seeing as I've started this tradition! Which titles have your kids loved? (and am I alone in loving Wham's song Last Christmas?)

9 comments:

  1. Oh Scrooge I'm glad you finally got your spirit back, having little ones at Christmas is the best thing ever, I'm a crazy Christmas person. I buy the Christmas books Boxing Day great bargains to be had :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kids really do make Christmas exciting again! Hannah is getting the idea of it this year. We were in the shop a few days ago and she spotted tinsel and kept spinning around in the isle say "Meeeerry Prissssmasss". I love the idea of a christmas book each year. Might have to do that with my youngest two.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christmas really comes alive with kids, first and second time around. We used to give our kids Christmas books, but I can't for the life of me think of one single title. The Jolly Postman is a FABULOUS book!!! We read it without fail every time the littlies come to visit. I've never seen the Christmas version... will have to buy a copy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've got a few but they're packed away. I'll dig them out on my return. I love the excitement of Christmas in the kids. "Last Christmas"? Yeah okay, just. I love the classics like "White Christmas" etc.

    Anne xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Laaaast Christmas, I gAave you my heart! And the very next day you gave it away... I agree, Christmas is much more fun when you have kids that are excited about it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey - both book and movie are wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I LOVE Spot books. I used to have them all as a kid (still have some of them from when I was a kid) and my favorite was the Where's Spot one - I always loved saying 'try the basket!' So glad you're finding joy in this season. Sending you love and cheer!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Children really do make Christmas and seeing through their eye's really brings it to life.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You just reminded me I really want to get the girls "The jolly postman"! I might see if I can find it online:))

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments - I adore hearing from you! I love to reply personally via email so if your email isn't visible in your profile feel free to leave it in your message so I can get in touch!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...