Category: Celebrations

Our Christmas tree is now down and the decorations are all neatly boxed up and ready for next year. Being me they have all been put away tidily and labelled so when we do the tree next year its exciting and fun and not stressful unravelling lights and looking for the right decorations for the trees. Being organised is me, I like being organised it makes life simpler and easier.  In reading my latest version of the Simple Life Magazine I came across this word. meraki in an article about translations, I love it and it describes so much of what I do and how I am in everything but especially Christmas

My last job of Christmas is to complete my Christmas book, a way of putting all my notes and plans together. I note down our decorations, menus, gifts and special activities and add copies of recipes, our Christmas card etc.. It’s a nice memory activity and it’s interesting to compare Chrstmases over the past 6 years, it also saves duplicating present!  In the book I also jot down my favourite memories of the Christmas and I thought I would share these here today. When I wrote this year’s down it struck me that it’s not a list of expensive presents and activities but the simple things which made Christmas 2015 special.

In no particular order here are our special memories from Christmas 2015.

1. Tommy the Elf. I have become more creative in the scenes this year as I love doing Tommy and the fun he brings every morning. His daily letters are fun to write and sum up all the excitement and sparkle of Christmas.
2. Advent calendars. Chocolate calendars can be quite stressful with Little Man as he tries to sneak his chocolate out and the calendar ends up being placed up high. This year, Little Miss surprisingly chose a picture calendar which was beautiful and so much nicer than the chocolate version, definitely one to encourage again next year.
3. The Christmas Tree festival. This was a new activity for us this year and we loved it, Christmas trees, Christmas crafts, a dress up nativity scene and a café. It was a really special and beautiful event.
4. The Nutcracker ballet. Whilst this is still on my bucket list to see at London, I would love to try and see it annually after the success of this year’s theatre trip.
5. Homemade Decorations. After inspiration from Pinterest we had a go at the button decorations and it was really rather nice to have our decorations on our tree. I like that our tree reflects us. I do fancy learning crochet so that I can have a go at crochet decorations next year!
6. Christmas Jumpers and Hats. I was really pleased with our selection this year, Little Man’s reindeer jumper was gorgeous and he got great wear from it. It was lovely on the last day of school to go into his class and see all of the pupils in their Christmas jumpers, so cute. Little Miss’ class didn’t embrace the idea so enthusiastically, perhaps it’s an age thing!
7. Santa Letters.  My Mum did an amazing job writing and sending the letters from Santa this year.  They were so personal and thoughtful, she is a very special Grandma.
8. Christmas cookies. This is always a quiet (ish) activity for December 23^rd and the cookies are put on the tree to give a gorgeous smell. It’s one of my favourite things to do and I have photos from the last 6 Christmases showing the children baking and decorating.
9. Christmas Eve Cinema. We all went to watch Star Wars on Christmas eve and it was brilliant. The film was epic, but the atmosphere and excitement made it much more than a trip to the cinema.
10. Tracking Santa. We have tracked Santa for the past few years on the NORAD website but felt inspired to send an email this year. It was really sweet typing out what the children wanted me to write; that they had left a mince pie for Santa and a carrot for the reindeers, that they loved him very much and to fly safely. It was magical to receive a personalised reply within a few minutes.
11. Reindeer Ramble. I have come across some of the reindeers in our local country park on my recent runs but on Boxing day we decided to do the trail. It was a lot of fun and the atrocious muddy conditions just seemed to make it even more exhilarating and memorable.

So here are the final few days of Tommy’s mission to our house this year.  I always feel rather sad when it’s time to say good bye for the year, he is a special tradition which really makes the run up to Christmas special.  

  December 21st : Wishing us a Merry Little Christmas  

  
December 22nd 2015 : Movie afternoon with Tommy. 

  
December 23rd : Christmas cookie baking day. 

  
December 24th : Bye bye and the Christmas Eve tea treat. 

I am a list person and in listening to my Christmas songs this month, I’ve been trying to create my top Christmas songs. I get the frisson of excitement when I start playing my Christmas songs and have a genuine love for these songs as they bring back happy memories and help to create a festive ambiance. To choose one as my all time favourite is impossible, but it would probably come from one of these four songs.

Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas?

This was the first single I ever bought at the age of 11 and I remember the purchase vividly. I bought it in Boots on Broad Street in Reading, upstairs in the little record department. I’m quite proud that this was my first single, Band Aid did make me realise about the inequalities in the world and I was quite a political teenager, perhaps this was the trigger. As well as the charity aspect, I love this song, I can name the pop stars singing the lines and happily sing along to it. It’s one of those songs you sing in pubs and clubs swinging on your friends and all singing into an imaginary microphone.

Kirsty McCall and the Pogues – Fairy Tale of New York.

I loved Kirsty McCall, she was an inspiration when I was growing up in the 1980s, her look, attitude and music were perfect for angst ridden me. I remember my sadness on learning of her tragic early death and this song seems even more poignant now. In contrast, I also like the madness of the Pogues so for me this song was a match made in heaven, coupled with my obsession for New York, what could I not like? The lyrics are brilliant and perfect for singing your insults loud and pride. But this song is more than a few insults and rude words, it’s a tale of anticipation and a fairy tale which sours. It sounds depressing but is beautiful

Slade – Merry Christmas Everybody.

This isn’t just a Christmas song it’s an anthem which everyone knows the words to. My little ones love it with its simple lyrics of Christmas traditions and not only can I sing along I also know all the Makaton signs to it too as it’s a firm favourite at my school too. It’s the most ridiculously happy song which puts me in a cheerful mood whenever I hear it. It’s also the same age as me as both made our debuts in 1973.

Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas is You .

This is the most modern song of my selection and so sparkly and poppy.  I was 21 when it came out and it became the soundtrack of happy, Christmas nights out.  My favourite night out of the year was never New Year but Christmas Eve and this was always played in the pubs and clubs.    Its a song that I just have to dance to as soon as I hear the bells in  the intro, another feel good song.

In addition to my top songs above, I also created another ‘award’ so I could include Wham’s Last Christmas as Best Christmas Video. The snowy mountains, log cabin, roaring log fire, this song of heartbreak is brilliant. I also love the song for trivia as it’s the bestselling number 2 single ever, being held off the no 1 by Band Aid.

As you can see I love the cheesy Christmas songs, they add to the Christmas atmosphere and quite simply make me happy and sparkly about the excitement  of the season.  These songs and many more  will always be on my Christmas playlist.

 

 

 

I have set myself the challenge of hiding Tommy in new places and scenarios everyday. However as this is the third year of Tommy this is becoming a very creative activity, by the end of this year he’ll have had 72 tableaux, I’m not sure for how many years I can continue this challenge but it’ll be fun trying.  I have an app this year which has been helpful for inspiration.  Here are the past week’s Tommy pictures.

December 14th : Bringing the Christmas Jumpers for the week’s parties.  It took the children ages to find him, who else but me looks in a clean laundry basket?

December 15th : After an evening wrapping presents, Tommy was found wrapped up in my Christmas box.  Another tricky one!

December 16th : Dressed up as the wise man bringing gold to baby Jesus.

December 17th :There are times when  you just need to stop and smell the flowers …

 

December 18th : Friday night is Wii U night in our household so Tommy was getting some early practice.  l

December 19th : Tommy the red nosed reindelf.  One of my favourites.

December 20th : Peekaboo Tommy. I love this vintage tree from my cousin, the lower baubles do have the children’s names on I just turned them around for the photo. The top cutout was a perfect fit for Tommy .

I feel I’ve been quiet on the Christmas posts this year on this blog. Please be assured that I am loving Christmas and have been busy making sparkles for my little family.  Some of our decorations have been featured in this year’s Tommy posts.

Last year I wrote about our trees and special decorations and these posts would be pretty similar this year. I do like to add to my decorations each year, you can never have enough sparkle!

 

My purchases this year have included these beautiful hand crafted glass decorations by a local artist. I bought these in a local craft fair and hope to add a few more next year too. These decorations are my sophisticated and tasteful choice.

 

As you can see from the other picture I’ve gone quite cuddly too with Santa cushions and plush toys. I do like the reindeer whom I bought from Hobbycraft in order to make free delivery, so really he was a freebie!

My other notable purchase was the Russian Doll Nativity set from John Lewis which I love. It’s really important for me to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas and I like the bright fun feel to these decorations reminding us that Christmas is a joyful religious celebration. We have also enjoyed making our own decorations, the button models were simple and look very pretty in the trees.

My final touches to the house decorations will be some fresh flowers and foliage from the florist this week. Nothing beats the smell and sight of fresh flowers to brighten any room.

Week 2 of Tommy the Elf and the children are still as excited and enchanted by him every morning.  Here’s week 2 at the Sparkles home….

 

December 7th : Footballing Tommy

December 8th : Horse riding with Barbie

December 9th : Sitting in the wreath.

December 10th : Morning everyone

 
December 11th : Strumming the Guitar

December 12th : The Simple Things

  
December 13th : Planning the Christmas Cake

We live in a small rural town so we don’t have the razzle and dazzle of the big cities’ Christmas celebrations.  However I like to think that our Christmas reflects some of the simpler traditions of the season which still bring that lovely sparkly festive feel.

Tonight I took the children to a beautiful event, The Christmas Tree Festival.  The idea is simple, local businesses sponsor a Christmas tree and local groups and schools decorate the trees for display.  It used to take place in the tiny church of a local village but the event has got much bigger and has moved to the newly built town church.  This makes it accessible to more people and allows for more activities on the site too, there was a café, children’s craft tables and an inspired manger scene where you could dress up and have your photo taken in the most authentic Christmas story tableau.

However the highlight was the 38 trees.  The themes and decorations were so creative and original.  The badminton club had covered shuttlecocks in foil and made them into daleks with the tardis as the tree topper.  For the Knifty Knitters each decoration was hand crafted.  A local chef had decorated hers with edible decorations and it was humbling to read wishes for the world from local school children.  In addition to the trees there is a programme of events during the festival, bell ringing, toddlers sing song, carols, craft activities, readings and a very poignant lights of love service.

I loved the festival, it is a simple idea but beautifully creative with a real sense of community and anticipation of Christmas.

This is our third year of our Elf On The Shelf and he is a much loved and treasured Christmas tradition in the Sparkles household.  Tommy is not a mischievous elf but is much in the spirit of the accompanying storybook celebrating the children being kind and helpful.  I hide him each night and also leave a letter writing about the positive things the children have done and little memories of the day.  I enjoy the creative challenge and the magic he brings to our house.  This year I thought I would publish our photos from each day, the letters are so personal that they can’t be published but they remain wrapped and saved in our house.

December 1st 2015

Pilot Tommy

December 2nd 2015

Mountain climbing.

December 3rd 2015

Arise Sir Tommy, the medieval knight.

December 4th 2015

Saving the Pennies

December 5th 2015

Channel hopping

December 6th 2015

Tommysaurus

And a bonus …  a trip to school

I was taken by surprise this morning when I checked my email to see that a new post had been published on my blog. I wrote and scheduled it a while ago to appear randomly to ensure that the children’s birthdays remain secret. The publication of the Mermaid party has provided the impetus to write this much overdue post on our Star Wars party for Little Man.

The children’s birthdays are very close together so it’s quite an intense period for planning and preparation. I am the kind of Mum who keeps Pinterest boards for party inspiration throughout the year and am ready with ideas and creativity come party season. The themes come from the children and Little Man was very keen to have a Star Wars party for his birthday. This was slightly at odds with the venue which was a local farm but I was able to maintain the theme through invitations, decorations for the party room, extra food treats and party bags. For both the parties, I used stationery from an Etsy shop, PrintMagic. The downloadable packs were excellent, with invitations, thank you notes, posters, bunting, games etc.. I adapted some of the posters with Star Wars characters and used them in the party room to brighten up the brick walls, I also made lots of Star Wars bunting, a mix of character and Little Man’s name and age and hung them across the walls, along with some Star Wars balloons. I was able to save all these decorations and reuse them at home for the actual birthday, I always have the kitchen decorated for birthday mornings. Whilst the venue provided the food, I made some additional cakes as one of the guests had a food allergy and I wanted to ensure he had a sweet treat to enjoy too, I used Star Wars rice toppers for these cakes and they looked great. It is a family tradition that we always have top hats (marshmallows, chocolate and smarties) for parties and these too were a necessary ingredient of the party. I made the cake, a simple but effective design of the Star Wars logo and stars. As creative as I like to be, Darth Vader seemed beyond my capabilities.

The party entertainment was the farm and its attractions, the boys loved their activities. We had a tractor and trailer ride and the views were stunning. The farmer stopped at the best viewpoint and each guest got to sit behind the wheel of the tractor, this was really popular and I used the photos I had taken as thank you notes which were well received. There were lots of other activities, animal petting and feeding, go karting, outdoor play and an indoor soft play area. It was a stunning day weather wise and it was really easy to occupy the guests, even though the party ended at 3.30pm the parents were still relaxing and the boys playing an hour later. The boys left with a Darth Vader party bag containing a Darth Vader mask, cake, balloon and a Lego figure, simple but again well received.

The farm was a great party venue and the owners so helpful and accommodating, they really made sure that Little Man and his little friends had an amazing time.

Its been birthday time in our household for Little Miss. We are spreading out the celebrations, so we enjoyed a mermaid party on Friday with Little Miss’ girlfriends (at this age, boys are not allowed by decree of the girls), the horse riding treat was today and we’re all looking forward to a Sunday Roast dinner in a local pub tomorrow. Birthdays should always be celebrated well.

We were so lucky with the weather for the party, a rare bright, sunny afternoon in what has been a pretty dreary week. The theme was mermaids, so the garden was decorated accordingly, the wall was adorned with bunting (well it can’t be a party without bunting!) and strings of shells. I had set up a small craft table with an Under the Sea table cloth and hung more themed garlands and balloons around the garden with a lovely array of shells on the outdoor window sills for decoration and to be used in the activities. Needless to say I had a party mix tape with a few themed songs, Beyond the Sea, Under the Sea etc.. to complement the girls’ pop choices, One Direction remain as popular as ever! In planning the party it was difficult to decide what the best activities would be, were they too old for pass the parcel, musical statues, would they like to make something or should I just allow them to dance and chat? I decided on some craft activities and to see how the party developed. I had bought some scratch art mermaids and peg dolls which went down well with the girls and were great party bag fillers too. The activity they all loved was making mermaid hair clips, I bought simple clips and they chose shells from the decorations around the garden which I attached with a hot glue gun, they looked very impressive and it was so simple to do. Among the craft activities there were lots of gymnastics, dancing and the odd game of Musical Statues at their request!

The food was simple, fresh party food but presented within the theme. I carefully used cookie cutters to shape the sandwiches into starfish, popcorn was coral, cocktail sticks of grapes seaweed, whilst the strawberry and lemon jellies represented the sunshine! The cake was more challenging than I had expected, the green laces I had hoped to use as seaweed didn’t work, but green shaped icing was a good alternative. I also used some silver glitter and blue sparkles as waves, the sparkles worked well but I didn’t like the glitter effect. All little things to learn from, I love creating the children’s cakes and among all the fancy food it proved a lovely centre piece. Sadly I didn’t get a taste as it was sliced up for the party bags and was then shared with siblings who came to pick up guests and Little Miss delivered some to our lovely neighbours whose Friday evening peace had been broken by our music, chat and laughter. As well as the cake, a sweetie and some stationery I was really pleased with a mermaid favour which I had found on Ebay, it was a personalised bracelet kit with mermaid charm and letters which spelt out the guests’ name, they were well priced and looked gorgeous in a little organza bag.

All the organisation, planning and work was worth all the effort, I liked the theme and hope I was able to entertain the girls. I’m already on Pinterest looking for inspiration for next year!