Tag: Christmas

The perfect Christmas gift guide for her.

Featured by Charlie-Jane, posted in Beauty And Skincare, books, family life, Home Stuff, lifestyle, Uncategorized

So Christmas is coming up and I’m starting to scan the stores both online and offline for Christmas presents for loved ones. Coronavirus be damned it will not stop us enjoying Christmas and I will drop off presents on the door step wearing a Santa outfit if I have too. Don’t push me I will purchase one Boris. So here are some ideas I’ve had that I would both like for myself and as a gift for someone else!

So first of all I’m going in big. I’m not a materialistic person or someone who expects big gifts but the only thing I want this Christmas is this…

Photo from hotel chocolat

A hotel chocolat velvetiser. Have you looked at them? Not only are they beautiful but a hot drink connoisseur like me aspires for a new tool to master the battle that is making the perfect hot chocolate. Tassimos be gone we all know the new kid on the block is taking the lead. It gently warms and froths and mixes at the same time. Leaving you to do nothing but pour in and pour out! They also come with two snazzy cups for you to share your experience. It also comes in three beautiful colours and it’s a toss up between copper or charcoal for me. You can also indulge in some of the 16 hot choc flavours hotel chocolat have to offer making this the perfect luxury gift. And if you like me enjoy a good hot chocolate this is the way to go!

Next up we have a obvious and affordable choice. Bath bombs. Obviously we have the high street brands such as lush which are king but there are also little small businesses to try. Instagram is crawling with them and if you look on my gram I’ve been lucky enough to try some myself. they’re often very high quality and smell fab too.

My fav lush bath bomb!

An even easier choice now. Feel like you don’t know a person well enough or their very picky? Don’t want to give money? A gift card is the way to go. But where from? Well if into make up and skincare a boots or Superdrug voucher is somewhere you can’t go wrong. They sell all sorts from vegan to high end makeup there’s sure to be something in these places that your recipient will love. If you have a film fanatic on your hand I normally would suggest a cinemas gift card but because we have seen Covid destroy the film industry perhaps a Netflix gift card (yes they exist) or a hmv gift card for people who enjoy physical copies of films is the way to go! If you know your person is a foodie then a gift voucher to their favourite restaurant is always appreciated. If your not sure which one to get there are lots of gift cards that cover quite a few. Also you can help small businesses by asking if they do gift cards for eating out another day too! With moving house being a theme for us this year I know I would love a next/ dunelm or John Lewis voucher! I adore picking my own home bits and I’m very fussy about what I like. Play it safe and if you know anyone planning to move or moving this is the perfect gift to give. If you’re really, really stuck a amazon voucher is great because then someone can buy absolutely anything they want from a game to shampoo, you name it they have it.

Photo taken from wired.com

The way to my heart is through smell. If you want to get in my good books a candle is the way to go. For affordable options head to tk maxx where you will hit the mother load of candles every time. Theirs a scent there to suit every person. Want to support a small business there’s lots of small businesses out their making candles and wax melts! Check previous blog posts and my Instagram for my reviews on them!

A small business I worked with before and have even brought as gifts for others since is am botanical.

Beauty boxes/well being boxes. I love a pick me up and a surprise in a box. Many companies do one off boxes or you can subscribe someone for a few months as a gift. The perfect gift if you hate choosing things out! Take the hassle out of selecting and know you can’t be blamed if something goes wrong!

The contents of a well being box i received to review which screamed my autumn personality and vibes available from http://www.thewellbeingbox.com.

Another fantastic gift which would also be perfect for a anxious mind is a diffuser. There are many diffusers out there small and large depending on what you want to buy. Coupled with the right essential oils you can really help someone relax and they’re also great for keeping illnesses at bay. Many people are scared of candles because of the fire so if you want to give someone a nice scented replacement this is the way to do it! My favourite essential oil smell is lemongrass! Just make sure you check for pets as some oils can’t be used around them!

This diffuser was gifted to me from Smellacloud

My favourite gift every year without fail is pjs and cosy socks. Specifically overly fluffy ones. I love to buy other people cosy pjs too for Christmas and couple it with some chocolate and your golden!

These super cosy bed socks are from perillasocks and are previously gifted

Make your own hamper. You can buy a basket and then fill it with their favourite things. This can be done really inexpensively as well. I often make friends chocolate boxes filled with their favourite chocolates I’ve gotten from Poundland and thrown some tissue paper and they’ve loved the thought and effort!

Hope some of these ideas have helped and I’ll be doing a his and little ones gift list too soon! So that you can get ideas for the whole of your family! Thanks for reading Charlie x

Christmas gift guide- personalised hooray heroes books.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in books, family life, Home Stuff, Mental health

Disclaimer- this is a gifted item sent for this post.

As you have seen before I was previously sent a book for Father’s Day for Elijah too give you his dad as a present! We absolutely loved this book so when they asked us to try another we couldn’t say no! With Christmas coming up and my dads birthday I thought this would be the perfect time to order for my dad something from Elijah they can read together!

So making the book is quick and easy you can customise everything about the characters to freckles and hair styles! You put your family’s names in and have chance to dedicate a page to them too! The personalisation is lovely and makes it a truly unique gift. As well as personalising it you can choose what stories you have in the book too!

Elijah already loves it and says he can’t wait to wrap up for grandads birthday as he’s starting to understand birthdays more. He knows that it is Elijah and grandad on the front too! My dad is quite young so it’s great that he is still able to look his age in the book too which I find is a issue when buying personalised gifts for a grandparent.

These books are fantastic quality and made to last for years! I am excited to give him a great keep sake he can have for years to come and store away for memories as Elijah gets older. Maybe he will give back to Elijah when he is older too!

They sell plenty of different stories and personalised bits so make the perfect place for presents for parent, grandparents or even themselves! Go check them out at

https://hoorayheroes.co.uk or https://hoorayheroes.com

Thanks for reading! Charlie-Jane!

Hitting the December sales.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in lifestyle

We all know after Christmas everything is price slashed and the alore of getting a bargain is too tempting to pass by. As it’s so busy be tactical when you go shopping. Only buy what you really want and not something because it seems to good to be true. Make a mental list of what you want and where you want to go. Go into stores and go where you need don’t look at everything just what you want. It’s gonna be busy so being speedy saves you being part of the mob standing and staring at every last bargain. Don’t be that person that buys the whole stock buy a few if you must buy remember others might want a bargain too.

I wanted some body products as for the first Christmas in ages I only got one set! With a small amount of body wash I thought well it’s the perfect excuse to go buy myself some luxury items while on sale. I made a note I wanted to go to lush and too boots. Boots was heaving so I went straight to the section I needed too and decided to get a feather and down gift set and sleep mask. I struggle with sleeping so wanted to try their pillow spray and body wash so at half price I jumped at it and was straight to the till. I then went to lush. Lush was pure hell but I’m glad I went in as I went looking for snow fairy but the shelves had been cleared. Wanting to be adventurous I smelt some cookie dough scrub and yog nog products and they smelt Devine so being half price I brought the biggest containers I could and joined the massive que. I loved the smell of the yog nog so much went I went to town again in the evening I ran into lush on hope they had the body spray and they did and half price again I ran to that till! I will hit the sales again at some point but when I have something in mind so I’m not wasteful and buying useless junk.

Why do we no longer buy the radio times all year round?

by Charlie-Jane, posted in books, family life, lifestyle

It’s a silly thing I was thinking about the other week when I saw the magazine on the shelf and remembered my youth. I remember sitting at my grandmas every Saturday morning and flicking through her radio times to see what was on the telly this week. I used to read snapshots of what was going to happen on soaps and look through the boring adverts. Now it’s been years since I’ve read a radio times unless it Christmas time. I think it’s because it’s wasteful all the paper wastage each week for a highlight of tv when you can look it up online.

I think aswell we are in a generation where everything is on our phone. We have Netflix, now tv, amazon and countless other streaming services which we watch more often then normal tv. Even though we pay a ridiculous tv license for basically no reason. This Christmas I’m trying to highlight things that look good on the radio times and watch them. To watch different things. I want to start doing this with Elijah when he’s older, I want him to be getting excited to choose and watch things so we don’t miss things we might like!

Christmas Eve box.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in family life, lifestyle

A family tradition of mine has always been to give a Christmas Eve gift. Normally it would be something like some pjs with some chocolates or something for the bath or/and a activity to do. I remember being young and the excitement to open my gift, have a bath and wear my new pjs. Then sitting all excited in bed till I eventually fell asleep all shiny and comfy.

It’s something I’ve been keen to pass onto my son and husband and keep it as one of our Christmas traditions. So every year me and James have brought pjs for one another and a pair for Elijah. This year I wanted to do a little fun box instead of spoiling Elijah lots of different days with treats I got him some Christmassy treats to give on Christmas Eve. obviously he won’t eat all the sweets at once but I thought I’d give them all at once. So what I’ve got him is a little tsum tsum Disney simba that lights up which he’ll love as he adores the lion king. A Christmas cup to put some Christmas milk in before bed, colouring book to do some activities for the day, some kinetic sand to play with anything to keep him busy for the day so I can organise presents and plans. I brought him some chocolates and marshmallows which comes with a beaker which he can use aswell. He also has some pjs but they’re matching ones with us so didn’t want to give as a gift this year! I brought almost everything from Poundland or bnm so it all cost me under ten pounds which was quite a bargain. I can’t wait to see him open and play with it all. It may a bit ott but when else can I go a bit ott.

Celebrating Christmas when your a couple.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in family life, lifestyle

When you become a couple a time you never really think about is Christmas. You don’t know who you’ll spend it with and where you’ll spend it. You want to be together but also want to see family. The longer you’re together the more comfortable you become with each others family and it becomes less about your family and theirs it becomes our family and time is spent more equally between family’s. But what do you do when you both want to see your family? Firstly it’s about compromise it’s about taking turns each year and alternating plans. It’s about not over booking yourself so you can see everyone and then spend the day flustered and rushed. It’s seeing people on different days and spacing out time longer and not just spending it all with your family as that’s what you’ve done your whole life. My husband didn’t celebrate Christmas exclusively until he was 19 with me so it’s been odd for both of us to find what works but we’ve found what works for us.

We enjoy shopping for family together and when we both worked we payed half for everyone’s presents except each other’s. We enjoy wrapping family presents together and giving them together. We enjoy being together at Christmas and not a part. I’ve been in relationships previously when I’ve not spent Christmas with my other half and it’s felt wrong and I’d never imagine not spending Christmas with my other half now even if some people have no choice. We just love spending time together over the Christmas season and enjoying being a family together with everyone else. We love cuddling up watching films and laughing with others and eating copious amounts of food. This year we most defiantly are going to spend more of Christmas together as a couple/family and spend at our house and try to make our own traditions. We may pop to grandparents quickly but have invited them to ours as we’d prefer to stay home this year or it’ll be a quick visit and day visit for Boxing Day. It’ll be exciting this year as Elijah is understanding Christmas more so we’ll be able to spend Christmas playing with him and relaxing at home a bit more than running with a screaming infant! What have you all got planned for Christmas?!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

Finally it’s somewhat acceptable to officially go into christmas overdrive. The glistening of fairy lights on a tree is something that for some reason brings a warm fuzzy feeling which melts my frozen heart. The time has come to decorate the house and cuddle up under the twinkling of the tinsel to watch films with a cup of hot chocolate.

The presents are wrapped, the tree is dressed and a bauble has already been broken. I am looking forward to this Christmas because Elijah is starting to understand what’s happening. He’s just celebrated his second birthday and is understanding the giving and opening of presents. He can open his presents well and understands there’s something in the sparkly little boxes. We’ve spent this morning looking at the Christmas tree and Elijah is very inquisitive about the tree and the baubles and remembered the ones he made. I’m looking forward to finally taking Elijah to meet Santa and getting to know the magic of Christmas. I’m looking forward to making Christmas cookies, doing more Christmas crafts and activity’s. I’m looking forward to days out and spending time as a family. I’m excited to create more traditions each year which one day Elijah might pass on to his children.

I love walking through the town at night under the beautiful Christmas lights and getting a festive hot drink. The town feels happier when Christmas is near and less scary in the dark lit up under a warm glow. This year I’m planning to stay home and enjoy being a family. We always go to others houses and although I love spending Christmas as part of big happy family I want to experience one where we can relax and take it at our own pace. Where people can come ours and relax. Where we can say when dinners on the table and not have to avoid drink all day due to James driving. A Christmas where we get to choose what to watch and relax all day. We’re looking forward to Elijah receiving his gifts and opening them slowly. I’m looking forward to perhaps taking Elijah to the park and rewarding it with a hot chocolate and a film. We will enjoy Elijah playing with his toys and getting to be a kid again. We will enjoy going to others houses and spending time with friends and family while giving the gifts you’ve put lots of thought and love into! I’m so excited for this Christmas so here’s to Christmas 2019 being everything we want it to be.

Quick cheap Christmas activity.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

Yesterday looking for something to entertain my little bundle of energy I remembered I had brought some plastic baubles to make. I got out the arts and crafts sheet and put Elijahs apron on and we got to work.

We had some bits left over from our sensory bottles we’ve made before (I’ll do a blog post later on that). So we had sequins, balls, beads and glitter to use. Elijah enjoyed filling up the baubles and used lots of different colours. We discussed the textures, the items and the number we where putting in counting as we did. Elijah loves this and was able to exercise his pincer grab and work on his hand eye coordination. The bits where small so easier to pick up.

A quick activity which was cheep and fun and very Christmassy. When we get our tree down next week we have three lovely new baubles to put on the tree!

Want to do it yourself? We brought the baubles from tiger for 1 pound each. Glitter was a pack of four for 1 pound, sequins 1 pound, beads and balls 1 pound each also which can be found in most supermarkets and craft shops.

Winter craft activities.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

The weather is getting colder and with Christmas soon approaching a easy fun (albeit messy) activity is to make Christmas cards. Using hand and feet and a bit of patience you can use your little ones feet to paint a card.

What you need. Card. You can get cards with envelopes from online which is what we did to save the stress after looking in town a lot at the ridiculous prices for a sheet of card. You’ll also need paint and paintbrushes . Also a pen for writing.

Start by letting little ones paint a sheet of paper or a canvas for a gift for someone aswell. This enables them to get the excitement out of the way to paint and make a mess.

Secondly paint your child’s feet and then hold and place card under their feet hold their foot down quickly and pushing as you do it and take paper away quickly trying not to smudge. Your little one may end up loving this activity and ask for more painting of the feet over and over. With the footprints you can make Christmas trees,snowmen or reindeers. You can also paint hands too and make penguins or a Santa’s hat. You’ll just need to the painting/ drawing of faces and details.

Not only is it a great activity but also a lovely gift. A card someone may want on their mantelpiece for years to come. It is also way cheeper than buying individual cards for everyone in your family.

Being organised at Christmas

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

Now that Halloween is over and done with we will be packing away the decor and getting ready for Christmas. There’s nothing better than lighting your first Christmas Yankee candle if the season which I’ve already got chosen! But one thing we always do around the Christmas time is stress. We stress over who we’ll see and when, if we are hosting or being the guests. Many people don’t enjoy Christmas as they have to yoyo around to so many family members houses they cannot enjoy the day.

This year I’m staying put. We decided it’s not worth the stress we will stay in and have Christmas dinner at home. We always go to family’s and end up at 3/4 different houses a day and not only is it exhausting and tiring it’s also a bit rude it’s like thanks for the presents now I look like it’s all I came for as I’m on to the next time slot! When you have a kid it’s even harder of course they love the attention but they get very tired and angry as they don’t want to stop playing and miss anything.

Organising at Christmas for me is looking after myself and not getting all stressed and uptight. Who knows I might really enjoy Christmas this year if I just try to relax. Here are some organising tips I’m going to live by.

Don’t stress Christmas presents, buy what you like for people and if you think someone will like it then that’s all that matters. Don’t bankrupt yourself and don’t worry if something’s on the cheeper side it’s all about giving and spreading joy not the cost. Also slowly buy things before Christmas to one save a big cost at once and also so you are organised and know you have everything in time.

Make plans in advance even if it annoys family talking about it. You need to make plans in advance if you have a lot of people to see.

Try not to over book yourself. If you do that you’ll end up stressed. I will do the Christmas present drop offs on Xmas eve for those I don’t see on Christmas Day or day after Christmas as I always have done. I feel like Santa and it’s something I enjoy but this year I won’t be doing as many stops.

Great lists on what you need to buy, gift ideas and food shops. Being able tick of what you’ve brought is such a great feeling. I love my Christmas planner I’ve had for four years and this year I’ll need a new one, it is so helpful for not only knowing what I’ve brought but also what I’ve spent and wrapped so I can budget.

Wrap and label presents as you buy them. Saves the stress of wrapping everything quickly and also if you want to give people their gifts early you can just put them in a bag and if you go.

Any time sensitive presents need to be sorted well in advance. I’m making a little photo book for my grandma and nan so I need to get the family together before hand to take photos. We’re doing this ourself as we have good cameras and a tripod so would prefer to take ourselves at the park. Obviously we have to arrange a day all my family can come and then have to send to be put into a book or on a canvas So we’d need extra time. If your planning anything hand made and not shop brought you could be waiting a while at Christmas so it’s best to buy well in advance.

If you’re dieting try not to be too strict. But also don’t go to mad. Buy a few Christmas snacks and don’t restrict your Christmas dinner but don’t pig out for days. Your essentially going to get snacks for Christmas it’s inevitable so this year don’t eat as you get them stretch them out over the next few weeks/months. The foods not going to do a runner. You may think this isn’t organising but sometimes you need to organise what you buy so you don’t go crazy!

Buy yourself a gift. When your buying other people gifts you forget about yourself. See a nice bath set or cosy pjs you’d quite like buy them. Sometimes we need to treat ourselves and a bit of retail therapy is just the way. After all that shopping you deserve it.

Overall just enjoy Christmas and the season try not to worry about pleasing everyone and just relax because it’s all about the memories and nothing else.