Blogmas Day Eighteen - Christmas Present

Hello,
can you believe that we are already on day 18 of blogmas, which means we are seven days away from Christmas Day, WHOOP WHOOP!  For today's blogmas post we are going to be talking about what we do around Christmas time that has changed since we were younger.

The first thing that has defiantly changed since we were younger is waking up really really early in the morning to see what 'Santa' had brought us and to see if the reindeer has drank the milk and eaten the carrots that we had left out for them.  Now that we are older, we wake up much later but still quite early as we are excited that it is Christmas Day. Now that we are older it is defiantly nicer to watch your family open the presents that you have bought and to see their reaction to what it is, rather than opening your own presents but we still love it as it is always exciting to see what they have bought you.

The second thing that has changed is that we can now afford to buy presents for our family members ourselves and we really enjoy going out and buying their presents as you can get them something really personal to them. This has changed as when we were little our mums and dads would buy the presents, we would help wrap them and then we would write our names on them to make it look like we have bought them.

The third thing that has changed is that as we are getting older we are getting more school work given to us so we don't get much time before Christmas weekend to get really festive and then after Christmas, instead of playing or using what we had been given for Christmas, we are normally revising for up coming exams or completing homework and coursework that needs to be in on the first day back to school. This means that we don't get much time to get and be festive which really disappoints us as it is our favourite time of the year.


The last thing that has changed around Christmas time is that we can now drink alcohol and celebrate properly on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and boxing day. We love going down stairs on Christmas Day and instead of having juice or water we get to have a glass of bucks fizz with the family when we have breakfast and open our presents and cards. We also love that we can help our parents out more now that we are older as we now know how to cook so we can help out when they need it, which isn't very often as our mums like to do it by themselves as they have to make it perfect.


Thank you for reading todays blogmas post, we hope you have enjoyed it. We would love to hear in the comments what you do different now that you are a little but older and what you do on Christmas Day. Don't forger to follow this page, our social medias and please leave a comment on what you think of our blogmas posts so far as we would love to hear from you. Thank you and see you tomorrow for blogmas day nineteen,


ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Seventeen - Christmas Past

Hello,

So in this blogmas post we thought that we would share with you some of the things from our past Christmases. we love Christmas and growing up each Christmas was great so we thought we would share with you some of our experiences.

Firstly, we would always wake up super early for Christmas only to be told to go back to bed as it was too early to open presents. So, we would sit in our rooms for an extra hour or so and wait until we were told it was an 'appropriate' time to open our stockings.

Another memory for us is always finding little chocolate treats on the tree. It would always be a race to find the chocolate on the tree that had been put on there the night before as well as find some other presents like tickets for a concert that we wanted to go to.

We loved every time that our parents were able to convince us that we were not getting something we had asked for and then suddenly we would be opening it on Christmas day. They would tell us every time we asked that we weren't getting it and then on Christmas morning we would open it and we would  look at their smug faces.

We also loved Christmas dinners when we were younger as every one would pull a Christmas cracker and tell the horrible joke that was inside them. We would also be so full from the food but every one would still say yes to the desert that would be offered.

Finally, the last thing that we loved about our past Christmases is that we would always sit together in the evening and watch a Christmas film together and then go to bed to get ready to go and have another long day on Boxing day with the rest of the family.

Thanks for reading blogmas day 17. Don't forget to read the rest of blogmas and leave a comment about your Christmases as well as follow our social media linked below.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Sixteen - Things we love about Christmas

Hello,

This is blogmas day 16 and we thought that it would be a great idea to share with you some of the things that we love about Christmas.

The first thing that we love about Christmas is all the Christmas films. In a previous blogmas we shared with you all the songs that we love at Christmas time so this is an obvious reason for why we love Christmas as well as the Christmas films.

Another thing that we love about Christmas is the decorations as they are so beautiful. We love the inside decorations and the Christmas trees but we also love driving around the village and seeing the decorations on everyone's houses. It is something that we love to do every Christmas.

We also love going to see a pantomime. Every year when we were growing up we would go and see a pantomime with the whole family and now we kind of miss going and so we are definitely going to start back up with this tradition and go and see a pantomime.

Another thing that we love about Christmas is the food. Everyone uses Christmas as an excuse to eat as much as you want and we are exactly the same. Therefore, every year we eat as much as we can from the Christmas treats we have and then make a note to go on a diet for New Year.

We also love going to the Christmas carol concert that happens every Christmas Eve as it is always fun and good for a sing a long even though we can't sing. We also love giving presents to our families and seeing their reaction to the presents that we have given them.

Finally the last thing that we love about Christmas is definitely being able to relax and spend time at home with the family and staying in the same PJ's until we get new ones of Christmas day!

Thanks for reading blogmas day 16 and we are sorry that it is late to be uploaded. Leave a comment on some of the things that you love about Christmas and don't forget to follow our social media linked at the bottom.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Fifteen - Our Christmas gathering

Hello,

For todays blogmas post we are going to be sharing what we did last night and how we planned and organised our Christmas gathering and sleepover. We thought we would share this with you as if any of you are having a gathering or party or sleepover and you are not sure on what you are going to do or what you are going to need to make it the perfect Christmas gathering.

The first thing that we planned and organised was what day everyone was free so that we could make sure that everyone could come. After we picked a date and time we had to start planning what we were going to do, what we were going to eat and drink and how could we make this really festive and perfect.

The one thing we knew we were going to have to do to make it fun was playing board games as who doesn't love a board game. We love playing a classic board game and so we think you should definitely consider playing board games like monopoly, which we did, or clue, life and any other board game that you used to play or still play today.

We also decided it would be a good idea to get as many Christmas films as we could find and put them on in the background and occasionally get distracted by them. We chose films like Polar Express, Elf, The Santa Claus and The Grinch.

We got as much junk food as we could find to stuff our faces with as well as some nice hot chocolate to drink. We had popcorn to go with the films as well as chocolate and other sugary treats.

We think that if you want to do something similar to our Christmas sleepover then these are some of the things that you should consider for it. Thanks for reading day 15 of blogmas and we are sorry for the delay.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Fourteen - Christmas wrapping tips and tricks

Hello,
for todays blogmas post we are going to give you some of our tips and tricks on how to make your Christmas wrapping look unique, festive and perfect. We decided to write a blogmas post on this as we think that it will help some of you who need some tips on how to make your Christmas wrapping look and be even better.

The first thing that we recommend is getting some really good quality Christmas wrapping paper, you can buy this from any card shop or retail shop that has Christmas decorations. this will be better than buying really cheap paper as it can rip when you are wrapping your presents so having a little bit more expensive wrapping paper with reduce the chance of it ripping and it normally looks better as the detailing is nicer. You can get so many colours of wrapping paper from a variety of places but we have really liked the look of the paper chase and John Lewis wrapping paper as they are not over the top and they look really classy.

We also think that if you do not want to get wrapping paper with a pattern on it or wrapping paper in a certain colour, that brown paper looks really nice and it looks thought out and planned. It also gives it a classy look.

The second thing to make your presents look like you have put a lot of effort in is tying string or ribbon around your presents. This makes it look even better and sometimes this can hide the wrapping if it doesn't look as well as you wished. This also adds to the tension and excitement of what you have brought the person as it will take longer to unwrap. You can get ribbon or string from a huge variety of places and it is usually really reasonably priced.

The third thing that you are going to need are name tags. You can get many types of name tags like ones that stick on to the wrapping paper of the present or ones that are card and have a piece of string tied to them. We like both types of tags as you can make them really personal to the person you are giving the presents too. There are so many places were you can get present tags from like online or in card shops.

A tip we have for you when you are wrapping your Christmas presents to give friends or family is to get all the sellotape cut and ready for you to use quickly as when you have wrapped the paper around the present, the last thing that you want is to try and cut sellotape as this could make the paper unwrap and you would have to start again.

Another tip is to make sure you label the present that you have wrapped first before you move on to the next present as you might forget which present is for who, especially if you are using the same wrapping paper for everyone.


That is all of the tips and tricks that we have for you for todays blogmas post. Please leave a comment below if you have any tips and tricks so that we can try them when we wrap our presents. Don't forget to follow all of our social medias to keep up to date on what we are up too. Thank you for reading and we will see you tomorrow for blogmas day fifteen,

ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Thirteen - Christmas Decoration Ideas

Hello,

So this is day thirteen of blogmas and we hope you are enjoying all of our blogmas posts. Today we want to share with you some ideas for Christmas decorations.

We love Christmas decorations and we love homemade gifts as you can see from our first blogmas. However, sometime it is much easier to just buy the decorations.

Some of the decorations we love are Disney themed. These are often such beautiful decorations an there is a vast majority of decorations that you can get. It has no become a tradition that every time we go to Disneyland we buy a Christmas decoration even if it is the middle of summer. They are just so lovely and they often create a very mis-match effect on the tree and so makes it seem like a very family orientated tree.

We also love ornaments from universal and have a Grinch and a Cat in the Hat ornament. Another great idea is Harry Potter decorations. From our trip to Harry Potter studios you can probably tell that we love Harry Potter so of course we are going to have a few Harry Potter decorations as part of our Christmas décor.

We went to Primark and found that they do some great Harry Potter and Disney decorations that were affordable as well as cute.

We also quite like the traditional Christmas colours so try to stick to this as much as we can as it is nice to just be traditional and you feel like you are in a Christmas film when everything is so traditionally Christmas like.

Thanks for reading Blogmas day thirteen. Don't forget to go back and read all of our other blogmas posts and come back tomorrow for the next edition of blogmas. Please leave a comment and don't forget to follow our social media pages linked at the bottom to see when we post.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Twelve -Cosy Christmas Ideas

Hello,
For todays blogmas post we are going to share with you our necessities for a cosy Christmas. As Christmas is in winter and winter is always freezing cold we have some ideas on how to get cosy and where you can buy these things.

The first thing that we are going to be talking about is blankets. You are going to need blankets for your cosy nights in front of the T.V watching a Christmas films. We think the best place to buy blankets are from Primark as they are always super cosy and warm and they are cheap.

The second thing that you are going to need are really fluffy and comfy pyjamas. There are so many shops that do really nice and good quality pyjamas and as its Christmas most shops do Christmas themed PJ's. The shops that we mostly buy our PJ's from are Primark, New look, H&M and peacocks.  These shops always have a really nice Christmas range of PJ's so if you need some new ones, we recommend these places.

The third thing that you have to have when its cold is fluffy socks. We absolutely love fluffy socks and they are one thing that we always ask for in our stockings or as Christmas presents as you can never have enough fluffy socks. We won't list where the best places for fluffy socks as you can get them from any clothing store and they will be warm and cosy.

In this cold weather you are also going to need hats, scarves and gloves and there are so many amazing places to buy these from especially if you want them in a set so they are all matching. We always think that in the winter a pair of gloves, a hat and a scarf always finish your outfit when you are going out and not to mention they will keep you warm in this freezing temperature.

Thanks for reading blogmas and we apologize that it is a day late but that means that there is another blogmas to go and read now. Please comment and go over to our social media pages to find out more about when we post and to tell us your thoughts on our blogmas and other posts

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Eleven- Festive Family Fun

Hello,

Today's blogmas post is about all the festive family fun that we have had with our families when we were younger and what we think you can try this Christmas.

Firstly, when we were younger we would always get board games for Christmas and so all the best times as a family were playing board games on Christmas and Boxing day. Some of the best are monopoly and Clue.

We also love to have family movie nights leading up to Christmas where we would watch a different Christmas film every night until Christmas day. All the films that we said in our blogmas post on the best Christmas films were definitely a part of this as well as many other Christmas films.

We also grew up watching the soap Christmas specials. Any and all soaps that we could find we would watch the Christmas special but our favourite for this year has got to be Emmerdale and we can't wait to watch it.

Another thing that we love to do with our family at Christmas is to visit winter wonderland and to go ice skating. This always puts us in the festive mood and is always really funny as we can not ice skate so its just us trying not to fall.

We also love watching the Christmas specials on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and we can not wait this year for the Victoria Christmas special as we love Victoria. We also love watching the Doctor Who Christmas special.

As part of our family Christmas tradition that we have to do every year is to go and see a pantomime in the New Theatre in Cardiff. We do this every year as they are always really funny and enjoyable. They always get us in the festive mood. We also do this as it is a time for the whole family to go out without anything disturbing us and for us to spend time together.

A part of Christmas has to be the Christmas decorations as its not Christmas without decorations. Every year ,we as a family get together and put up the Christmas decorations around the house together, as it is always a enjoyable time as we laugh and sing Christmas songs very loud and as not everyone in our families can sing it is very funny trying to watch our family members hit any high notes.

Thank you for reading day eleven of our blogmas post. We hope you are enjoying reading them as much as we are enjoying writing them. Don't forget to follow our social medias's at the bottom of our blog to keep up to date on everything that we are doing. Thank you and see you tomorrow for blogmas day twelve,

ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Ten- Christmas Party Ideas

Hello,
Welcome back to our blog. This is blogmas day ten and we are going to tell you our Christmas party ideas as we love to throw a party or a gathering to get all our friends together.

 As its Christmas we thought that it would be nice to invite our friends over to one of our houses and have a Christmas themed gathering and to have a sleepover after. This is a great idea if you and your friends don't want to go out for a meal or to buy presents as you don't have enough money as it means that you and your friends are still together and it is cheap as each friend could bring something, like one friend brings the main food, another brings desert, one friends brings the snacks and movies and another brings the games. We are actually having a Christmas sleepover this Friday with our friends and we have planned to watch Christmas films whilst stuffing our face with sweets and chocolate. We have also planned to play board games as we are all quite competitive so it will be interesting to see who wins. We are going to watch our favourite Christmas films whilst having a laugh with our hot chocolate's so make sure you are following our social media's to see picture's.

Another idea is to invite all your friends around your house and all of you put money and buy a takeaway. This is also a nice idea as not everyone likes the same takeaway so you could have a few different ones. This is also great way to give out your secret Santa presents if you have done that with your friends as you are all together. If you are old enough you could have alcoholic drinks and you could make and give them festive names, but if you are not old enough to drink you could have hot chocolate or anything else that you and your friends like. You could also gather around a table and play board games as this is a nice opportunity to interact with each other without being in school or on your phones. This idea is also cheap as everyone could bring something each.

You could also have a Christmas afternoon party where you have different competitions like best Christmas jumper or best Christmas cake or treat as this involves everyone and is fun and also cheap. You could make different cakes and biscuits and decorate them with christmasy things like make gingerbread Christmas trees or different Christmas ornaments. You could also make DIY Christmas decorations for your own houses as this is always a nice way of getting creative.

For our Christmas party on Friday we are doing small stockings for our friends with little bits and bobs that they like and we are planning to get them a new pair of Christmas PJ's. We are also going to get the living room where we are all staying really warm, cosy and festive as it's a Christmas sleepover. We are going to have lot's of fluffy blankets to keep us warm and fluffy socks to keep our feet warm.

These are some of our ideas for anyone who is thinking of having a Christmas party and if you have anymore ideas please leave a comment below. This is a really nice way of getting your friends together with you not having to spend money as Christmas can be an expensive time of year.

Thank you for reading today's blogmas post and don't forget to come back tomorrow for day elevens post. Please don't forget to comment and follow our social medias as we would love to hear from you and would love to know what you are planning to do for Christmas. If you follow our social media's you will be up to date on what we are doing and if we are doing anything exciting. Thank you and see you tomorrow,

ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Nine - Best Christmas Songs

Hello,


So this is day Nine of Blogmas and we hope that you are enjoying all of our blogmas posts. This post is about something that you have to have on at Christmas and that is Christmas songs.

Christmas songs are played constantly with us and there are so many good ones so we thought that we would share them with you. So, here are some of our favourite Christmas songs:

We love the song Winter Wonderland and the new rendition of the song by Alexander Armstrong has made the song become one of our favourite Christmas songs of all times.

We also love Last Christmas by Wham! This is such a classic song and we love it so much and it definitely feels like Christmas whenever it is played.

Some great upbeat Christmas songs that we love are Merry Christmas Everyone and rockin' around the Christmas tree. We also love Jingle Bell Rock and Band Aid 30 as it is always gets us in the Christmas spirit when we hear these songs.

The Grinch is also a great Christmas song and matches one of our favourite Christmas films from our previous blog post. We also love Let it Snow and a great classic of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

Some great Christmas classics that we love at Christmas also include Fairytale of New York and All I Want For Christmas is You.

A truly beautiful Christmas song has got to be Silent Night as well as Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It wouldn't be Christmas without Michael Bublé so his cover of Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas gets played on repeat until Christmas is over. We also love Baby its cold outside and one that we are sure that everyone loves is the 12 days of Christmas song. We also love Michael Bublé's covers of Holly Jolly Christmas and Christmas(baby please come home) and they have both got us dancing around the house.

Finally, one of the best Christmas songs for us is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Many artists have done a cover of this song and made it sound different every time but personally for us we love the McFly's version of this song the best.

Thank you for reading today's blogmas, make sure you stay tuned for tomorrows blogmas. We hope you are enjoying all of our blogmas posts and that you will leave a comment with some of your favourite Christmas songs that we might have missed. Follow our social media for future posts and we will see you tomorrow with the next blogmas post.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Eight - Christmas Treats

Hello,

So in this blogmas post we thought we would share with you some of the treats that we like to buy in preparation for Christmas. We always buy treats ready for Christmas as well as bake as you have seen from our gingerbread recipe in a previous blogmas post, but sometimes we decide to be lazy and just buy treats instead. So here are some of the treats that we like to buy every Christmas.

Firstly, every Christmas since we were little we would buy a tin of quality street. Every year we would  buy a tin of quality street which would last to about Christmas Eve. Therefore, we started buying two so that we could still feast on the sweets on Christmas day. Quality Streets is something that we associate with Christmas so when they get bought in the weekly shop we know it is Christmas.

Another is a chocolate orange. This would be a reoccurring Christmas stocking filler that would be saved until it was too tempting and then eaten all at once. We love a chocolate orange at Christmas and it is a good stocking filler if you are struggling to find something.

We also like to have a tub of roses as well as heroes as they have a variety of chocolates. The heroes tend to be better with the kids as they don't tend to like not knowing which chocolate they have and like to just pick one they know rather than read a list of options. But sometimes they will eat both as chocolate is chocolate to them.

For any vegan treats we tend to go to Holland and Barrett and look at their vegan treats although this can sometimes be expensive so we tend to stick to homemaking these types of treats. However, we sometimes find any local vegan shop on our phones and go and have a look at what they have. We also like to go to the Cardiff market where they do vegan welsh cakes. We love these all year round but they are a nice treat at Christmas with a coffee.

Thanks for reading today's blogmas. Stay tuned for tomorrows blogmas and leave a comment about what Christmas treats you like to have at Christmas. Follow our social media to keep up to date of when we post and what we are up to.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Seven - Best Christmas Films

Hello,

So this is blogmas day 7. We hope that you are enjoying all of our blogmas posts and that you are just as excited for Christmas as we are.

One of the best things about Christmas for us is the films. Christmas is the time of year with the best films for all ages. So, here are some of our favourites that we highly recommend watching this Christmas. Christmas films are also the best as everyone loves them so it is a time for all the family to come together and get snacks and have a Christmas movie night with your PJ's and your blankets.

Firstly, everyone knows that one of the best Christmas films is Home Alone. It is a classic Christmas film and is great to watch when sat at home cuddled up on the sofa with a blanket and hot chocolate in the night, especially when you have been out in the cold and rain.

Another amazing Christmas film is How the Grinch stole Christmas. This is one of the best Christmas films of all time and we watch it every Christmas on repeat. Both the animated an The Grinch live action are amazing and we watch them on repeat in the dark with the Christmas tree lights on and the fairy lights.

A hilarious Christmas film is Christmas with the Kranks. It is such a good comedic Christmas film for a slightly older audience rather than watching with the kids but is still such a good and funny Christmas film and defiantly one to put you in the Christmas spirit.

One Christmas film that we love to watch that every child will probably love is Mickey's once upon a Christmas as well as any other Christmas Disney films. Disney have made multiple of these and now have Mickey's twice upon a Christmas which follows three stories in each film. Mickey's once upon a Christmas is one of Rebekah's all time favourite as it brings back memories of being a child and being really excited for Christmas.

Another great Disney film is Mickey's Christmas Carol as well as The Muppets Christmas Carol. Both follow the classic story of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens but is a great alternative to watch with children.

One of our all time favourites is The Santa Claus film. There is obviously three of these films as part of the franchise. They are all so good but everyone loves the original and we watch this every Christmas. Tim Allen is in many Christmas films which just shows how much of a great actor he is.

Molly's all time favourite Christmas films are definitely The Polar Express and Elf as it's not Christmas until I watch them as they put me in the Christmas mood. They also hold a lot of memories because they are films that all my family love so we always have family movie nights with take-away, snacks and drinks with all of us wearing our cosy PJ's with fluffy socks and warm blankets.


We would love to know what your favourite Christmas films are and if you have any Christmas movie nights with your friends or family. Don't forget to follow all our social medias that are below to keep up to date with what exciting things we are doing. Also don't forget to comment and let us know what Christmas traditions you have. We will see you tomorrow for Blogmas day 8. Thank you for reading.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Six- Christmas Haul

Hello,

In this blogmas we are going to share with you all the stuff we have bought in preparation for Christmas. So, we are going to share with you the Christmas decorations we have found as well as the gifts that we found to buy for our relatives and friends.

Firstly, we found some lovely stuff at poundland and thought they were a great price as well as a great gift. We found a jug for Santa's milk which was really festive and cute and definitely good quality. We also found a nice glittery decoration with a reindeer on it to put on a shelf that we thought it was really nice and cute. We had seen similar ones that were much more expensive and the same quality so it is definitely worth going here first and then deciding whether to pay for something more expensive. We love Christmas cushions and so we were happy to find a lovely cushion that was good quality and a cheap price.

 We also found some lovely wreaths at poundland so if you have not yet got your wreath then this is a good place to go and get one for good quality and at a good price.

We also found some lovely things in Boots that would be good gifts for everyone and therefore we bought a few on our Christmas shopping trip. we bought a lot of wash things for our relatives as it is a quick and easy gift and we always find that we need a last minute present for someone who you don't think you will see or will give you a gift. We also saw some lovely make-up sets in Superdrug that we have bought for some of our other friends that we slightly wish we had bought for ourselves.

 

 

We also saw some very Christmas based things in Boots that were so tempting to buy but we knew we would be broke if we did.

 

 

Finally, we went to Prmark which had so much Christmas stuff we almost ended up buying everything. But we did see some lovely Christmas throws and candles and many other Christmas decorations as well as good homely things and gifts.

 

 

Thanks for reading day 6 of blogmas leave a comment with what you have bought ready for Christmas or share it with us on social media which is linked below.

 

 

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x 



Blogmas Day Five - Winter Wonderland

Hello,
welcome back to our blog. We are on Blogmas day 5 and today its all about Winter Wonderland. We are very lucky as we have a winter wonderland just 15 minutes away from our house so we can visit when ever we want to during November and December. We have decided to do a blogmas post on winter wonderland as it is very festive and it puts everyone in the Christmas mood, well it puts us in the Christmas mood.

 We love winter wonderland as there is loads to do and there is something to do for everyone like there is small rides for children, there is a ice rink for everyone that wants to ice skate and there are lots of different wooden huts offering different types of food and drink.

We recommend going to winter wonderland if you are stuck on what to get you in the festive food as there is a really nice atmosphere. Its a really nice place to go as a family as there is something for all ages. We love going every year with our families as we always make new memories, whether that be that one of us has a funny fall on the ice or is being silly whilst skating or if one of us gets their food all over their face by accident whilst eating their food. Just make sure you wrap up nice and warm when you go as you will get cold otherwise.

Thats all for todays blogmas post, we hoped you have enjoyed. Don't forget to comment with some of your memories from when you have visited or if you are planning on going to winter wonderland this year. Also don't forget to follow all of our social medias to know when we have updated or to find out what we are up to. Thank you for reading and make sure you come back tomorrow to read day 6 blogmas post.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil X

Blogmas Day Four - Vegan Christmas Dinner

Hello,

Christmas is a time known for a good turkey dinner but for Vegans this is difficult to get past without having a nut roast. a nut roast is nice but after a while it starts to get a bit boring and t is not the only option for Christmas. In fact you can even cheat and just go and buy an alternative vegan meat source for Christmas if you don't indeed have enough time to make anything from scratch. However, this is our vegan Christmas dinner that we make and now sharing for blogmas day four.

Firstly, all the vegetables are obviously going to stay the same for our vegan Christmas dinner and therefore nothing needs to be changed for this part of the meal. However, you may need to check the labels of some Yorkshire puddings and make sure that they are vegan but we find that the ones we buy are fine.

For starters we usually like to have an almond pate with some toast. This is super easy to make as you gather all the ingredients from the recipe and blend them all together to make the paste. This is actually really nice and even appeals to non-vegans believe it or not. The only problem is that when making the pate you need to soak the almonds for a long period of time.

For our main, we keep everything the same but change the meat. Therefore we like to cheat and use a store bought alternative but we have used tofu and other ingredients to make an alternative tofu type turkey with stuffing. This is all really easy and you only need to add some spices or sauces to the tofu to make it taste like Christmas as well as follow a simple list of ingredients for the stuffing. We like to use olive oil, celery, onion, bread crumbs, herbs and some other stuff for our stuffing an it taste delicious.

For desert we like to keep it simple as we are normally full by this point but refuse to turn down a desert. So, we normally have a simple pudding made with sugar, vegan butter and flour and drizzle with some golden syrup. This is normally really nice and very simple to make. However, if you want to push the boat out there are plenty of other options but we tend to stick with this.

We know it is a bit early to be thinking about Christmas dinner but we hope you enjoyed. leave a comment with what you are planning to have for your Christmas dinner regardless on if it is vegan or not. Thanks for reading todays blogmas. Please follow our social media for more updates on blogmas and other posts.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Blogmas Day Three - Gingerbread

Hello,

So this is day three of blogmas and we know that everyone is getting their christms food ready and so we wanted to share with you some of our ideas for Christmas recipes that we love to make.

First of all is Gingerbread. We love gingerbread and so we make it every Christmas. So here is the recipe we use for our gingerbread:

• Light brown sugar
• golden syrup
• water
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• butter/ vegan butter
• bicarbonate of soda
• plain flour.

First you will need to measure out 75g of light brown sugar and then add to a saucepan. next we add 3 tablespoons of golden syrup you can substitute one tablespoon of golden syrup for black treacle but we couldn't find any so we just added an extra tablespoon of golden syrup and it taste the same. Then ass one tablespoon of water and one teaspoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon of ginger. You can add extra ginger if you wanted depending on how much ginger you like in your gingerbread. Put the saucepan on to heat and allow the ingredients to warm. Then add 95g of butter or vegan butter and mix. You will need to continuously stir this as you don't want it to burn and then add half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Then gradually add 250g of flour to the saucepan with the saucepan off the heat. It should form a ball of dough and leave to cool. You can then roll out the dough and use any cookie cutters you like for your gingerbread. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

 Cook for 10 - 15 minutes. You can then ice and decorate your biscuits as you please and that will leave you with your gingerbread.

 

 

Thank you for reading today's blogmas if you do try out this recipe tag us in a picture on Instagram and follow our other social medias to see more of blogmas. Leave a comment below on what you would like to see and other treats that you like at Christmas.

 

 

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x 

 

Blogmas Day Two - Christmas Present Ideas

Hello,

This is Blogmas day two and we wanted to share with you some of the things that we think that people you may know would like fore Christmas. These are things that we have seen and thought would be a great present for people we know or are things that we would like to get for Christmas as well.

Firstly, we thought about all the offers that are usually on at Christmas time. We know that the best place to go for offers on gifts is Boots. They often have deals on throughout the year but they have so many at Christmas that it is guaranteed that we will buy stuff for family and sometimes ourselves. Boots have great offers on make-up as well as lovely soaps and wash stuff for people. This is obviously a very cliché gift and many people are left with enough wash stuff to last until next Christmas. This year we have asked for a lot of NYX make-up due to the great quality as well as high street price as opposed to bigger brands that are too expensive for us to buy.

Another good Christmas present that we love to get is pajamas and one of the best places to get pajamas is Primark. Primark always have such nice pajamas all year round but we love to buy pajamas from Primark at Christmas time to fit in with the Christmas theme. They often have lovely pajamas that are cute and comfortable and are super cozy.

We also love to shop at Primark for other clothes as they are so nice and super affordable. We don't always ask for clothes for Christmas though and we often get some nice lifestyle things fro Primark such as throws and blankets an pillows.

Finally, a great Christmas present is candles as they are so lovely and the best ones for presents are the Christmas scented candles. One of our favourites is Fresh winter woodland and sweet and salty caramel from Yankee Candle.


Thanks for reading our second blogmas. Stay tuned for more of blogmas and please leave a comment with your feedback and suggestions of what you would like to see. Please follow our social media to see when we post next.

ThePolkaDotDaffodil x
 

Blogmas Day One - DIY Christmas Decorations

Hello,
So this is the first blogmas with decorations that you can make yourself. This is something that we enjoy doing as we think it is so much more fun than buying them as well as it being cheaper and they often have sentimental value. It is obviously easier to go and buy decorations but it is nice just to have a few things in your house that you have made yourself and it gets you into the Christmas mood.

Firstly, you can make decorations with any coloured paper and just make a paper chain. This is super easy and many people have done it loads of time so is not a new idea. We used to do to this so much as kids and found it to be so much fun and even had competitions on who could make the longest paper chain. You can match the colours of the paper that you use to the colour scheme you have of your decorations in your house or you can stick to the traditional colours of Christmas. All you need to do is cut the paper into strips and fold them into circles and stick the paper together to make a ring. You fold each piece of paper the same way but loop it through the first ring of paper you made and eventually you have a chain of paper rings.

Another Christmas decoration we made as kids was collecting up all the Christmas cards you received and hanging them on a piece of string on your wall. This meant that you have nice little Christmas themed pictures hanging on your wall and you don't have to pay for them. This can also be done with any photos that you want such as printing off any Christmas picture that you like or pictures of your family at Christmas time.

Another quick and easy DIY is to get a tea light and make it into a snowman's face. All you have to do for this is to add two dots for eyes and dots in the shape of a smile for the mouth as the light acts as the snowman's nose. this super easy and cheap as you can get a pack of tea lights for very cheap and so you can have many little snowman tea lights for Christmas.

Stockings are normally really expensive for what they actually are and so many are so small that it is hardly worth paying for them. Therefore, a good DIY is to upcycle some old quilt that you have and make it into a Christmas stocking. All you have to do is measure our the size you want, you can even use a template from online, and then cute out the stocking making sure you have enough material to be able to sew it into a stocking. This is good as you can make it out of any material you want and you can have it however big or small you want.

A really easy DIY is to get a bunch of mason jars or empty baby food jars and put in little Christmas lights or holly or anything related to Christmas that you can find. You could even draw on the jars a little picture like a reindeer or snowman and then have the lights to illuminate the picture. This is really easy and super quick and costs very little to make.

Another really easy DIY is to get a bunch of photographs of you and your friends or family and get some coloured card, cut the card into a shape like a star or a circle and then cut the photo out and stick it to the card. Then make a hole at the top of the card and put some string through the hole and tie it together and then hang to on your Christmas. You then have a personal to you Christmas ornament on your Christmas tree.

Finally, Christmas is never complete without a wreath. You can make a wreath out of anything such as photos or pinecones or any left over bobbles that you have. One of our favourites is the Photo wreath. All you have to do for this is get a bunch of photos that you like and some copper wire. You can easily twist the copper wire into the shape of the wreath and then all you have to do is add the photos to the wreath. You can also if you want make a ribbon and add it to the wreath and then you have your own photo wreath. If you want it to stand out you could also add battery operated fairy lights. This will make the wreath even more christmassy.

Thanks for reading our ideas for DIY Christmas decorations, please leave a comment with some of your ideas that we can try as well. Also make sure that you are follow our social media to share your DIY's with us if you do indeed try any of these, as well as keep up to date on all of our other blogmas posts. Don't forget to click the button at the top of our blog that let's you follow it so you can keep up to date on when we post and also don't forget to visit our blog everyday of December up until the 25th to read our blogmas posts, as we will be posting new blog posts everyday.


ThePolkaDotDaffodil x

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Hello,
So back on November 1st we went to Harry Potter Studios and were able to see their dark arts exhibit to fit in with Halloween and we have finally got around to writing this post about our time there. It was different to the previous times that we have been to Harry Potter studios and we would definiately recommend going at this time of year.

Firstly, the great hall still managed to take our breath away despite being previously and seeing it then. The great hall was different as they had put up the pumpkins that you see in the film hanging from the ceiling.

The tour included extra dark arts exhibits as it was the day after Halloween. Therefore, they had a table which showed you how to make unicorn blood and giants snot. This was especially good as we took some of our younger family members who enjoyed seeing this and thought it was quite amusing and truly believed it to be unicorns blood and snot.

They put much emphasise on the dark arts exhibits but there was still much there that made it feel magical and warm. These were things such as the Weasley's house and Hagrid's Hut. It was also especially nice to see our younger family members (as well as some of the older family members) enjoy things like commanding a broom and flying on a broomstick. We managed to squeeze our big group into one booth for the train green screen and found that it was quite funny as we pretending to be on our way to Hogwarts.

The train and the forbidden was one of the highlights for us and when we had previously been those exhibits weren't there. Therefore, the introduction of the new exhibits made us even more excited to go and see them.

 

 

We were also able to see a show of he death eaters on the Hogwarts bridge fighting against the crowd and we even got involved and took a wand and joined in the fight. We stopped and had pictures of the death eaters as well as got a bit scared as they followed us around trying to creep us out before going back inside. It is also funny to say that the only person that managed to maintain eye contact with the death eaters was a 3 year old.

We spent a lot of time in the last section of the tour as we did not want to leave and we even started playing a game to try and find the actors names before realising the time and knowing we would take too long in the gift shop to stay any longer.


Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour and wish to go back as soon as we can especially to go and see the Christmas version of the tour.I can honestly say one of our favourite parts was Diagon Alley as well as Hogwarts castle. We timed it perfectly to walk into the room with the castle as the music built to make it a magical reveal of the castle and we were in awe of it all.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions about the tour or you want to share with us some of the favourite parts of the tour you have leave a comment. If you haven't been to the tour we highly recommend going. Leave a comment on your favourite things abut Harry Potter or some other frnchise films that you love. Please also follow our social media for more updates.

ThePolkaDotDaffodilx