I wanted to do something a little more Christmassy than just putting out a regular book review today, so I did a search (I actually googled “Christmas blog tag”) and this tag came up from 2014! So the blog I got this from is Makeup Savy, although I confess I’ve not looked at the blog before so I can’t comment much on it other than saying thank you very much for doing a Christmas tag all those years ago and I’m sure the blog is lovely, and I know it’s still active today so take a look if you’re into beauty and lifestyle 🙂
Here are the tag questions, all about Christmas, of course, and please feel free to do this tag yourself or tell me what your answers would be in the comments. I’ll be taking a bit of a break over Christmas although you won’t notice it as there’ll be blog posts going out as usual but I might be a bit late to reply this next couple of weeks. Have a lovely Chistmas everyone and enjoy this tag!
1. What is/are your favourite Christmas movie/movies?
This is a tough one because for me it depends on how recently I’ve seen a film and how often. For example, I do like Home Alone but when I’ve watched it too many times or it used to be repeated too often, I went off it for a while. I definitely like any film that makes me laugh including I’ll Be Home for Christmas and The Santa Clause, although there are so many good movies that I find it impossible to pick just a few, as long as it feels good and has a happy ending I will probably see it as a favourite at some point 🙂
2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve of Christmas morning?
My family always waited for Christmas Day to open presents and while as a child I used to open all my presents up in the morning, these days what we like to do is contain the excitement by opening just a few straight away and opening all the presents slowly throughout the day…that way the excitement stays all day long (I know…it also helps that I’m a very patient person!).
3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
So many that I can’t pick a favourite. There was one time though that I remember quite vividly the magic I felt when I saw a big stocking hanging with so many presents that Santa had left me. I think that thought about Santa and the magic was so special to me and I always want to recreate that magical feeling every year! 🙂
4. Favourite festive food?
This depends entirely on what mood I’m in and used to be chocolate and special Christmas tin biscuits. These days though, now that I am more healthy and eat a much healthier diet I have to say that one of my favourite festive foods is probably….brussel sprouts! No I’m not joking! Far from hating them actually, I do love to eat them, I always have. Mum used to call them mini cabbages and that made me want to eat them and nowadays I enjoy them either boiled, fried or part roasted. In fact the key to a good brussel sprout is to not over cook it, if you overcook them while boiling then you really ruin the taste (and cause a bad smell in the kitchen, lol).
5. Favourite Christmas gift?
I’ve had so many amazing gifts over so many different Christmases that I just can’t name one that was my favourite. I always adore and appreciate any gifts I get, but definitely I have really loved some of the toys I got over the years, especially as my family when I was young couldn’t afford a lot so even a plastic flute or yoyo became the best and most amazing gift I’d ever received! But since then I’ve still had so many, I just can’t decide, lol
6. Favourite Christmas scent?
There’s so many but I think the smell of freshly baked gingerbread has got to be the best! Mmmmm…😋
7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?
It depends on whether I’m staying with any extended family which would mean different traditions are observed (as a lot of them come from Eastern Europe!) and when I was younger we observed them more in my own house too, particularly opening up presents on Christmas Eve, in the evening! But most of the time in my own household these days we like to just set an extra table setting (just in case) and have a lovely meal on Christmas Eve, looking forward to the fun and opening of presents on the next day.
8. What tops your tree?
A star. To me a fairy or angel always seemed weird as I grew up with a star always on top of the family tree. We have a lovely one that is a bit like tinsel instead of solid so it sparkles when all the lights are on!
9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?
I never did ask for anything wild, crazy or extravagant! The wildest gift I ever asked for in my life was a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) console but that was for my birthday and I didn’t really ask for it as much as I did just tell my Mum how awsome and amazing it was after I had seen it (and Sonic the Hedgehog being played on it) for the first time ever! I remember going on about it but I never outright asked (by the way I did get the Mega Drive 😀 ) I often wished for things but I was brought up in a house where we didn’t (for much of my younger childhood) have much income so I always felt grateful for whatever I got, and to be honest I never noticed that we didn’t have the money back then. When it came to asking for things for Christmas or birthdays it was more that I sometimes said, when we went past a toy shop “Wow, that’s so amazing, I’d love to have that!” but I never actually asked, and so I don’t think there was any gift I ever asked for but didn’t get because I never actually asked in the first place. 🙂
10. What’s the best part of Christmas for you?
The build up to Christmas is something I love and then the whole twinkly decorations and festive feeling you get when you see everything up. I love to make decorations and cards and then decorate the house and tree, it puts me into such a good mood. I sort of love being able to do as much as possible, including some baking and cooking, although I always do everything while listening to Christmas songs, or watching Chrsitmas movies! 😀 To me Christmas is just an amazing time to have fun and be happy, it puts a wonderful cheer into what feels like a gloomy time of year, and the presents are just an added bonus. But it’s definitely the build up and festive feeling that I love! 🙂 🙂 🎄
So there you have it, I’ve loved writing up these tag answers and I wonder if we have anything in common when it comes to Christmas. Feel free to do this tag yourselves (just don’t forget to add a link to your blog posts in the comments below or add a link to my blog post in your own if you’re a wordpress user so I can read your answers). Or let me know some of your answers in the comments below, and whatever you are doing this week, whether you celebrate the holiday or not I hope you have a lovely time and a lovely week! ❤ 🙂
Are you celebrating Christmas? What are you doing for Christmas? What’s the best part of the holiday for you? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 
I’m not going to do this on my blog, because the holidays will be over by the time I can. So I’ll answer it here, though maybe not in proper order.
As it happens, I actually answered “sprouts and parsnips” when asked that question about the favourite Christmas foods the other day on Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, I love the chocolates, sweet mince pies, cookies, etc. But the holiday meal just wouldn’t be right without the sprouts and parsnips. Especially the sprouts.
Though nowadays it’s not on Christmas Day, we open our stockings, and then our presents. Depending on the age we’re talking about, I’ve experienced opening everything all at once on either the Winter Solstice or Christmas morning, opening some stuff on the Winter Solstice and some on Christmas Day, opening some on Christmas morning and some that afternoon, having it spread out so we were essentially opening things all Christmas Day, and opening a couple of things on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning.
My favourite movie is “Santa Clause: the movie” and my favourite thing about Christmas is how people go that extra mile in thinking of others most of the time (though I do wish it lasted beyond the season for more of us). I do love the decorations and music too though. I’m not sure I could pick a favourite memory or gift. I’m with you on the gingerbread scent though.
By the way, if you’re ever looking for tags to do in future, look on my blog. I’ve done a lot of them, including a bookish themed Christmas stocking one I remember doing last year.
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Oh, and the tree topper varies. We’ve had a star, an angel, a fairy, a snowflake that lights up, and a wizard. The fairy and later wizard were my Dads, and ended up being on our tree when my parents were back together for a while during some of the later part of my childhood (don’t ask) and was on my Dad’s tree when we visited him, so would have sort of counted as being on mine anyhow I guess. The angel was my Mam’s when we weren’t living with Dad, while the star and light up snowflake are ones I’ve had since I left home. It’s the snowflake I own right now, though the puppy chaos means I haven’t been putting up a tree other than my little wooden tabletop one, which has a star as part of it, which I guess technically means I’ve had two different star tree toppers.
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I guess puppies and Christmas trees can lead to chaos? When I had my cat I was lucky as she never climbed the tree, but she did love to just sit and stare at the lights. To be honest we never really left her alone with the tree so I don’t know what would have happened if we did, lol.
I love the sound of a snowflake tree topper, I didn’t know there were any, but I love the beautifu shape of snowflakes 🙂
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I will definitely check out your blog for all those tags, thank you for mentioning them, you’ll probably see me doing a whole bunch of them throughout the next year as they are so much fun to do! 🙂
I love parsnips too, I forgot about them! I used to have a sweet tooth but maybe as I got older there’s something so much more special and satisfying about the special dinner.
I do like Santa Clause the movie, I keep forgetting about that one but it is such a classic and is timeless to watch. And you are right about how lovely it is that people think of others at Christmas. It’s so sad that Christmas doesn’t last longer, most people get such a buzz (I feel like there’s a really lovely atmosphere today where I live) and want to get involved with either helping others or talking to their neighbours who might be lonely, but when Christmas is over it can make January feel like a depressing month as people don’t have Christmas anymore and don’t focus so much on others as they did. I suppose it doesn’t help that it’s also a dark and cold month, something I don’t personally enjoy.
I love the fact we share some similarities in what we love! Could it be our shared birthday that’s somehow made us like some of the same things? 🙂 🙂
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That’s certainly possible regarding the shared birthday thing. 😉
I love the colder months, but I have to agree about January feeling particularly cold and dark, regardless of the weather, after the warm glow of the holidays.
I found the snowflake thing by accident. I got it on Amazon, a few years ago. I love snow, so when I saw it I just had to have it.
Mostly puppies and trees doesn’t mean there will be chaos. I’ve had plenty of cats cause tree related chaos, but my dogs have usually left it alone. Although, I have heard of others with dogs who help themselves to tree ornaments and such. In our case though, the trouble is, Lilie. She’s adorable, and I wouldn’t have her any other way. The thing is though, she was a big chewer her first year, so we didn’t want to risk getting one and having her eat it or something on it (she ate a pair of boots, a CD and its case, plus an internet wire we’re not even sure how she managed to access, and that was just within a few days of each other at the end of the November before her first Christmas… She was eight months old). She’s no longer bad about chewing things (she hasn’t chewed anything she’s not supposed to in a whole year) but she runs laps to burn off energy, and when she does she sends things flying in all directions. Seriously, after Lilie has run her laps, it looks like a hurricane has been through the room. If Logan decides he has the energy to join her, it’s even worse. We’re worried she’ll knock the tree, and send it crashing down on either herself or Logan. If we had a bigger place, so could give her space to race around while still keeping her out of the room the tree would be in, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But we don’t. She’s turning three in March, so we’re hoping she calms down in this next year, so I can have a tree again. For now, I’ve just been setting up a few small decorations, and have a little wooden tree that goes on the table.
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Wow, Lilie really has a lot of energy! I have heard of some dogs taking to chewing and swallowing a whole bunch of strange objects, I hope she didn’t get sick from anything? (a CD, wow!).
I can see why you’d be reluctant to put up a tree with her energy, it makes sense and of course you want to keep them both safe. Besides, it’s definitely the spirit of Christmas and other holidays that matters more than what decorations we put up :).
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I completely agree about it being the spirit that’s important, rather than what we do or don’t decorate our homes with.
Also, no. Somehow, despite all the things she chewed through before growing out of it – at least, she seems to have, and we’re crossing our fingers it’s the case – she’s never ended up needing any sort of treatment from the vet because of it. Never been hit by falling objects or anything either. We have no idea how she’s managed to get away with that, but hope her luck continues.
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We have a small Christmas Teddy Bear on our tree.
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Aw, that sounds so cute, I’m sure it looks lovely on the tree 🙂 Thank you so much for visiting and commenting 🙂 🙂
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