I have read many ‘Christmas gift ideas’ blog posts and I have seen lots of different and interesting gift ideas that I would never have thought of myself! So, as part of blogmas, I thought I would write a ‘Christmas gift ideas’ blog post of my own by sharing with you what gifts I’ve bought for my own family and in doing so hopefully give you some inspiration for your own gifts at the same time.

Let’s start with my partner! Christmas gift ideas for him:

• Beard set. My fiancé’s beard is his pride and joy, he’s always grooming his beard and taking care of it so I bought him a beard set that he’s been eyeing up for a while. Something tells me he’s going to be very pleased with this gift!
• Boxers and socks. I buy him new boxers and socks every year. I always get him to throw away all of his old boxers and socks and then replace them with new. Not very exciting but who doesn’t love new underwear?!
• T-shirts. My partner is very easy to buy for when it comes to shirts, I know what style, fitting and colour he tends to go for. But pants are a no go. He’s so fussy when it comes to pants. I’ll leave them to him…
• Coffee set. He LOVES coffee, he’s sort of a coffee connoisseur if you will… I always know he’s gonna be pleased if I buy him coffee. I have bought him one of the Costa coffee gift sets. There are a few different ones to choose from. Perfect for the coffee lover in your family!
• PlayStation game. My fiancé is most definitely a gamer, he enjoys playing on his PlayStation so I bought him a game that I’ve heard him talking about…
• Beer. My partner doesn’t drink a lot or very often so alcohol in our house is sort of a treat and what better time to indulge in treats than at Christmas?
• Star Wars frame. He is the biggest Star Wars fan. I wanted to buy him something that I know he loves, something that’s personalised and something that he can keep so I had a friend who is also an artist draw a Star Wars family for me, the characters she’s drawn include Han Solo, Leia, Kylo Ren and Chewie (the idea is that they represent us – Han being Rory, Leia being me, Kylo being Kory and Chewie being our dog Harley – not representing us too much though, I like to think we’re a less dysfunctional family! Lol) and underneath it says ‘May The Lonsdale family be with you.’ (That’s us!!) and I’ve bought a lovely frame to put it in so that he will be able to proudly display it in our house. I think this gift is the gift that I am most excited to give him.

If you’d like, you can check her artwork out by heading to her Instagram page:

http://www.instagram.com/jadesdraw

Stocking fillers for him:

• PlayStation gift card
• Coffee beans
• Some of his favourite chocolates

Christmas gift ideas for mum:

• Candle. My mum loves candles! She has them all around the house and has them lit all the time. I think this is where I get my candle addiction from… She loves all candles; big, small, cheap, expensive but I always treat her to a Yankee candle at Christmas.
• Wax melts and burner. Like candles, my mum likes anything that smells nice and that makes her home smell nice. She has a few burners already but I’ve treated her to a fancy electric one because she’s always complaining that she’s running out of tea lights and she’s always running out of wax melts too so I’ve bought her some lovely smelling wax melts as well.
• Perfume. My mum loves perfume, she has so much of it already but she mentioned in conversation that she wanted this perfume in particular so being the good daughter that I am, that’s what I’ve got her!
• Pyjamas. I buy my mum new pyjamas for Christmas every year. She likes being able to wear them and throwing out all of her old pyjamas.
• Slippers. To go with the new pyjamas of course!

Christmas gift ideas for sister:

• Pyjamas. My sister loves pyjamas, more specifically the fluffy kind and every year at Christmas I buy her new pyjamas to match my mum.
• Slipper socks. She’s not really a fan of slippers and prefers slipper socks and they go nicely with the pyjamas that I’ve already bought her.
• Fondue set. My sister loves chocolate and more than anything she loves melting it, dipping fruit in it and then eating it. I’ve caught her melting chocolate in the microwave a few times! So I thought this fondue set would make a really nice gift for her…
• Chocolates. As if I hadn’t bought her enough chocolate already, I bought a box of her favourite chocolates too!
• Face masks. My sister loves a good pampering so I know she will love these face masks that I’ve bought her.

I buy gifts like these for my sister because that way I can’t really go wrong. Everyone loves new pyjamas and I know that she loves chocolate, any chocolate really. She also loves make-up and clothes but those can be difficult to buy if you don’t know exactly what it is that that person likes. You have to consider things like; what brand to go for? What sort of make-up and clothes? How much are you willing to spend? Etc. So because of this I find it’s easier for me to just stick with the gifts that I mentioned above.

Christmas gift ideas for Nan:

• Perfume. My Nan only wears one perfume and that’s her favourite – in this case it’s Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden. It retails for around £10 which is pretty reasonable.
• My Nan can be quite tricky to buy for, everything I wanted to buy her she’s either already got or she doesn’t want or need. This year for Christmas, instead of wrecking my brain trying to figure out what to buy her, I’ve decided no to buy her ‘something’ as such but an experience instead. I’ve bought her a voucher for afternoon tea for 2 which is essentially a present for both Nan and grandad. She loves tea and cake so I think she’s going to love this!

Christmas gift ideas for grandad:

• Like my Nan, my grandad is also tricky to buy for. He already has everything! This year I have bought my grandad a fleece jacket, he really likes them, he’s always wearing one and I’ve noticed the one he’s currently got is looking a little worn so I’ve bought him a new one.
• The afternoon tea I’ve paid for is for 2 so he’ll also get to enjoy an afternoon tea experience.

Christmas gift ideas for children:

Every year I say I’m not going to go overboard this year but every year I do – but not intentionally. I try to follow a gift guide (main present, something he wants, something he needs, something to wear and something to read.) But I still always end up buying more than I had intended. I start Christmas shopping early, usually September time and I have to hide the gifts I’ve bought and despite writing a list of what I’ve bought so that I don’t forget, I lose the list or something else happens and I end up forgetting what I’ve bought anyway! So when it comes to lifting everything out to wrap, that’s when I realise how much I’ve actually bought. But do you know what? He’s a good kid and I want to make his Christmas’ as special as I can. Within reason of course… So here goes:

Main present. Kory hasn’t really had a ‘main’ present off us this year so we’ve made up for it by buying him a few more little presents. There was one or two things I had in mind that we wanted to get him but my Nan and mum had asked could they get him them instead. I wanted to get him a scooter and Kory had been asking for some ‘yellow fish’ so another idea we had was to get him a little fish tank for in his bedroom that he could help take care of.

Something he wants. Kory loves cars, whenever we ask him ‘what do you want Father Christmas to bring you?’ He always says ‘toys, cars.’ Like he doesn’t have enough cars already! But he does spend a lot of time playing with them so we don’t mind buying him some more.

Something he needs. Kory’s only 2 years old so there’s nothing that he really needs as such… He had ran out of play doh so we did buy him some more of that for Christmas.

Something to wear. As it goes I have bought Kory some new clothes for Christmas, I’ve not spent a fortune but I do like him having a new outfit to wear on Christmas Day. I’m not going to wrap these up as presents though, these are just a treat for the run up to Christmas.

Something to read. Kory gets a lot of enjoyment out of being read to so I tend to pick new books up for him all the time. I have bought him a couple of new books for Christmas as well.

Everything else (because like I said, I always go overboard:) A Playmobil truck because he loves the Playmobil range and I find that the toys are really sturdy, Spider-Man action figure – currently his favourite superhero, Mrs Potato Head to go with the Mr Potato Head he’s already got, a wooden pirate ship that I wanted for him last year but didn’t get, rubble to complete his paw patrol collection, paw patrol tower, smart sand, a vet pet carrier and just some other small goodies.

Stocking fillers:

• Blind bags
• Kinder chocolate
• Surprise eggs

Christmas gift ideas for uncle:

Because I buy for my nephew now I only really buy my aunty and uncle a little bit of something each. This year I have bought my uncle…

• Nivea set. He likes Nivea and/or Dove so I bought him a Nivea gift set.
• Beers. My uncle likes beer so I tend to buy him some sort of beer every year for Christmas.

Christmas gift ideas for aunty:

• Body cream and perfume gift set. She likes creams and perfumes so I thought this would make a nice gift for her.
• My aunty likes wine so I bought her a novelty wine glass and a bottle of wine to go with it.

Christmas gift ideas for nephew:

Every year I buy my nephew a toy or two and an outfit to go with them. This year I bought him:

• A police station set that comes with small emergency vehicles.
• A dinosaur themed play doh set that comes with all different stencils and utensils
• Outfit

Christmas gift ideas for teacher:

This is the first year that I have had to buy a Christmas gift for a teacher, technically Kory has 3 teachers so I bought each of them a gift. With it being Kory’s first year at nursery, I wanted to buy them something that his teachers can keep. As it’s Christmas, I bought them a Christmas decoration that is a star and on one side it says ‘A little star on your tree to say thank you for teaching me.’ And on the reverse side it says ‘Love, Kory.’ As you can see from the picture…

So that is pretty much everything that I have bought for my family this year for Christmas. I hope you enjoyed reading my Christmas gift ideas. What gifts have you bought this year?

* This is not a sponsored post. *

The other day we were all sat watching the movie ‘Elf’ together as a family when suddenly my partner came out with “Elf is the most overrated Christmas film.”

I almost spat my drink across the living room. Firstly, whaaaaaaaaaaaat? How can he even think that?! And secondly, I have been with this man for almost 10 years and I’m only just finding this out about him?! This is kind of a deal breaker!

Just kidding!

But jokes aside. How can he think that? I love that movie! And it’s one of my favourites. Which got me thinking of all my favourite Christmas movies… And so I thought I would share them with you:

• Jingle all the way. Quite possibly my all time favourite Christmas movie. I loved this one when I was a kid and I’ve always loved it ever since.
• Home Alone. Who doesn’t love this movie? When I think of Christmas movies Home Alone is often one of the first that comes to mind.
• Home Alone 2. I repeat. Who doesn’t love this movie? Not as good as the first Home Alone movie in my opinion but still a strong contender in my list of my favourite Christmas movies.
• Elf. Obviously!
• I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus. Another one of my favourite Christmas movies from when I was a child.
• The Grinch. For me it isn’t Christmas until I’ve watched The Grinch at least once!
• A Christmas Carol. This timeless classic always warms my heart at Christmas time.

So those are my favourite Christmas movies! What is your favourite Christmas movie?

Christmas is a time for giving, sharing and spending time with family. I’m 24 years old now and from being a child I still get so excited for Christmas because there is just so much that I love about this time of the year. So, as part of blogmas I have decided to share with you a list of things that I love about Christmas.

• Listening to Christmas songs. For me there is nothing like hearing your first Christmas song of the year. It really kicks things off and gets me feeling all festive and ready for the holiday season. I especially like hearing Christmas songs when i’m walking round shops doing my Christmas shopping and I like listening to Christmas songs when I’m wrapping presents and decorating the Christmas tree. There’s just something about hearing those songs that makes me feel happy.
• The decorations. Putting up lights and decorating the house and Christmas tree always fills me with warmth and happiness. Once the decorations are up that means Christmas is near!
• Buying presents for loved ones. I definitely get more happiness out of buying a gift for someone that I just know they’re gonna love over receiving a present for myself. I always put a lot of thought into the presents that I buy, I take interest in what that person likes and the things they enjoy and I get all excited when I buy someone something that I know they’re gonna really like and I can never wait to see their face when they see what I’ve bought them!
• Holiday treats. I always buy special treats for over Christmas, like nice chocolates and cakes and I’m gonna be honest with you, I am very much that mum that when someone says ‘can I have one of these’ i say ‘no they’re for Christmas!’ And save all of the treats I’ve bought for Christmas Eve onwards.
• Family time. As I’ve mentioned in my previous post What Christmas means to me Christmas Day is the only time me and my family all sit down together – which is a shame but it is what it is (I go into more detail about this in my previous post.) With that being said, this is why Christmas is so important to me and all the more special. On Christmas Day we all gather for our Christmas dinner, give gifts and enjoy the Christmas festivities together and we all have the best time with one another every year.
• Seeing Kory’s face on Christmas morning. This is the one that’s hard to beat. I absolutely love coming downstairs with my little boy and partner Christmas morning. My partner goes downstairs first to ‘check’ that Father Christmas has been and me and Kory follow after him. After we see that he’s been, we all excitedly run into the living room to gather around the Christmas tree to open all of our presents. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see the smile on my boy face Christmas morning.

So those are the things that I love about Christmas. What is it about Christmas that you love the most?

Christmas for me is all about spending time with family. It is a time to be surrounded by love, friends, fun, good times and food.

I’m sure some of you are probably thinking, well shouldn’t you do that sort of stuff anyway? And I agree. Yes we should. We should all make time for one another, enjoy ourselves and make memories with our family and friends because isn’t that what life’s all about? But the truth is, it isn’t always that simple. Work, being a parent and life in general all just gets in the way and before you know it it’s been months since you last seen your friends or since you had dinner with family.

Me, my partner and Kory have Christmas dinner at my nan and grandad’s house on Christmas Day every year with my mum, my sister, my uncle, auntie and Kory’s cousin and we always have the best time but did you know that this is the only time we all come together to sit down with one another to have dinner and to enjoy each other’s company. Sad, I know, but that’s reality.

I see and speak to my mum and sister every day, I speak to my Nan and grandad on the phone every day and usually see them every other day, my auntie and uncle I don’t see that much but their little boy, Kory’s cousin, I try to see as much as I can with Kory as I’d like them to be close. We’re quite a close knit family, it’s just difficult to get us all in the same room at the same time. That’s why Christmas to me means family. I’ve always had Christmas dinner at my nan and grandad’s house, I’ve never missed and I’ve always spent it surrounded by family and although we don’t get together as much as we’d all like to, we always have such a nice time together when we do and I think the fact that Christmas Day and Christmas dinner being the only time that we’re all in the same room together at the same time, as much as that sucks it just makes Christmas that bit more special.

So, that’s what Christmas means to me. What does Christmas mean to you?