Feeling Festive

Things have been getting festive in the Kirsch household. The decorations are up, presents are appearing under the tree and I keep looking for excuses to make Christmas biscuits.

So here's a quick catch-up of our advent festivities.

Winter Wonderland at World's End Garden Centre, Wendover
This place has a cult following if you live in Buckinghamshire. Everyone with kids, and even those who don't, make their way to view the wintry displays in the 'Wonderland' and visit Santa in his cabin. They also have a couple of fairground rides and some craft stalls and tons of decorations and Christmas trees to choose from. For the past few years I've gone on a weekday with my best friend, but it meant that Matt had never been and so we went on a weekend and it was packed. Even after an early lunch we still had to wait in the queue for ages - I'd recommend going, but only on a weekday! It's worth it!




Christmas Decorations
We always put our decorations up for the beginning of the month - usually the closest weekend to the 1st December. This year we managed to get the tree and some garlands up but the other bits and finishing touches have taken longer due to us not having quite enough for our larger home!

Christmas Card Making
For the last few years, I have attempted to make our cards as unique as possible by getting Lily to make them. This year they were super easy and can be found here.

Reading
We do a lot of reading in our house and at the beginning of the month got out our Christmas book box. We're working our way through them every night and Lily spends most of the day 'reading' to Ollie and her dolls.


The Tree Barn, Christmas Common
Another annual pilgrimage for the Kirsch family, The Tree Barn is a magical place not only for buying your yuletide tree but also for kitting out your home with beautiful decorations. We head there every year to purchase extra ornaments for our tree.

Biscuits!
I love these biscuits. Made with mixed spice, extra cinnamon and some black pepper they taste, and smell, just like Christmas. I also made some chocolate cupcakes for one of the toddler group Christmas parties with Rudolph-inspired red cherries on top.


Parties and get-togethers
I love the social side of Christmas, seeing old friends and catching up. Lily and Ollie have a much more exciting social life than Matt and I and have already attended a couple of Christmas parties, with even more planned over the next week.

Nola-Day at Oxford Christmas Market
Without intending it, my best friend has initiated a Christmas tradition in our home. Every year since Lily was born she has taken a day off before Christmas and we have had a girly day out. Like I said above, we've previously headed to Winter Wonderland at World's End but this year we fancied a change and had a fab day out in Oxford. We had a lovely wander around the shops, spent more than pennies at the Christmas market and warmed our hands and tummies with mulled wine.

Homemade Christmas Decorations
I love making things with Lily and Ollie, spending time doing creative activities and getting messy (within reason, I'm the one who has to clear up after all). We've made Christmas tree pictures, cards, biscuits and these really fun snowflakes made with coloured lollipop sticks and tons of glitter.


What have you been doing to get into the festive spirit? Do you have any advent traditions? I love hearing other people's Christmas activities so let me know what you've been up to in the comments below!

A Bit Of Everything  Clarina’s Contemplations
Cuddle Fairy said...

What a festive time you are having! The Winter Wonderland sounds amazing. I love the Rudolph inspired cupcakes, what a fab idea! #abitofeverything x

Coombe Mill - Fiona said...

I love all the things you have been doing, winter wonderland at Wendover sounds very special and I adore homemade decorations, with my own kids too old to appreciate it I am saving all my best crafts and Christmas fun to have with our holiday guests over the coming week. Happy Christmas to you #SavouringTheSeason

Happy Homebird said...

Love your activities, we have lots of things that we do too from spooky winter parades to the grotto wonderland at the local garden centre. Love this time of year. Those biscuits sound very nice.

Clarina1985 said...

What a lovely list of Christmas traditions! I bet your little have loved it! I totally failed on the homemade decoration front this year... determined to change that next year!
Thanks so much for linking up with #savouringtheseason ... hope to see you again this week!

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