Newbie Tuesday roundup: You WILL feel the festive vibe!

Hohoho merry #elfontheshelf to you! No? Too much joviality and pressure to have fun? Prefer something ~~a bit~~ a lot more mainstream while you bide your time and pop your tree up at the last minute?

Well tough. If you’re not a fan of Christmas look away now, because I’m totally sipping the Baileys and scoffing mince pies with my elf while the kids stamp sleigh shapes into the gingerbread. Look my way with a glare of pre-festive fatigue and I’ll merrily yell “Humbug!” at you and bake another batch of snowflake cookies, so there. Today I’m giving you a taste of the best Christmas blog posts from newer bloggers.

Christmas blog posts!

So first up is a Dad with Christmas angst. Struggling to know whether to bother with anything for the baby, faced with needing to purchase half of ToysRUs for his eldest, and totally immune to the subtle hints of his wife, I feel we owe Devon Dad a helping hand. Please go tell him what he should get, because he’s having a Christmas shopping crisis already! All I know is, if he leaves it till the last minute it’s bound to snow, and his car will be stuck in the drive, and then his only option is the garage convenience store. And not every woman likes a Ferrero Rocher, you know? (I speak from experience…)

A good place for him to start might be with stocking fillers – Daisies & Pie has made a nice handy list with all the usuals, plus one or two you might not have thought of. And whilst you’re over there, she has a recipe for mulled wine on her blog – some of you might need it *points at the naysayers.* What’s more, The Pie Patch has just the glass to make for a perfect mulled wine moment. Will someone please contact Actually Daddy for me? Some time around 23 December should give him the appropriate shopping window.

Alice and Amelia is definitely feeling it – just one look at Amelia’s onesie has me dashing to New Look to get one for the entire family. What could be better than snuggling up looking this cute on the sofa by the tree. What do you mean I wouldn’t look that cute?? I’m not entirely sure what to make of DaDa Drums quest for Christmas cheer though, and neither, by the looks on their faces, are his children. I’m a huge fan of the festive (have I said that already?) but here’s a Dad who totally takes Christmas jumpers to a different level. Check out his festive Silent Sunday and tell me what you think. Shall we all get one?

Cake. Surely I can tempt even the most die-hard Christmas procrastinators with cake? Admittedly Mummy Makes Cakes‘ linky post this month involves Christmas trees, but she says any celebration cake will do, so even if you haven’t made a reindeer-antler cake (and really, why would you not??) you can go link up your masterpieces. Come on, I know you have cakes this month, I’ve seen them on Pinterest. Not that I’ve been looking. Ahem.

Or how about ideas for Christmas gifts for the teachers? Just the Way we Want to has the simplest, easiest home-made gift that is so much more thoughtful than the usual biscuits and flowers that I always resort to. I see all those home-made cakes going in on the last day of term and always wonder if they are destined for the bin, but this is a gift that a teacher would definitely keep. Adventures of a Monkey Footed Mummy suggests choosing some craft kits to make adorable little figures – these would make perfect personal gifts to a teacher that they would find hard not to hang on to.

I mentioned Elf on the Shelf and I know this chap has caused not insignificant angst with his daily facebook posts. I must confess to already finding myself in a panic at midnight because I’m not sure what to make him do. So far he has wrapped our tree with loo roll, and vomited up the worst of the Bertie Bott’s jelly beans. What next?? Well I’ve discovered an Elf on the Shelf Pinterest board courtesy of Winegums and Watermelons. Thank you – you’ve saved me a lot of late night googling! Life with Munchers has also written about her Christmas elf, and I’m looking forward to finding a whole new community of mischievous soft toys over the next few weeks.

I’m going to be real here and say that actually, I do understand why folk are not really into the elf. After all, it does create an extra level of things to do in an already busy parent’s life. That said, I’m done with the realism – of course my kids know it’s me, it will never make them behave better, and obviously I won’t be phoning Santa to tell on them. But every morning there are chuckles of delight, pretensions of belief, outrage at his antics. And the best thing? The knowledge that they know that all this fun is because their Mum is a fun Mum – I’m hoping that will carry me through the teenage years and out the other side!

Sadly, More than a Momma has yet to discover her Christmas Spirit – it’s missing in action! I’m rather hoping that you can all nip over there with some ideas for perking up her twinkle – failing that, I shall have to direct her to the mulled wine recipe and enter her into so Christmas chocolate giveaways 😉 Or, or, or we can send her to a Christmas Market! I recently missed out on a trip to a Christmas Market in Bruges (damn childcare!) and I was gutted! For me there is nothing better than wandering the stalls full of gingerbread and tree decorations, gluwein in hand, to get me feeling festive. Cosmic and Co is a photography and illustration blog but her recent post tells me I can visit a Christmas market in London in a couple of week’s time. Join me people – surely by then you’ll all be full of Christmas cheer?

Right then, surely you’ve managed to find something to tempt you into Christmas in amongst that lot? And if not, here’s a really cute alpaca to cheer you up, because you’re clearly in need of something to hug. Spend some time on Kitty’s Blog – it’s lovely 🙂

Disclaimer: I apologise if my forcibly dragging you into Christmas has caused offence. Actually, no I don’t. Merry Christmas everyone!!

About Helen Wills

Helen Wills is a mum of 2 children in primary school and blogs at Actually Mummy on parenting issues, school, travel, and life according to the kids. Since starting her blog in 2011, Helen has won 2 national awards, and puts a lot of her success down to the amazing online community of bloggers at BritMums. As her children grow older, her writing is increasingly influenced by their opinions, and her blog reflects this drive to get the most out of family life. Helen works from home in copywriting and social media. She is on Twitter @actuallymummy.