I think 2024 was the first year since I started blogging over a decade ago that I didn’t post something before Christmas. 

Yes, I was busy – December is often one of the busiest points of the year as both my clients and I take some time off over the festive season, so essentially a month’s worth of work needs to be done, approved and scheduled in advance in less than three weeks. Additionally, regardless of how organised I try to be, there are ALWAYS extra things that appear – company Christmas parties and events (the week before Christmas I was in London for two days filming several events with a client), Christmas and New Year video messages from different teams etc. I genuinely enjoy it – this time of year is always perfect for creating lots of fun and joyful content, but it doesn’t necessarily allow for personal Christmas prep time, (despite my declarations in November that this year would be different).

A huge factor this year was simply that I just wasn’t feeling particularly ‘festive.’ I wasn’t struggling mentally – November was extremely challenging but I was starting to feel much better as December kicked in – but there was almost no enthusiasm for most of it and I couldn’t quite explain why. Aside from putting up the tree and sending a few cards, I had done almost nothing.

Thankfully, the day before Christmas Eve I woke up at silly o’clock and the Christmas vibes that had passed me by all month had seemingly arrived. Technically I was still working until lunchtime on Christmas Eve, but I was excited and suddenly wanted to do ALL THE THINGS. 

A few hours later I was up, dressed and outside my local Aldi just as it opened. This has become somewhat of an annual tradition – I have my Christmas list (consisting of mainly vegetables for Christmas dinner which are one offer for brilliantly low prices) and I’m in, done and home before the rest of the world has woken up. Usually, I’m pretty good at sticking to my list, keeping my head down and ploughing through with the mindset of shopping for just two people for a few days worth of meals, but this year I really enjoyed taking a bit more time and getting extra things that we didn’t need, just because. At the same time, The Bloke had driven to our local Marks & Spencer for the turkey (we always buy one of their pre-stuffed, pre-rolled for two things that takes about an hour to cook), so I text him with a list of things that I suddenly ‘needed’ from there too. 

The real festivities didn’t start until lunchtime on Christmas Eve. I logged off, wrapped The Bloke’s presents, and we settled in for the rest of the day. We’ve developed our own traditions of what we watch over the years – starting with A Muppets Christmas Carol and followed with the original Clash of the Titans. This year, I made a mini charcuterie board for us to share, and then later in the day baked a Camembert in the oven (this time without exploding it – don’t ask), and cut up a selection of crudités. 

On Christmas Day, our body clocks meant that we were both awake really early, so we got up to open our presents like two five-year-olds excited to see if Santa had visited. In previous years I usually cook a big, fancy breakfast afterwards, but this year decided to just do toast as I knew that dinner was going to be enormous. 

And then, we did this:

After seeing all the hilarious JCPenney photo shoots on social media this year, we put on matching Christmas jumpers and created our own. The Bloke is an avid photographer and had set a backdrop up, but I decided to add in Christmas backgrounds using Canva instead, laughing hysterically when adding the dinosaur (something that I wanted to do with our wedding photos and never quite got round to it). Here are just two of them – there’s a few more.

The rest of the day was just LOVELY. Christmas dinner was EPIC, we watched Elf, Die Hard, and the perfect ending was the completely fabulous finale of Gavin & Stacey. I’ve always been a huge fan of the show and after the massive cliffhanger in their last episode five years ago I have been desperate for just one more, just for resolution. When a final Christmas episode was announced earlier in the year, I didn’t care about anything else I watched on Christmas Day, and in preparation a few weeks ago watched the entire thing right from the beginning again. 

Honestly, I’m still crying about it several days later. It was absolutely beautiful – one of the best endings to any show I’ve ever seen. With pretty much the entire original cast, it was a rollercoaster of laughter and sobbing, filled with references to previous episodes and moments that were so poignant that I’m even tearing up just thinking about it. 

Mick’s speech. And when Mick stood up. 

That was it. I BAWLED and the tears didn’t stop from that point, even after the end credits had finished rolling.

Just. Brilliant. 

And the last few days have been equally as lovely. I’ve spent time with Mum, walked my friend’s dog and relaxed properly for the first time since I went on holiday to Scotland in August. 

A little belated, but I hope you have all had a lovely festive season!