Jingle Bells!

I may sound like I'm bragging but I really don't think I've ever had a bad Christmas in my life, and I owe that to my brilliant parents! I'm an only child (not spoilt, I promise) and my parents always went all out for me. In the lead up to Christmas there'd be shopping trips up to London, visits to Santa's grotto, and other events. And then on the day itself we'd have family, friends, and neighbours join us in the evening. Sometimes though we went over to other family members' homes for Christmas and that was great too.

Now that I'm a mum, I work very hard to keep that magic alive for my own kids who are still quite young. I want them to look back at Christmas as a special time, so a lot of the traditions and things my parents did for me, I do for…

Christmas is just around the corner. Even though I know when it is EVERY year, it still seems to creep up on me and I'm left totally unprepared! Haha! Still have masses to do before the big day.

It seems all so different to how it was back in the day when as kids, Christmas took forever to come by. But we loved all the customs and traditions that we had back then - carol singers, nativity plays, shops decked out with glittery decorations, and people wishing you a merry Christmas and actually meaning it! Not a grumble to be heard!

But of course it's the family traditions that stick out in my mind. We had a set of Christmas decorations that were put on the tree every year - some of them made by my mum. And she also used to bake these delicious cookies each year including these…