I love writing this little round up of our Christmas each year. With it being William’s first Christmas and the first one Florence really understood the whole magic of Santa, this Christmas was a really special one for us. I tried to fill Advent with […]
Following on from my post yesterday about what Florence is getting for Christmas, I thought I’d also share with you the things we have bought for William this year. With it being his first Christmas I have been so excited to choose the perfect gifts […]
I hope that this post is taken in the spirit that it’s written – for inspiration for those who aren’t sure what to get, rather than a showy off kind if thing, but I thought I’d show you some of the things Florence will be getting for Christmas this year.
A lot of thought has gone into the children’s gifts this year and I’ve continued a tradition that my mum started when I was young of each of the children getting 10 things from Father Christmas and then some other bits from us too. I know that Father Christmas giving more than one small token is a bit of a controversial way to do things these days, but as long as they’re taught gratitude and kindness along with it I hope that they would never gloat or make someone else feel less as they grow up. Neither of the children have super expensive gifts this year but in the future I’m sure the requests will start to come in and that’s when we’ll likely make sure ‘main’ presents come from us. I guess it’s just a personal preference but I do love the sense of magic that Father Christmas brings and the feeling of having woken up to a pile of gifts (regardless of their value – one year all I had asked for was some paper!) from Santa as a child was just magical. All of their presents are already wrapped and they have their own Father Christmas paper that he’s chosen specially for each of them – according to him, this saves a lot of time writing labels!!
We had originally got her a second hand paw patrol balance bike but out of nowhere she has been set on Father Christmas bringing a unicorn scooter so we are holding it back for her birthday. I’ve ordered this one from Argos which was £21.99 and part of their 2 for £30 deal so I picked up a gift for a friend’s little on too.
Asda sell some absolutely beautiful and great value wooden toys but very rarely put them on their website so it can be a bit of pot luck when you go into their stores as to what you might find. With Florence’s recent adoration for Frozen and all things princesses I thought this little play set I found would make the perfect gift.
I couldn’t find the full set online but I’ve bought this pair of fairy wings together with a matching tutu from our local Claire’s store.
These were a bit of a bargain find in our local Entertainer toy store at just £3.50 each. I guess they were so cheap because they are from the discontinued Mighty Pup range? Not sure, but they complete her collection and I saved some pennies too.
We do a lot of baking here and we are really starting to ecplore maths through our weighing of the ingredients etc. I thought it might be a nice idea to add some scales to her play kitchen so that she can not only expand on her roleplay but we can continue to explore numbers through play. This little set was £12 in Wilko. 
I’d really like to start having Sunday night board games as a family so I thought this would make a perfect little intro to board games for Florence at her age. It’s like the original Hungry Hippos but with frogs!
HappyLand Playground | I’m adding just one thing to our Happyland collection this year, and that’s this playground set.
Personalised baking bits | I mentioned above how much we love baking and I wanted to get something personalised for each of the children so when I found this personalised baking bowl & matching utensils from Sophia Victoria Joy I knew they’d be perfect! 
Of course, the children will also both receive some gifts from us. The big guy isn’t getting all the credit! We’ve chosen a few gifts for each of them to open in the morning from us and these will be wrapped in different paper so as not to ruin the illusion!
Elsa doll
Frozen Princess necklace
Pincer set
Fisher Price Music Set – joint with William
These are the standard little bits which most people call stocking fillers, but we always open them after Christmas dinner or just before tea so they’ve been fondly known as tea time presents for as long as I can remember. Most of these have been picked up in poundland or similar stores and none of them cost more than a fiver.
Tooth Brush & Tooth paste – Christmas just isn’t Christmas if you don’t get a new tooth brush am I right?
Money Box
Lanka Kade Unicorn
Stickers
Frozen Plate / Bowl / Cup set
Alphabet Place Mat
I hope this has given you some inspiration for your own 2 year old’s Chirstmas gifts. 7 sleeps to go!
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Florence loves play dough (what toddler doesn’t?!) and she’s been asking me to play it almost every day since our last tub had to be thrown out as she’d left the lid off and mushed all the colours together. I’ve been meaning to have another […]
It has become a bit of a tradition here to have a little mini Christmas photo shoot in December. This year is William’s first Christmas, so as well as some festive photographs of ecah of them, I got to capture some sibling shots which have […]
I was talking on instagram stories he other day about out family advent calendar for this year and I how instead of just toys & chocolate we were going to be filling it with activities to do in the lead up to Christmas. I really want our Advent this year to be full of magic and sparkle and to make some memories our little family will treasure forever and this felt like a really lovely way to do it. I have made an advent calendar using an over the door shoe hanger and some gold stickers and filled each of the pockets with places to go or things to do.
They range from making Christmas cards and movie days to visiting Father Christmas and trips to some our local festive attractions. And because some of them will likely happen on the same day, I’ve added a few more than 24 to fill it out. I also want to teach Florence the importance of giving and of helping those less fortunate than us so as well as crafts and days out, I’ve added some acts of kindness to our activity advent too.
Decorate the Christmas tree
Have a Christmas Photo Shoot – See Florence’s first Christmas photo shoot here
Write & send Christmas Cards
Wrap presents together
Visit Father Christmas
Christmas at Bedgebury
Leeds Castle Christmas Market
Christmas at Kent Life
A trip to see the Reindeer at Knole Park
See Frozen II at the cinema
Christmas shopping day
Go on a Christmas Light Hunt
See a Christmas show / pantomime
Go to the Church Nativity
Have a pyjama day
Set up a home Christmas Cinema with popcorn & treats
Build a blanket den and decorate it with fairy lights
Snowman paper plate
Decorate a Christmas tree cone
Christmas Crackers
Salt dough tree decoration
Do you wanna build a Snowman? Play dough
Make gifts for friends
Make a Christmas collage
Reindeer Biscuits – Recipe here!
Christmas tree cupcakes
Festive jam tarts
Decorate some festive biscuits
Christmas mallow pops
Donate a toy to a giving tree
Buy an extra Christmas dinner for a local family
Pay a visit to a local nursing home to spread some Christmas cheer
Donate to the local children’s ward
We’re only on day 2 and our Activity Advent calendar has gone down a treat with Florence already. She can’t wait to wake up and find out what we are all up to tomorrow. 
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I’m back with another festive bake this week and this time I am revisiting an idea I first made a number of years ago. Florence has been asking to make biscuits a lot lately and frankly I’m not all that good at making them but […]
And just like that, Christmas is over and we find ourselves counting down to the beginning of a New Year. In lieu of our normal weekend blog, I thought I’d share how we spent Christmas as a family this year. Against all the odds, we […]
