Every year, at about this time, I start planning my imaginary Christmas.
My imaginary Christmas is pretty amazing, and looks a bit like a Norman Rockwell painting. I have a perfectly trimmed tree, the presents underneath are wrapped in hand-printed paper and tied with bows that incorporate cinnamon sticks, and locally-sourced holly berries.
On the table, there’s a perfectly cooked turkey, with all the trimmings and we all sit down to enjoy a family meal before retiring to the lounge to play Monopoly and read books, while drinking hot chocolate (topped with cream and mini marshmallows, obviously), in front of a roaring log fire.
Of course, you’ve read my blog long enough to know this is pretty much never going to happen, right?
I’ve spent three Christmas Days in recent memory in the local A&E department, twice I’ve cooked and forgotten to serve the roast potatoes with lunch, and presents are always, always wrapped at 1am while drinking something sophisticated like, erm, Baileys and watching Elf for the 423rd time.
So when Oxfam asked me to share my top tips to simplify Christmas, I thought they must have made a mistake.
After I’d stopped laughing, I decided to run a blog carnival where I invite you – my infinitely smarter, more organised and capable readers – to share your top decorating, cooking, craft and other tips that help to Simplify Your Christmas. How do you make Christmas extra-special without a lot of stress and expense?
One perfect way to Simplify Your Christmas is opting for ethical gifts from the Oxfam Unwrapped range. Whether you choose to buy a goat or build a bog, ethical gifts are a great way to remind children that sometimes it’s the simple presents that mean the world to someone.
If you’d like to take part in the Simplify Your Christmas carnival, here’s how:
- Write a post on the ‘Simplify Your Christmas’ theme and publish it this week
- At the end of your post include a link to the Oxfam Unwrapped gift catalogue
- Grab the badge below by copying the code (you might need to re-add the quotation marks yourself if you're using Blogger) and include it either in your post or on your blog sidebar
- Email a link to your post to me
The Carnival will be published here on Who’s the Mummy next Monday, 22nd November and will bring together all your amazing tips and hints on making Christmas 2010 your best yet. The Carnival will also be promoted on Oxfam's Facebook, Twitter and website pages, meaning your tips could help thousands of new readers!
<div align="center"><a href="https://www.oxfam.org.uk/unwrapped" title="Oxfam Unwrapped" target="_blank"><img src="https://gettingink.typepad.com/Blog%20Badge.jpg" alt="Oxfam Unwrapped" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
