Starting Christmas Early

Last week my kids and I put our Christmas decorations and tree up.  I know it's early but we have a tradition in this house of starting Christmas early and even though some people think we are crazy (my husband) it actually really helps to get you in the festive mood.

I'm not sure how it comes around so quickly to be honest.  One minute it's August and I'm organising my son's birthday and then the shops start putting up their decorations and it is really quite ridiculous.  I tend to get a bit pissed off with this and of course a bit stressed when I think about the whole present shopping issue and what the hell to get my kids this year as they seem to already have everything on the planet and also still believe in Santa so their lists consist of an Apple Mac computer, a surfboard, hair dryer, curler and straightener, most expensive Lego monstrosity ever created and a Furby!  When I tell them that they probably wont get all of these things as they are all very expensive their response is "but Santa doesn't pay for any presents!  The elves make them all!"  Um yea, that shit just aint true but ok maybe Santa will need to focus more on the poor kids this year and as we aren't poor you probably wont get everything on your list so you may want to revisit the list. (so close to telling them Santa doesn't exist here).

Anyway after stressing over having the biggest Christmas lunch in our new house for both sides of the family and also having the in-laws stay here for 3 weeks (yes I'm not joking there) I realise that I'm being a massive scrooge and I need to do something to fix it so putting up the decorations is my way of letting Christmas in to my brain and letting the festiveness flow through my veins and surprisingly it actually works!

I always visit the best cheap shop on the Coast called What's Cheap (I could spend 8 hours in there)  and I end up spending a shit load of money on new decorations and lots of Christmas crap which is truly not needed and this is when my excitement kicks in.  I guess if you let yourself jump on the bandwagon you may actually enjoy the ride.

This year I even let the kids decorate the tree without any help from me which seems to be the one thing that most of us want control over and find difficult to leave as is but as they get older they seem to figure out that not every bauble goes on one branch and it looks better if you  actually spread them out just a little!

So here is their finished product which looks just fine to me. It may be a little crazy but that definitely represents our family and our style!

So my message to you people who are stressing over Christmas is to just let it go, let the festiveness in to run through your veins and take over your brain and you will definitely be jumping on the Christmas bandwagon with those of us who like to start Christmas early!  

Oh yea and I also find that lots of alcohol definitely helps to get you in the festive mood too!

Have fun

Love Katie xx