This week, we were invited to see this year’s Christmas Grotto at Churchill Square Shopping Centre, Brighton, as well as pay a visit to see the Big Guy in Red himself.
We weren’t really planning on taking T to see another Father Christmas (mainly because we haven’t planned for the awkward more-than-one-Father-Christmas? questions) but when we found out what the theme for this year’s Grotto was I thought I’d take a chance with the potential questions and pay the centre a visit.
Christmas is less than TWO WEEKS away! I can’t believe how fast December, not to mention the whole year.
Thankfully, we’ve managed to squeeze in a few Christmas related trips already, from a Christmas Trail at London Zoo to a visit to Amberley Museum. We’ve also booked a visit to a Lego themed grotto this week! We are well and truly on the festive train.
Last week, the lovely Jules from Pondering Parenthood tagged me in the Christmas tag, which is a lovely Q&A dedicated to Christmas, so I thought now would be the best time to share my answers.
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Following the fun we had from last year’s Book Advent, we’ve decided to do another book advent for this year. As mentioned previously, this isn’t because we’re anti-chocolate advents (he also gets a little chocolate coin) this is because we’re simply book mad in this house and like finding any excuse to add more to his collection.
For those of you interested in doing your own, but are concerned about cost, this doesn’t cost us much at all. We often start collecting the books throughout the year, either by scouring charity shops, garden centres, etc. or looking online at places like The Book People or The Works who often have good deals on book bundles.
Last weekend, we decided to take T to see Father Christmas for the first time. We’ve never thought about doing it before as not only was/is T not keen on people in costumes, but Santa’s Grottos can be very expensive and, if I’m honest, a baby/toddler is probably not going to really appreciate the sentiment.
This year, however, T is very much aware of who the man in red is and is incredibly excited about Christmas – making it the perfect time to finally meet him in person! It wasn’t long after this that we then saw an advert for Amberley Museum on Facebook. It looked really magical and had decent reviews. Plus, we saw that they had a train that took you to see Father Christmas.
With this fact alone, we were sold.
We’re a family that very much liked to capture certain memories – it’s the reason we started this blog! Over the years we’ve saved several pieces of ‘art’ T has brought home from nursery and created a scrapbook, we’ve made a note of certain things he’s done, and I’ve lost count of the amount of photos and videos we have saved. Time goes by so fast that it’s important to us to save those memories.
When you become a parent, it’s therefore incredibly easy to collect novelty gifts and trinkets to document these occasions and beyond. From personalised toys to prints of their feet – there are so many ways you can capture this special moment, and we’re no different when it comes to saving a few of them.
It’s not often that I welcome early Christmas celebrations. For me, Christmas starts in December give or take a few early Christmas purchases because the items were on sale! The thought of putting my tree up anytime before December sends icicles down my spine. I just don’t want to be bored of Christmas before it’s begun!
That being said, when certain places put on a Christmas event or the movie channels turn on their festive viewing, I’ve been known to have a sneaky peek – allowing myself to get a little excited for Christmas, which is exactly what we did when we visited London Zoo last week. They’ve recently opened their Christmas trail and on their opening night we were invited to see it in all it’s splendour.