My Top 5 Christmas Films

 Welcome to my next '12 Days of Blogmas' post. Today I'm going to share a little about my favourite Christmas films and why I love them. 

If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it here (it's a real nostalgia trip): My favourite Christmas Gifts from the 90s

My tastes have definitely changed over the years - when I was younger I always loved Santa Claus the Movie and Miracle on 34th Street but although I still like them, they no longer make my top 5 films. It's also interesting that although I do enjoy some of the newer films like The Christmas Chronicles, they aren't my absolute favourites either. 

My Top 5 Christmas Films

It's A Wonderful Life

Homemade Festive Bakes Recipe

This post has been published by Steve. 

Everyone is always excited when a certain North-East Bakery starts selling the Festive Bakes. It is the new signal for the start of Christmas. 

This year I decided to make my own to see if I can make one just as good. I've used a few short cuts and this has made them super easy to make. This recipe will make 6 large bakes or 12 small bakes.

6 Reasons to Visit The Woodmans Arms this Winter

This is an advert for November 2022 and based on a visit in November 2022. Any edits / shares after this date have not been asked or paid for. 

The Woodmans Arms in Whickham is one of our favourite restaurants / pubs in North East England. It is one of our go-to places to dine as a family where we consistantly receive great service and I know there is something on the menu to suit everyone. 

Here are six reasons to visit this winter: 

1 - It's a Beautiful Festive Setting 

My Favourite Childhood Christmas Presents

 Happy 1st December! You may have noticed that some bloggers take part in Blogmas. It's usually 24 different prompts that you have to write about, one for each day between 1-24 December. I do love the idea of Blogmas but I know for a fact I won't stick to it so I won't be taking part officially. 

However instead, I'm going to share a different kind of Christmas post in December - ones where I just sit down and write a little about Christmas and then just publish straight away. I'm hoping to publish 12 posts like this altogether so I'm going with the original series title of '12 Days of Blogmas'.  They won't be in any order and sometimes there may be more than one per day and other times there may be a few days between posts. 

5 Places to Visit in Northumberland in 2023

Thanks to our writer Bethanie for this post.

As we swiftly make our way out of 2022 and head towards the new year, I thought it might a nice idea to share a few places we have enjoyed in the last year across Northumberland.

As well as this there is also a brand new, exciting venture which has slowly been coming together the past few years and is nearly ready to be opened. Find out more in this blog post of 5 exciting places to visit in 2023 so you can start looking forward to the year ahead. 

These are all locations that we have enjoyed as a family, within Northumberland. 

Lilidorei: new play adventure at The Alnwick Garden 

The highly anticipated “Lilidorei” is set to be opening in Spring 2023. This brand new adventure playground has cost in the region of £15million so there are going to be some high expectations for it.

Credit : Monstrum 

However, from the photos that are currently being released it does look very impressive. You can also catch a glimpse of the progress when driving past the Alnwick Garden. 

Step Into Xmas Cramlington & Metrocentre

This is an advert for November 2022. Any shares / edits beyond this date have not been asked or paid for. This post is based on a visit to Step Into Xmas Cramlington in November 2022 which is also when the photos in this post were taken.  

Step Into Xmas is a premium Christmas Tree Buying Experience set across two convenient locations in North East England. I absolutely LOVE our tree from here and will actually go as far as to say that it is genuinely the best tree we've ever had. 

Like many, I struggled to get into the festive spirit this year but I can hand on heart say that going to pick out a lovely real tree with the family and then decorating it at home with our festive playlist playing and a Christmas buffet afterwards really got us all feeling Christmassy. FINALLY! 

Christmas Tree Brownies Recipe

This post has been published by Steve. 

Brownies are one of my favourite bakes. The are very easy, super quick and so delicious. For Christmas I decided to jazz them up a bit and turn them into happy little christmas trees. This recipe will make 6 large brownies which are ideal for leaving out for Santa, as a Christmas Movie Night Snack or after school treat.