Wednesday 16 December 2015

12 Ways To Feel More Festive!

Hi guys!

  It's hard to believe that there are only 9 days left until Christmas! I must confess I'm really excited, which is why I made the decision to write a Christmas-themed post for you this time.
  Whether you want to celebrate Christmas to the fullest, or to make the Christmas holidays more memorable and exciting for your family and friends, it is my task to do my best to help you get inspired and lift your Christmas spirit this year.

Here are a few ideas that might help you feel a bit more festive:

1. Decorate your house with Christmas decorations: The most obvious way to feel more festive is to make your house look more festive. I personally love decorating the Christmas tree in my living room and placing fairy lights and scented candles all over the place. Christmas decorations brighten up the room, giving it a more cozy and festive feel. A personal suggestion of mine is to place an additional small Christmas tree in your bedroom to get you in a more positive mood when you wake up in the morning. Also, placing fairy lights on your wall or bed frame can give your bedroom a more magical feel at night.

2. Listen to Christmas tunes: There is nothing like a good old Christmas song to instantly put you in a more festive mood. While Christmas songs may not be everyone's favourite thing to listen to, I think that when coming across them, most people can get a very nostalgic feeling and reminisce happy memories from Christmas time when they were children. That alone is enough to make you feel a bit happier that it's this time of the season again. So, turn on the radio or search for Christmas playlists on Youtube or Spotify, sing along and dance to the rhythm of Christmas.

3. Watch Christmas films: I happen to be a film enthusiast which means that I really enjoy watching all kinds of films. Though Christmas films aren't my favourite kind, they are really fun to watch, especially with family and friends and they always manage to put everyone in a happy and festive mood. So, call your loved ones over, make yourself comfortable on your couch, wrapped up in a warm and cozy blanket with a hot drink in hand and popcorn on your lap and enjoy a bunch of Christmas movies.
A few popular movie suggestions include: 
Home Alone
Elf
Love Actually
The Polar Express
The Nightmare Before Christmas
How The Grinch Stole Christmas

4. Watch Vlogmas videos by your favourite Youtubers: What is Vlogmas, you ask? It's basically when Youtubers upload vlogs (videos where they record their personal lives) every single day until Christmas. Most Youtubers that vlog -if not all- get extremely festive and excited during Vlogmas, so you're bound to see a lot of fun and interesting content in their videos. No doubt, they'll inspire you to be more festive and lively during the days that lead up to Christmas. If they do, don't forget to leave positive comments on their videos to let them know that and the fact that you enjoyed their content.
My personal favourite Youtubers to follow during Vlogmas are Tanya at "Tanya Burr" (click here), Louise at "Sprinkle of Chatter" (click here) and Zoe(Zoella) at "More Zoella"(click here).

5. Read blog posts about Christmas: At this time of year most bloggers write about Christmas-related topics which can be very enjoyable to read and can also inspire you on how to spend your Christmas holidays. Not to mention that they can provide a lot of advice on various activities such as gift-giving, decorating, baking, organising a Christmas party etc. Take the time to search the internet for blog posts about Christmas and again don't forget to leave positive comments to inform the bloggers that you enjoyed reading what they wrote and that they helped you bring out a more festive mood.

6. Wear Christmas-themed clothing: With Christmas right around the corner, you can find plenty of clothing items with Christmassy designs in various shops downtown or online, including socks, leggings, pajamas and of-course cute Christmas jumpers. Apart from being super cute and cozy don't forget that they can also make great presents for those who love everything about Christmas.
Make sure to watch this video where Zoella will get you excited for Christmas jumpers.

(I want these leggings sooo bad! 
You can find them on Etsy.)

7. Bake Christmas cookies: There's nothing better than a batch of Christmas cookies to get you in a good mood. I personally love cookies and I really enjoy spending time trying out different recipes, but I get even more excited around this time of year. Their adorable appearance, the wonderful taste and the delicious, Christmassy smell that fills the house, are certain to put a smile on my face. Baking and decorating Christmas cookies is always a very enjoyable task, but aside from doing it all by yourself, you can also make it into a group activity and include your friends or family in the fun. Furthermore you can give the cookies you made to your loved ones as a Christmas gift, which would be a wonderful way to spread the holiday cheer.
Again, I rely on Zoella for a lovely recipe for "Christmas sugar cookies" on her blog.



8. Get into Christmas crafts: If you're quite creative and enjoy spending your time making crafts, then why not make a few Christmas decorations, or cards to send to your loved ones? You can get a variety of ideas for Christmas crafts or DIY projects with a simple search online. Here is a link to CountryLiving, a site that provides a list of articles on Christmas crafts and you can also look for more craft ideas on Pinterest (where I found the photos for this post).

9. Play with snow: For me, snow is something that makes Christmas more special. In Greece, the country where I live, as well as many other countries where the climate is quite warm, we don't get any snow, apart from maybe a couple of days in February. So, for those of you who do get snow, I encourage you to go play in it, the way that the rest of us can't. Go out with your family and friends, build snowmen and have snowball fights, go skiing and snowboarding if possible and have loads of fun while acknowledging how special it is that you have that privilege.

10. Spend time with your family and friends: Christmas is all about spending time with friends and family, doing fun activities and celebrating together. And you'll find that even if you're not in the mood for celebrating, the enthusiasm of others can prove to be quite contagious.

11. Watch old family videos about Christmas: If you have family videos of your childhood, specifically ones that were recorded during Christmas time, I think that watching them could be a fun and festive activity, one that your family can partake in as well. It would be interesting to watch how you celebrated Christmas and what kind of presents you got as a child and discuss your memories of Christmas time with your loved ones.

12. Enjoy your country's Christmas traditions: Every country has it's own unique Christmas traditions and they are what makes Christmas special for most families as they become a part of the annual celebrations. Honoring those traditions has the power to make you feel connected to other people and put you in a more positive and festive mood. For example in my country we bake melomakarona, which is something I would usually buy from a pastry shop, but this year I'm definitely going to try making with my family.

 I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and that it helped you feel more festive (and believe me, I know you noticed that the words festive and Christmas were repeated over 50 times...hahaha).

 Lastly, I just want to say that you shouldn't force yourself to feel festive or excited about Christmas. It's okay to not not feel up to celebrating the way that you're expected to or that you had imagined you would be. If you can't get yourself to feel festive this year and it's making you upset, please take the time to read the post: "Why It's Okay Not To Feel Festive" by Jodie Loue, an inspiring blogger, who will make you feel better by accepting the way you are.


If you liked this post please share it.
Also, please leave a comment down below with your own ideas on how to become more festive or which one of my ideas helped you the most.

Thanks for reading! 
I wish you a wonderful, festive, merry Christmas!

Love,
Stephanie

2 comments:

  1. i haven't been feeling very festive but i've loved watching vlogmas, need to start watching some christmas movies :)

    danielle | avec danielle

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post. :)
      Vlogmas is great, isn't it? Which youtubers do you usually watch?
      I feel like I should've included more movies suggestions. Oh, well... I need to watch some as well.

      P.S. I love your blog and your hair.
      xx
      Stephanie

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