All My Favourite Christmas Things – The Christmas Tag 2021

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!! Two sleeps ’til Christmas day, I can’t wait! The Christmas music is blasting, the presents have been wrapped and put under the tree, the hot chocolates and minced pies consumed every day in the last week… I’m in full swing! And in that spirit, Caroline tagged me to do the Christmas Tag 2021 and so, here I am! Enjoy reading about all my favourite Christmas things!

What is your favourite Christmas or holiday movie?

Without a doubt, The Holiday! I absolutely love that movie, it’s such a cute, feel good Christmas movie. But I don’t think I would love the film this much if it wasn’t for the cast! I adore Kate Winslet in anything she’s in, and let’s be honest, can you find anyone dreamier than Jude Law? I don’t think so.

A couple of honourable mentions: I’ve recently been very fond of Let It Snow on Netflix, and obviously love the Gavin and Stacey 2008 Christmas Special!

What is the best way to spend a Saturday in December?

I would spend it drinking lots of cups of tea in festive mugs throughout the day, reading a Christmas book during the day, pampering myself and finally watching a Christmas film in the evening in my festive PJ’s with a hot chocolate and a ton of whipped cream! I just love weekends in December, they just make my soul happy!

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

That is SUCH a hard question! I obviously love me a bit of Bublé, but Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree has to be my favourite song.

What do you typically eat on Christmas Day?

Being from France, the Christmas dinner I’m used to isn’t like the UK’s at all! In my French family, we usually have a 5 course lunch: we start eating around 12:30pm with some nibbles, then sit down for a starter (usually seafood with prawns and oysters), then eat dinner with a turkey (since going vegetarian I’ve not been eating this, obviously!), and sides likes green beans, chestnuts, and potatoes; we then have a cheese course with some salad, and finally we finish around 4 o’clock in the afternoon with a “bûche” (yule log), coffees and chocolates. I know it’s very different from England!

This year, with all the restrictions in place with coronavirus, I’m not going to see my family or eat all the food which is really sad, so I’ll be doing Christmas in England for the first time with my British fiancé at home. We’ve made it so that we can have the best of both worlds and we’ve concocted the perfect franco-british dinner! I’m super excited for that!

What is your favourite Christmas cookie or holiday treat?

Mince pies, 100%! I never had one up until I moved to England, because in France we don’t really have anything traditional like mince pies, so when I discovered them, they immediately became my absolute favourite Christmas treat!

What fictional character would you want to spend your Christmas with?

A lot of people said Harry Potter and while I would tend to agree (who wouldn’t want to spend Christmas at Hogwarts?), I would probably actually go for the world of BBC’s comedy Ghosts! It would be really fun to have a Christmas with ghosts!

Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?

To my great shame, I cannot. I know Rudolph and Dasher, and that’s literally it. I need to learn their names!!

Where would like to visit during the holiday season?

I would love to go somewhere snowy and cold, just to fit my idea of a perfect Christmas – so somewhere like Sweden would be so nice! Otherwise, in terms of visiting places near me to do nice Christmas things, I’d love to take this week to go to the Nottingham Christmas market as it’s the closest one to me, and have some fun there!

Do you like giving or receiving gifts better?

I obviously love receiving gifts, especially because I’m a sucker for surprises and I love not knowing what I’m going to be given. I love giving gifts to a certain extent, I think some people in my family are so hard to buy for that trying to figure out what to give them becomes more a chore than anything else… But then for some people, it’s just so easy and seeing their faces when they open their presents is such a joyous thing! So I guess my answer would be, a mix of the two!

What’s the best gift you have ever received?

I had to think long and hard for this one, because over the years I have received gifts I have been so happy with from family and friends (and also, I am very, very easy to please). But one that springs to mind is just every single gift my fiancé has ever given me (cheesy much?). He always gets me the best, most thoughtful gifts that he knows I’ll love. He got me beautiful jewellery over the years, Harry Potter merch, books and trinkets he knew I’d love… So I could not pick one thing!

I hope you enjoyed my answers to the Christmas Tag! Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Em ♥