Holly Made Life

#BrumBlogmas 🎄

Hooray! It’s December, and the countdown to Christmas is well underway. I’ve made no secret that I am ridiculously excited about all things festive this year, and in an effort to up my blogging game before the year is out, I’m delighted to be taking part in the Birmingham version of Blogmas – #BrumBlogmas.

I'm taking part in BrumBlogmas - an advent of festive blogging from content creators in and around Birmingham

What is Blogmas?

Blogmas is the blogging version of an advent calendar. True purists will post every day in December on the countdown to Christmas Day (and sometimes even beyond), but I imagine my offering will be a little more sporadic than that. Excitingly, I’m using it as a great chance to get to know and find more local bloggers in the Birmingham area, thanks to our own regional version: #BrumBlogmas, organised by the Facebook community group headed by Ting and Laura, Brum Bloggers.

Want to get involved?

If you’re a content creator (whether that’s through blogging, vlogging, Instagramming or anything else) from in or around Birmingham, make sure you’re part of the Birmingham Bloggers UK Facebook group to find out more about #BrumBlogmas and how you can take part.

My #BrumBlogmas 🎄 Christmas Posts

2nd December – Snow Mouse

Snow Mouse sat drinking with a thermosA review of the Christmas children’s theatre show at Warwick Arts Centre, Snow Mouse.

Huge great big rag balls and sheets of pretty translucent fabric are pretty enticing, and who doesn’t enjoy throwing snowballs around? Pickle was obviously captivated, and I couldn’t believe it when he even tried to say ‘Snow Mouse’.

3rd December – Christmas at the Botanical Gardens

Exploring the Botanical Gardens with Daddy and PickleA write up of our visit to the Christmas at the Botanical Gardens event, which was also the #BrumBloggers festive meet up.

The trail itself was beautiful – there were candy canes, snowflake floor patterns, glittering reindeer, light tunnels, strings of lanterns and a whole hillside of sweeping festoon lights that danced beautifully to accompanying music (a spectacular finale to witness at the end!).

7th December – Christmas Cards, Mark Making and the Importance of Handwriting

Pickle sat at a table, mark making with a crayon

Did you know that mark making is an important first step for babies and toddlers that will aid them in learning how to write? Letting them scribble on Christmas cards is a perfect way to promote the importance of handwriting, and I’ve found a few places with some excellent resources to help too.

From the moment babies can control the use of their hands and feet, mark making is possible – prodding a finger into food, smearing sauce across a highchair, and walking in substances are all good starts, and although patterns, lines and squiggles may look like nothing but scribbles to us, practice soon makes perfect and gradually those lines and squiggles begin to take on meaning, are given context and are used as a way to communicate.

12th December – Christmas Gift Ideas for Men

Chocolate Sprouts Gifts for MenAre you still scrabbling around for Christmas presents to buy? I bet the ones left on your to-buy list are for those tricky men in your life, right? Well, they will be if you’re anything like me. I find it so difficult to think of unique and inspired gift choices for blokes.

I definitely find it more difficult figuring out what to buy for my husband, my brothers, or my Dad compared to my Mum or my girl-friends. I always leave buying their gifts to the last minute because it’s so challenging, and then it’s even more of a mad panic to catch the last delivery dates before Christmas or find things still left in stock on the shelves.