The 12 ways of christmas

Its December now, which means I've been been in a christmassy mood for about two months now. But about now the rest of the world is starting to catch up. There are a million different things I love about Christmas  but the best 12 are as follows:

1)Raymond Briggs- Father Christmas: My favourite Christmas book growing up, and favourite cartoon too, there's something great about the idea of Father Christmas being a grumpy northerner!

2) Warm mince pies and ice-cream- the best team since bacon and egg

3)The Salvation Army Christmas band- Nothing makes me feel more like its Christmas than the Salvation Army playing carols in the snow
4)Christmas tree lights in the dark-Its like actual magic

Photo from this guy

5)Present shopping- Not as much the busy city centre panic-sesh, but I love the picking up of casual hints, the trawling through all the possible things they might like, before finding the perfect gift for them
6)Christmas day walks- Its a tradition in my house to go for a walk on Christmas day, to the park, into the Peak District, or anywhere else, its a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

7)Frost- Nothing is better than walking on crisp, frozen leaves, or breaking frozen puddles by treading on them.
8)Snow- its still magical to me seeing as I don't drive yet! Sledging, snowball fights, walking in crisp snow, watching it fall. I frickin love snow.

9)Christmas songs- Put on Shakin Stevens, WHAM, Bing Crosby or Dean Martin, and its an instant good mood.
10)Christmas dinner- I love food. And Christmas dinner is the superbowl of  food. Turkey, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, chicken gravy. I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Or the student, low budget version.....

11)Unwrapping presents-I'm not going to pretend that I don't like getting presents. Its great. He have a rule in our house where only one  person can open a present at a time, so there's a lot of eyeing up your next victim to unwrap.
12)Spending time with family- Being away from home when at university has made me appreciate how great my family is. They are annoying, but that's part of their greatness.