Category Archives: christmas

Best of the Christmas Sales

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Is anyone’s wallet feeling a bit heavy after yesterday? Don’t worry, I’ve trawled through the best sites, to find the sales you’ll definitely want to get in on (while there’s still some decent things left!).

Shoes

–          Schuh have quite a lot of discounted converse and vans. Plus its free delivery. Nice.

Music

–          Play.com have a price crash, with cds going for around £4.99.. Anyone fancy the new Gaslight Anthem album?

Band Merch

–          Young Guns have 30% their merch stall with the code ‘Woof’

–          Rolo Tomassi have 10% off with the code ‘2012’

–          Grindstore have a sale on, with varying levels of discounts. It’s not bad actually, but for converse I’d stick to Schuh.

Clothes

–          Attitude Clothing have an ‘up to half price’ sale. Mostly jeans. And tights. And a black Christmas tree if you want to stock up for next year?

–          Blue Banana have ‘up to 75% off’. If you read the small print, they call it an ‘emo clothing sale’. Well, can’t argue with that.

Other

–          The Night of the Living Thread have a sale on, if you need some more cushions / bunting / hair clips in your life.

RC xx

P.S. Apologies that these are mostly UK based!

P.P.S I wanted to put Lush in here, but the site is so busy it’s not even working. Go into the store instead?

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Alternative Christmas Films

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I’ve never been a fan of the standard cheesy Christmas films (especially the rom-coms..), but there’s a few festive(ish) movies that I wouldn’t mind watching. Here’s my pick of the best alternative Christmas films on offer.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I’ve never been quite sure whether this is a Christmas film, or a Halloween one (to be honest, I watch it on both). Still, it had to be in this list as its a spooky-but-sweet  tale from the amazing Tim Burton.

 

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

A really chilling Finnish film, set in the Korvatunturi mountains, Lapland. Days before Christmas, some diggers discover a body, encased in ice under the mountain. As they dig it out, the reindeer disappear and only a little boy seems to guess what’s going on. Definitely one to watch if you want a different perspective on Santa..

 

Die Hard

I don’t think I need to explain the plot, or the fact that its clearly not a traditional Christmas film. It is set as the festive time though.

 

The Hogfather

I’m a huge Terry Pratchett fan, so am always interested when there are adaptations of his books. This cheery one follows ‘Death’ as he observes the people of Ankh Morpork  during their celebration of Hogswatch, but something is very wrong.

 

RC xx

Three Ways to Wrap Presents

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For anyone (including myself) who’s ever tried to wrap presents at the last minute, then realised they don’t have any wrapping paper, here’s a few quick ideas for you!

 

1. Crepe Paper

Crepe paper works amazingly well as wrapping paper. You need to double it up because it’ll tear really easily though. Luckily, lots of presents might actually turn up (if you’ve ordered them online) already wrapped in it. In which case, find some ribbon and tie them up with it for a finishing touch. If you can’t find ribbon, have a look at some of your clothes. A lot will actually have pieces for hanging up, which you’ll probably not need.

 

2. In the box it arrived in

Decorate the outside with paint / tinsel / glitter / anything else you can find. I try to save some boxes because they make a great way to package lots of little gifts, if that’s what you’re into. Fill the box with cut out pieces of bubble wrap, screwed up newspaper or those polystyrene things you get and then mix the presents in. Its fun to watch people digging around in the box to find their presents!

 

3. Scarves / Fabric

If you have an old scarf or some fabric lying around (some of us used to study textiles..) you can wrap the presents up with this. Bonus is that it doesn’t need selotape, if you’ve run out of that too. For a quick how-to, watch this video from Lush.