Christmas Traditions with The Snowman and the Snowdog

Love this cute Snowdog Christmas decoration from Wild In Art

I'm really excited to have been invited to be apart of The Snowman and Snowdog Advent Blog tour and like most families we have a few festive traditions we do together in the run up to Christmas, some have been carried on from my childhood while others are new and have developed over the past few years with my boys. I think the run up to the big day is as important as the actual day itself and we love nothing more than getting into the festive spirit. While we usually start on the first day of advent we have slowly been embracing Christmas we some low key things such as baking gingerbread and enjoying my sons school winter fair this past weekend.

One of the traditions that has followed on through from my childhood is watching and reading The Snowman, even growing up in South Africa my mother being Welsh made sure that there was always a bit of a British influence when it come to things like this. It's such a sweet and beautifully animated story and every year without fail we would watch it and now that he has a little snowdog friend there is even more to enjoy. Did you know that you can also get personalised books from Penwizard which makes for a fantastic and very special gift. Luckily this past month throughout Cardiff and the surrounding areas has been a Snowdog trail in aid of Ty Hafan. which my son's have really enjoyed doing it plus it's raised tons of money for a very important Welsh Children's Charity.

A few other traditions we always do as a family

1. Going to pick a real tree together, now I know there is nothing wrong with fake and reusable trees but we have never had one and to me the excitement of picking a fresh tree is so much fun and the smell of pine just embodies Christmas. Decorating is of course also a family affair and something we really enjoy. We also hang our wreaths up on a weekend we are altogether as a family, usually have more than one and my eldest usually has a go at making one too. 

2. Picking Advent calendars, we are pretty traditional in this department as I know there are plenty of extravagant calendars out there although we opt for one homemade advent with 24 exciting things to do together and simple chocolate ones and Thorntons are doing some customised Snowman Calendars this year.  

3. A trip to Winter wonderland and ice skating is also always on the cards, despite John having no balance and watching from the sidelines drinking mulled wine, its always a highlight on our calendar,

4. Baking and decorating a gingerbread house. What is better than a fun and delicious edible craft? It's one of those that is doesn't really matter how much mess they make or how it turns out we always enjoy it and it's become a yearly tradition.

5. A visit to Santa's Grotto, well of course this is a given for most and we love to savour this while the kids are still young and full of imagination. We careful pick out one that is realistic and captures that magic of Christmas and of course the boys come back beaming from meeting the big man.

 For al those fellow Snowman and Snowdog fans I have a fantastic pack of goodies to giveaway to one lucky reader worth just over £40 and includes a copy of The Snowman, A Snowdog shaped board book, A cuddly Snowman and a Snowman mug with hot chocolate. The giveaway ends on the 10th December 2017

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Please do check out Make Do and Push blog which is next on the tour