...and all through the house, the only thing stirring was a slightly over exuberant 20-year-old.

Even as my friends shrug it off and say "it's only Christmas", as a December baby I can't help but love all of it. After putting myself in charge of Christmas at about age six, I always end up organising the house, testing the lights, putting up the trees, assembling the Playmobil nativity, decorating the cakes, the list goes on.
 
So as I pottered around on the eve of my 20th Christmas, I thought I would share some of my festive exuberance with all of  you and also show you the photos of Santa Strawberries that I tried from the Blake's Crimbo Blog. 

Some Christmas music to get you in the festive mood, without making you hurl things at Bublé's face (sorry any Bublé fans). 
1. Sufjan's 5 disc Christmas album is a great place to start...

2. Bit of Zooey making a classic Christmas song a little more predatory...

3. Radiohead and Mariah Carey, together at last.

4. 12 and a half minutes of Sufjan Steven's take on Christmas, if you stick with it, it does become a Joy Division cover...

Merry Christmas! 
Anya 

It's dark. It's cold. That pile of reading is refusing to diminish. There's an extra layer of mince-pie-induced padding round my middle and we're not even into Christmas week yet. Strictly will soon be out of my life for another 10 months...
Ahhh, but what's this glinting gem in amidst a pile of youtube fail-videos? Oh Louis, trust you to light up my grey wednesday morning. And in the guise of Royal Variety material too - Christmas magic.

Apologies for our time of absence- we've been in hibernation after having returned home to duvets, fully stocked fridges and TVs (that don't rely on dodgy uni internet connections to watch Made in Chelsea).  I guess I was also waiting for arty inspiration to embark upon the next blog but, in the words of Lemeny Snicket, 'if we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives.' My annual return to the checkouts of Asda for my Christmas job commences tomorrow. This means that the next two weeks will be made up of 'Hello-thank-you-for-waiting-would-you-like-a-bag-are-you-ready-for-christmas-yet-no-me-neither-thats-x-amount-please-here's-your-change-and-receipt-have-a-nice-day-hello-thank-you-for-waiting' instead of updating this blog, writing my dissertation, decorating the house or buying presents for my Mongolian hoard of a family. (I use this term not to characterise them as a blood-thirsty bunch but only to show the extent of their numbers and frequency of beards). 

This post is, therefore, a desperate plea for blog submissions to keep me and anyone else in a state of ennui entertained in the next gruelling ten days of Chistmas songs till the big 2 5. Anyone can send one anything in, member and non-members alike, just email it to [email protected]. Hopefully, an avalanche of posts will soon follow detailing the best of Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, Christmas dinners, presents, party dresses, Christmas activities, Christmas cards or perhaps even an intelligent comment on anything vaguely arty.     


I'll begin with an irrelevant list of my top Christmas jumpers.