Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2011 in
News and Comment Don’t forget that the First Sunday in Advent (Sunday 27th November this year) is when you should open the first door on your advent calendar. If you are a Good Parent to any children then its traditionally your privilege to give them an Advent Calendar’s as a present this weekend as a way of introducing them to the Christmas story. I bought ours a few weeks ago, now I just have to remember where I put it….
Update Sunday 27th November: Most commercial advent calendars start from December 1st and only have 25 doors. I made a point of buying a religious themed calendar from John Lewis which explicitly stated that it had a door for each day of Advent, so really annoyed today to open it and find it only has 25 doors.
Tags: Advent Calendar, Good Parent
Posted by admin on Nov 25, 2011 in
News and Comment 
It’s the weekend, and only 29 days to go until Christmas Day. On my way back from London this evening I stopped off in Newmarket to do a little shopping. With the Christmas lights on and the bustle of a busy of a cold Friday night it really feels like Christmas is on it’s way.
I got back in the car and was relaxing listening to In Tune on Radio 3 when they mentioned that on Sunday afternoon at 4pm they would be broadcasting an Advent Carol Service live from St John’s College, just down the road in Cambridge. I’m really looking forward to this and will be planning my Sunday to make sure we can sit down at 4pm and enjoy this. My husband is really into his HiFi equipment and will no doubt be streaming the Radio 3 High Definition sound into our sitting room. This will really mark the official start of the Christmas season.
Have a lovely weekend, all being well I’ll be back tomorrow with some more Christmas gift ideas.
Linda
Tags: First advert, Newmarket, Radio 3
Posted by admin on Nov 19, 2011 in
News and Comment I hope you are having a nice weekend. Just a quick blog to share a few more pictures from my walk down Oxford Street earlier this week.
The Top Shop Christmas window display on Oxford Street. Several of the shop window displays this year are picking up on the cut out Christmas Tree or 2D Christmas Tree designs. It’s also interesting to see that Top Shop are using so much space in their Window display to promote their gift card. The red tape on the window itself is festive and very eye catching and adds depth to the display.
I can’t recall the name of this shoe shop on Oxford Street but I actually found this really eye catching as I walked past. Given all the brands they stock I thought it was a good way to display the products in a festive way. Again note the use of 2D Christmas cut out designs here.
The Zara window was well designed and stylish. They have also followed the 2D theme, even applying this to the dog in the picture above. Other than the “Merry Christmas” the window display itself had more of an Autumn / Winter feel about it. The tree’s are golden and really shine under the spot lights so really catch your eye as you walk past.
I’ll post some more pictures soon so do please check back.
Tags: oxford street
I had a couple of hours to kill between meetings with customers in London yesterday so enjoyed a walk down Oxford Street. I took several photographs of various shop windows and displays that caught my attention and I’ll be sharing these with you over the next few days.
It was quite a sunny warm day for November. Nice to see the Arthur Christmas lights hanging above Oxford Circus. Oxford Street itself is undergoing a lot of building work at the moment basically the whole length from Tottenham Court Road and the Centre Point building down to Marble Arch. I can see it being really packed as it starts to get busy over the next few weeks.
These cardboard radio and speakers in John Lewis caught my attention. The Radio is £20 and the speakers are £12. In addition to being a radio you can also plug in your iPod / iPhone and use them as a speakers. It’s an ideal novelty gift for the boy who has everything. My husband would certainly love one of these in his study.
After walking the length of Oxford Street it was up to the top floor of John Lewis for some quick festive refreshments in the form of their Cranberry Loaf and a coffee.
Lots more great gift ideas to follow over the next few days, in the meantime if you’ve spotted something great please let me know.
Tags: Cardboard Radio, John Lewis, oxford street
Well ahead of the Christmas holidays it’s a good idea to start thinking about some ideas for days out and special things to do with the family. We’re all very busy these days so it’s great to make the most of the Christmas holiday and spend some real quality time with the family and do a few things that they’ll never forget.
I highly recommend that everyone tries ice skating at least once and temporary ice rinks are set-up around the country over the Christmas period. For example the picture on the left shows the Hampton Court Ice Rink which is open every day from November 19th through to January 8th 2012.
There’s also an Ice Rink at the Tower of London. What could be nicer than skating around with the Tower in the background. It doesn’t really matter if you’ve never skated before, it’s the fun of learning, falling over and having a laugh with your friends and family that really counts.
These temporary attractions are likely to be really busy over Christmas so it’s best to plan ahead and pre-book to make the most of your precious quality family time.
Tags: Hampton Court, Ice skating, Tower of London
