The advent calendars worth opening, the Christmas markets worth visiting, the recipes worth keeping.
Linda Garrould writes Christmas Countdown from her kitchen in Norwich. She covers the part of the year a UK family genuinely plans around — the slow build of Advent, the practical questions of Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the recipes that come out every year because they actually work, and the gift guides that take the guesswork out of late-December panic-buying.
Christmas Countdown has been running since 2009. Before the blog, Linda spent years tearing recipes out of magazines, sitting through carol services in damp cathedrals, and keeping a private notebook of which advent calendars stood up to actually being opened by children. The site is what came of writing it down — and a quiet promise to readers that every product reviewed, every recipe tested, and every “what’s open” guide checked has been through someone’s actual Christmas first.
What Linda covers
- Christmas planning. The countdowns, weekly to-do lists and quietly important dates that make December feel manageable instead of frantic.
- Festive recipes. Make-ahead Christmas cooking, freezer-friendly traybakes, leftover turkey ideas and an annual Stir-up Sunday Christmas pudding written for real family kitchens.
- Advent calendars and hampers. Honest reviews, round-ups by price band, and the perennial “is this one worth it?” question answered for the calendars and hampers we’ve actually had through the door.
- Family traditions. Carol services, Christmas Eve boxes, Stir-up Sunday, the Twelve Days of Christmas — the shape of the season, written for families building their own version of it.
- Christmas markets and seasonal days out. Where to go, when to go, and what’s worth the parking — leaning East-of-England (Norfolk and Suffolk first) because that’s the patch we know best, with the bigger UK markets covered alongside.
Get in touch
Press releases, gifted-product pitches and seasonal-campaign invitations are welcome at linda@christmascountdown.co.uk.
Or by beat:
- Advent calendars, hampers and gifting brands: gifts@christmascountdown.co.uk
- Festive food, drink and cookware: kitchen@christmascountdown.co.uk
- Christmas markets, attractions and tourism boards: attractions@christmascountdown.co.uk
- Press, partnerships and longer-term planning: press@christmascountdown.co.uk
For the full pitch-and-partnership picture, head over to Work with us — that page has what we say yes and no to, audience numbers, and a downloadable one-page media kit.