Is it sacrilege to be mentioning the C word in July? The c-word you ask, yes, Christmas. When do you start thinking and preparing for Christmas? I tend to do some preparation in January and then start thinking about it when I see the summer sales.
I was invited by the team at Asda to come and take a look at what they have to offer for Christmas this year a couple of weeks back and it certainly got me in the Christmas mood and want to share with you some of the amazing things that are coming your way from Asda this Christmas.
The reason they invited me was they wanted me to review and put my “Thumbs up from Mum” stamp on some of their produce along with a number of other ambassadors.
Christmas is a really bittersweet time for me. I LOVE it, I am a December baby, so advent and Christmas is my time of the year. However, Christmas Day was also the time that my mum died suddenly with my brother finding her on Christmas Day 2010. For this reason, I try and make sure that I am all prepared by the end of November and then we spend December trying to bring joy to others with our advent acts of kindness and fun advent activity calendar. I try not to set unrealistic expectations of myself or my family around me, we tend to spend the time in our tight tribe of four with the only planned event being an informal Christmas Eve get together with my best friend and her four boys who only live 5 doors away!
Planning for Christmas in July
We are a traditional Turkey Crown and all the trimmings family. We love the meat and the leftovers and I have lots of recipes to use the turkey up over the holiday period. What struck me most was the retro vibe at the Christmas in July events I attended. There is a real focus on family and delightful treats.
Asda has paired up with James Martin and James did a wonderful hands-on cookery demonstration of a really simple to make smoked salmon mouse that his Mum used to make. It was easy to make, used top quality Asda ingredients (did you know that he gets his smoked salmon for his restaurants from the same supplier as Asda?), you prepare it in advance and tasted delicious.
I love that there are so many things that you can prepare before Christmas Day so that you have more time to play with the kids LEGO! So now Christmas is firmly on my radar.
I already have a plan for what to buy, what to make, what to prepare in advance. I can not wait for the season of joy and giving to be upon us and share with you more that Asda has to offer.
I did take video of the day, but managed to delete it all on my journey home! So Kara from Chelsea Mummy and Karen from Missing Sleep came to the rescue. Thanks Ladies!
Disclosure: I am part of the Asda Ambassador program and was compensated for attending their event.
omg no, lol, i have to admit i did have a slight thought about it the other day and started to panic already ,i think once the children break up from school for their 6 week holidays it dawns on me its drawing closer x
Ooh the C word! I have to confess I haven’t given it a thought so far this year as I feel like we’ve only just had it – given the snow we had in April! I tend to start preparing for Christmas once the kids get back to school in September – but it looks like ASDA is on the ball with some tasty treats this year!
Too early for me yet, but I guess there might be some family talk about Christmas in the next few weeks as my sister is just about to move back from Australia, so it opens up the idea of a family Christmas.
I really can’t start thinking about Christmas in July, but as I used to be a retailer myself I do understand that this is when you start choosing your stock for the festive season. My mum also passed away on Christmas Day, she always loved Christmas x
I don’t even start thinking about it until the end of October as my other half and two of my kids have the birthdays in October so I can never get my head round it until then. x
We were invited to be an ambassador too but we couldn’t make the event this time – boo! It looks like you had a great time xx
I’m already thinking of CHristmas and have been since January – I need to these days with two expensive wish lists 😉
I’ve started thinking about Christmas in terms of should we stay down here in the South West or travel to see family, my kids however are already bang on to telling ‘Santa’ what they want continuously!
All that food has made me hungry. I don’t start thinking about Christmas food until November however Christmas presents I start buying in May, sometimes even earlier.