The meeting with the Man in the red suit

We really did have such a great time at the weekend at Centre Parcs. I have downloaded my photos and I plan to share a few posts amongst my Christmas Countdown.

Here we are at 2nd December with just 23 days to go until the Big Day.

Daisy and I had an appointment with the Man in the Red suit on Saturday afternoon. Centre Parcs do Christmas so well and the Village square gets transformed into Winter Wonderland complete with singing reindeer, real reindeers and Santa's appearing in his Woodland Workshop.

 Daisy and I wrote her letter and already you can see she started looking a little bit apprehensive...

We walked into a little waiting room with a festive scene of snow creatures which she really did love.

 She even allowed me to put her down and she sweetly touched all the little creatures including Olaf the snowman

 and a penguin

However when her turn came and the door open to reveal Santa, she leapt back into my arms and said "Door Nanna door".......and wanted to go straight out the way we had come in. No amount of gentle persuasion, even with a soft toy bunny Santa was giving her would make her stay.

We stood over near to Santa, had a quick photo and went out again. Bless her there was no way I was going to make her stay so we had a very brief hello. This photo really makes me chuckle, just look at the expression on Santa's face

 This was us about to head for the door. There was no way Daisy would even look at him yet alone sit on his lap!

 She did make us smile....as soon as we got away she was keen to find her little soft toy bunny and even told her Mummy and Daddy that Santa gave it to her. 

Here she is a the train stop clutching her bunny ;0) 

We took the train back to our villa and enjoyed a lovely meal out.

And to prove that she had a wonderful time, despite a few tears with Santa, here is a happy smiley photo of my little sweetheart. 

My card today just has to feature Father Christmas. This is actually for sale in my little Etsy shop here and if you live in the UK it will be delivered in time for Christmas and comes with a matching gift card.

Here is the set

and the gift card in close up

The image is by Nicecrane.

The dies are Spellbinders and the tag is Sizzix

I have hand stamped the sentiment and little stamp sentiments which are by Whimsy. The background of the card has been embossed and I found some snippets of ribbon to finish them off.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges and the tag if it's allowed!

Simon says stamps work it Wednesday 3/3 holiday/Christmas 

Pixie's snippets playground  2/3 #205 I have used all the snippets from my card for the tag!

Crafty card makers 'Twas the night before Christmas my line is "he was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot.
Frilly and Funkie 1/3 Tis the season
Crafty hazelnut use die cuts or punches
Christmas card challenges anything goes #52

Winter wonderland sparkle and bling
Papertake Weekly 1/5 anything goes

Words 2 scrap by 'Twas the night before Christmas.... my line is "he was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot.
Artistic Inspirations anything goes/Christmas

I'm glad you enjoyed seeing my vintage Advent calendar on my last post....I got a candle in number 1 window and bunny this morning. 

We're off to choose our tree today after work...it's being delivered at the weekend...so exciting.

Thanks for visiting and I will be back really soon continuing my Countdown to Christmas 2015.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Finding my Santa

I have a lot of vintage decorations hanging on my wonderful Christmas tree. Billy wrote a post for me here if you missed me putting it up a few weeks ago. Yesterday was the shortest day of the year and this was how my tree looked twinkling in the evening.

One of my oldest decorations is one originally owned by my granddad (my Mum's Dad). He was born in the late 1890s so I would guess that it is made of one of the very early plastics. It is a pink angel.

He died many years ago;when I was 13, so I don't remember seeing it on his tree but I am delighted that each year it hangs on my tree. I would guess that it dates from the 1940s or 50s?

My Nan (my Dad's Mum) was alive until I was in my 20s and I do vividly remember her fabulous "kitsch" Christmas decorations hanging on her Christmas tree in the 1960s. She lived in a small flat and always had one of those very artificial silver tinsel trees. It always fascinated me.
I must admit we have always had real trees and again I am delighted that some of her decorations hang on my tree now.

Just how retro is this fun Santa ;0)

and how about this genuine 1960s  retro elf. They really do make me smile when I see them. My own Mum has bought me many of my tree decorations over the years. Each one has such a special memory.

There is however one Christmas decoration which I have sorely missed for some years. When I was a little girl my Mum bought a wonderful (to me at the age of around 5!!) Santa on his sleigh. He was a pipe cleaner Santa with a plastic face and little "gifts" on his sleigh. In my childhood mind I used to imagine he was real and thought of all the journeys he made on Christmas Eve.

Some years ago I noticed that my Mum had stopped hanging him on her tree. When I asked where he was she told me that she had thrown him away!!


I was stunned....but realized she could not have possibly known of my childhood memories. She just thought he had got a bit tatty and threw him away after Christmas one year.

Since that day I have put an "Ebay" search on at Christmas time to see if I could find him again. Several have come up but they have either been in really poor repair or have gone for too high a price.
2 weeks ago I found one had been put on Ebay. It looked in good condition and I contacted the seller who said that for a decoration that was 50 years old it was in great vintage condition. It's starting price was £4.99 and I put on a maximum price of £7 and sat back and waited.

The auction finished last Saturday and yes, you guessed it........I won and for just the starting price of £4.99. I eagerly waitied for Mr Postie to deliver him and he arrived a few days ago.
I am just so delighted as he is in wonderful condition. Here he is;

He is just exactly the same as my old Santa and is even carrying his little whip. He is quite fragile so I have sat  him on the branches so that he does not rip his hat. Now there is more to the story as the seller not only sent me him but she sent me......a spare!

Now the spare does have a little bit of damage, he no longer carries his whip and one of his feet is missing but the seller said I could have him for "spare parts". Well of course I cannot just use him for spare parts, he will stay with "The Boss".

So after all these years I have found my Santa and he is able to ride his tree again. And who knows maybe he will be missing on Christmas Eve for some time delivering presents ;0) and he even has a one legged friend to help!
My card challenge today just has to be another "vintage/retro" feel card. It is another that I made using an image from the brilliant Joanna Sheen CD I won.

He is a really happy Santa and just so vintage to me. He epitomizes the Santas seen on cards in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Here he is in close up. The backing paper is my home made blended distress inked card using Tim Holtz red and green ink pads. I added Lili of the Valley sentiments and matted everything with very festive red card. The red gingham ribbon was added as a finishing touch.
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Joanna Sheen with love at Christmas
Holly Jolly Challenge Vintage Christmas
Card Crafters Circle #54 It's Christmas
Papercrafting Journey Anything goes
Paper shelter #93 anything goes
Charisma cards Santa #50
Woopsi Daisy Traditional Christmas
Whimsy Stamps anything goes at Christmas
Crafts and Me Bumper Christmas challenge
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge anything goes for Christmas #104



There are just 3 days left of my Countdown to Christmas. I will be back on Monday for my very last post. We are off to a family birthday meal tonight and then on Sunday we will be enjoying the carols at Chichester Cathedral with our daughter and son in law. I just have to collect the turkey on Sunday from the local butcher and then I am all set for the family to arrive. I hope you are all getting the finishing touches completed for this magical time. It is certainly not going to be a white Christmas here this year...it just keeps on raining!

I am so glad that I found my Santa again, after all these years  Ho Ho Ho ;0)

Back on Christmas Eve for my final post.......how exciting.

Bye for now,

Jane x