Christmas Gift Guide: Children

This is always a hard guide to write, because there is such an insane amount of choice and children vary so much in their tastes and interests. Just the amount of adverts vying for our attention this time of year is mind-boggling. It's most likely your own children have dropped more than one heavy hint about what they would like under the Christmas tree, but for the friends and relatives you know less about, I have put together this guide, which focuses on school-age children, the ones with the most opinions! As always, this is a mix of things we've been sent to try that we've really liked and things we use ourselves and think everyone should know about!

Christmas Gift Guide: Men

It's no secret that men are notoriously hard to buy for. It helps if they have a hobby or an interest, but even that can get a bit samey and predictable after a few years. There are only so many golf balls, football shirts, or hilarious mugs based on a TV show that one person needs. Sometimes you can quirky-up the classic gift, such as socks, or gloves, with a bit of imagination, but the real challenge is to find something he doesn't know he wants, so that you can be sure he will not only be happy with your choice, but also won't have already bought one for himself. Check out our ideas for some stress-free man-shopping this Christmas.

A Garden Makeover on a Budget

I've been working on the garden for a few years now. There are a few reasons why it's taken so long; there isn't much money to spend on it, I'm not very good at it, and time and weather are not always our friends. So, this is this season's update, and I have to say, I am really, really happy with it. The aim has always been to make the garden effort-proof and I think that part is almost perfect. Aside from a little mowing and picking up stray leaves, there's not much to do day to day, but it still looks pretty good. I am still very much an amateur and gardening for me will probably always be trial and error, but it's so great when something actually grows! Here's how we did it, what we've added recently, what worked and what didn't. 

Christmas Gift Guide: Teenagers

Our first gift guide for this year, features that very tricky and somewhat elusive species The Teenager. Not always the chattiest group of people, it can be hard to settle on the perfect gift. I've called this Gift Guide 'Teenagers', but really it could probably apply to 'tweens' or possibly younger, since children have a habit of growing up at their own pace and will grow into, and out of, things, when they are ready. With this in mind, I've tried to find items that suit a wider age group, so that you can be sure of a positive reaction on Christmas morning. Some of the items are available to win in our Big Christmas Giveaway, so don't forget to enter if you haven't already.

Win Your Christmas Presents with our Huge Giveaway!

This annual tradition is the culmination of a year's worth of blogging and is such a lot of fun to put together. I really enjoy giving one of you the opportunity to benefit from some of the great brands we get to work with and it is so exciting taking all the photos and imagining how happy they will make someone's Christmas. As well as some brilliant brands, who have been really generous in contributing items to include, we have also included some goodies from our prize cupboard, as a thank you for all your support over the last year. Without further ado, here is what you could win, simply by using the Rafflecopter widget at the end of the post. Good luck!

Children's Costumes and Racism; Has the World Gone Mad?

Disney may have its critics and it's faults, but it has never been afraid to embrace diversity and culture in its vast catalogue of popular children's films. However, a debate blew up recently on Good Morning Britain, about whether children dressing up as the Disney character Moana could be a case of 'cultural appropriation' and something that shouldn't be encouraged.  This isn't the first time this issue has made its way into the media. A post reappeared recently on Reddit, where a mother received a lot of negativity for dressing her daughter up in a Geisha costume for a Japanese tea party. So when does innocent fun become racism?

Zu3D Animation Kit Review

You may have noticed by now, that we live in Bristol. The land of snazzy bridges, waterways, graffiti and Morph. The latter may explain why L has always been completely obsessed with animation. Particularly stop-motion. I even started putting them on YouTube. This 54 second Minecraft animation has been viewed over 2,000 times and it shows how you really don't have to be an animation pro to have a lot of fun with this hobby. He was just nine then and I think we are living in an amazing age of technology, when children of any age can make their own films. We were sent the Zu3D Animation Kit free for L to try and these are our thoughts.