(courtesy McCabe Media Ltd) Firsts are a curious thing. They can either be the stuff of liberation and exhilarating novelty; a chance to ditch the status quo, throw ruts out the window and to experience in ways that have never been part of your life before. But equally, depending on Continue Reading
Happy festive 75th anniversary Peanuts! Review of Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales
(courtesy Amazon) SNAPSHOTThe special consists of a series of vignettes, each one starring a different member of the Peanuts gang in various Christmas time situations. (courtesy Peanuts wiki) You have to feel a little sorry for any of the Peanuts’ Christmas specials that followed in the wake of the classic A Charlie Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more Christmas songs #2 … Elysia Biro, Marcia Hines, Laufey, Jamra, LOLO + Sophie Ellis-Bextor … and more!
(via Shutterstock) The first batch of Christmas single took us down a quietly contemplative, chestnuts roasting kind of path but this time we’re channelling all the joy and eggnog-y energy of the season with 11 very catchy songs. Most of them hail from this year’s bountiful crop of festive tracks Continue Reading
Festive book review: Flora’s Travelling Christmas Shop by Rebecca Raisin
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.) There is so much power in just being yourself. This reviewer didn’t see it for years, hemmed in by strident opinions from “those who knew better” in the church and in a slew of other places, and I suspect that the eponymous protagonist of Flora’s Continue Reading
Festive comic book review: Cartoon Network Christmas Spectacular
Spending Christmas with those you love is always a joy. And that goes for fictional characters too like many of the gang from Hanna-Barbera, an animation house founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1957, former MGM employees who gifted the world the hilarious manic delights of Tom and Continue Reading
Festive book review: Snow Kissed by RaeAnne Thayne
(courtesy official author site) Falling in love at Christmas is de rigueur if you want to mark the season properly. That or finding Santa Claus when he’s missing and saving Christmas in the process; but given how tough finding love can be often, maybe finding the big man in red Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I listened to retro festive songs by Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra + Barbra Streisand
(via Shutterstock) Intangible though it might to say it but many Christmas songs are popular because they feel like the season. And what is that feeling exactly? It’s all kinds of cosiness and warmth, evoked by time with family and friends with snow falling outside – it may do that Continue Reading
“You’re in a different world when you’re in tree world.” Come and get to know The Merchants of Joy
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTIn the city that never sleeps, five families hustle each winter to turn sidewalks into holiday outposts. The Merchants of Joy follows these Christmas die-hards as they source, sell, and safeguard a family tradition at risk. It’s a warm, grounded portrait of pride, grit, and the joy Continue Reading
On 3rd day of Christmas … my inner child read 5 kids Christmas books incl. Jim’s Spectacular Christmas, When Santa Got Stuck in a Gumtree + The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit
(via Shutterstock) I am like a big kid when it comes to Christmas. I have always loved the season and one of my favourite things is reading as many Christmassy books as I can get my hands on; these guys they are more adult in tone and style but my Continue Reading
Festive book review: A Snowy Seaside Christmas by Eliza J Scott
(courtesy Storm Publishing) While any kind of Christmas romcom is usually good for the soul, helping you to believe in redemption, healing and true love, the really good ones, at least for this reader, also project a strong sense of cosy and supportive community. That’s important because finding your special Continue Reading