Hello Everyone!
The countdown to Christmas is on, who's excited?! I've got a few more festive-themed posts coming before the big day. I really wanted to get more bloggers involved in my Blogmas this year. I thought a Q&A would be a fun way to learn more about Christmas traditions from around the world. We have a summer Christmas here, so I love hearing about what other families do to celebrate.
Of course I had to ask the lovely
Blossom Twins, Lucy and Kelly, a few questions about what this season means to them. Especially with their Italian heritage! I asked them a bunch of festive questions and loved reading their answers. I hope you do too and make sure you check out their
amazing blog!
What's the first thing you do on Christmas morning?
We usually wake up at the same time as our little sister, so we go downstairs, make coffee and either listen to the music channels or see if Harry Potter is on, while we wait for everyone else to wake up. Then we open a few presents before helping Mum cook our family lunch. This is our favorite time, helping her make our traditional salad while dancing around the kitchen listening to the Overtones.
This will be the first year, we will be in England, but in our own houses, so we will be starting new traditions. We will probably wake up with our husbands, have a nice breakfast and then walk through the park up to Mum and Dad's. Knowing us, we will be up extra early as we won't want to keep our sister Jen waiting! It's hard to break tradition.
Have you ever been away from home for Christmas?
We have yes. Both of us have experienced a Christmas in Virginia with our husband's families, each on different years. We love our in-laws and are very lucky, so we had lots of fun getting to know their traditions.
Finish the sentence: It doesn't feel like Christmas unless...
Our Nanna and Grandad's back room is full of boxes of Pandoro and Panettone (traditional Italian Christmas cakes.)
What would your dream advent calendar be filled with?
Ooh lets see, probably an Italian Baci calendar. That would be pretty cool. They are hazelnut kisses and are our favourite chocolate ever. So many memories are attached to them, so they are the first thing that come to mind.
I know you have an Italian background. Are there any traditions you bring to Christmas?
Yes!!! We always have plenty of the aforementioned Pandoro cakes and Nanna will decorate one the traditional Italian way with her custard, marsala wine and strawberries. It’s our favourite cake in the world. We also always have Christmas lunch, not dinner. Italians always have a bigger lunch and that’s what we’re used to, so we eat at around 11:30. In Italy they celebrate the Befana which is on 6th Jan, so our Nanna will always give us a card on that day and we take down our tree then too. It’s a big deal to her.
A white Christmas or a summer one?
Definitely a white one, even though we can’t remember the last recent one we had. We do have memories of being pulled on sleds to Nanna and Grandads one year when we were younger, when we used to have Christmas lunch at their house, so we did have a white Christmas day at least once in our memory. Usually it snows in late January, early February here. If we’re lucky.
What’s your most treasured ornament on your tree?
We have snowflake ornaments that our Nanna Knott gave us when we were younger, and they mean a lot to us. That’s our Nanna from our Dad’s side, who passed away 10 years ago. In fact, the Christmas tree we adore and have at our Mum and Dad’s house, we’ve had for the last 27 years but only found out the other day that it belonged to our Nanna and Grandad George, but Nanna gave it to us when we were 3, because she got a fiberoptic one. That makes it extra special to us now. The whole tree is overcrowded with ornaments that are over 20 years old. Dad keeps saying we need to replace it but we’re not ready for that yet, even though Jen – our little sister – has a great idea for what to do with the ornaments when we do. Think Christmas shadow boxes.
If you could only eat one brand of chocolate in December, which one would you choose?
Perugina Baci, for the reason stated earlier and because they are delicious! We always have to have a box on our dessert table.
Is there a present you received as a child on Christmas that you remember most?
We’re going to have to say the presents we received in Florida because we remember them so clearly. It was the first, and only Christmas, as kids that Mum and Dad actually took us away on Christmas day. We did it once and just like ourselves now, our Mum didn’t like being away from her Mum and Dad, so we never did it again. But, we think the reason for going was to go to Disneyworld and that was our present, which was very awesome and amazing of our Mum and Dad. However, we remember on Christmas morning we woke up to Power Ranger annuals. Now, these annuals are what we remember mostly and we still own them to this day. We loved Power Rangers and were so excited. A few years later, we got to visit Lapland and we got Tina Teddy in a Tin (Lucy) and Barbie’s sister Shelly with accessories (Kelly) from Santa, that we were also very pleased with. We have the hilarious video evidence to prove it! :p Lucy still has her Tina Teddy and still adores it.
And finally, what’s your Christmas anthem you always play?
This is one of the best questions because it means we get to talk about The Overtones and how amazing they are and how so so so glad we are that they bought out a Christmas album. Before it, Mariah Carey was our jam and don’t get us wrong, we still love that song, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it. But when we put in Good Ol’ Fashioned Christmas by The Overtones, we dance, we sing, our Mum joins in and it’s just pure happiness. Over the last few years we’ve always been disappointed by new Christmas songs, the oldies are the best but when we heard the two new songs The Overtones came up with for their Christmas album, we couldn’t have been more impressed. Instant classics, that are even better when you see them preformed live!!!
A big thank you to Lucy and Kelly for taking the time to answer my questions. It was a lot of fun reading your answers and having you feature on my blog. It's always a pleasure!
Make sure you check out their
blog. They just posted an Italian cheesecake recipe that looks amazing!
Feel free to answer any of the questions in the comments below.
Steph x.
