Countdown to Christmas & Christmas Eve Blog Party - Everyone welcome!!

Yes - it’s finally here, Christmas Eve …..woooohooooo!!! Time to party (well in a virtual blog type of way - lol) Get yourself a drink (mulled wine for me!) and some nibbles and welcome to the party - it‘s great to see you here!

The party is being hosted by Gayle of Altered Orchid and if you’d care for a little blog hop to get you even more in the mood for Christmas than you probably already are, I’ll put the list of participants at the end of this posting - I’m sure each one would love you to visit them and join in the party - go and see what festive fun they’ve in store for you - I’ll be hopping along myself shortly, maybe I‘ll see you there, be sure to say hello!

As for me, I have a couple of things to share with you - two matchboxes and a Festive Fun Christmas Quiz - (try saying that after a couple of glasses of wine!) - and there’ll be a prize for the winner - are you excited now? Does your glass need topping up yet (mine does!!), so get a refill, sit comfortably and I’ll begin.

Matchboxes

Back in August of this year I signed up for the Countdown to Christmas

matchbox swap hosted by Linda on her blog A Swap For All Seasons. The idea was to alter 25 matchboxes to a Christmas theme and include inside each one a small gift. All the boxes were sent to Linda (and there were 71 participants in total - that’s a lot of matchboxes!), she then mixed them up and sent out to each of us 25 different boxes to showcase on our blogs one a day from 1st to 25th December. It’s been like a virtual advent calendar! As I may be a little busy tomorrow (!!) today I will showcase my final two matchboxes - days 24 and 25. Here goes!

Matchbox No. 24

This one was made by Sandi of

Musings of Sam I Am

It’s in a very traditional style and I love the dark brown ‘Merry Christmas’ ribbon she’s edged her box with top and bottom.

Here’s what’s inside

I really took a shine to these cute little earrings, I think they’re fabulous and may be able to get away with wearing them other times of the year too!

Matchbox No. 25

Well, this is it, the final matchbox and it comes from Francie of

The Scented Cottage

How lovely and fitting that it depicts the Nativity scene on the front of the box and a gold star with a little jewel for the drawer pull. I love the rich gold edging top and bottom and the gold ribbon hanger too.

…and inside, the final gift is this

A metal charm in the form of a crown bedecked with jewels for the King of Kings, baby Jesus and we mustn’t forget that this is what Christmas is about after all.

Thank you Sandi and Francie for my final two boxes, and also to Linda for organising the whole event. 

 

I mounted all 25 matchboxes I received on a baking tray (cookie sheet)

 

If you want to see the matchboxes I made for the swap, click here.

That's enough about matchboxes!!! Now for something completely different…….

Festive Fun Christmas Quiz

Here's a little quiz based on an English Victorian Christmas.  If you want to take part please email me your answers (email button can be found in my sidebar) and leave me a comment here saying you've done so.  If more than one person gets all the answers right, I'll do a random draw to decide who wins a little mystery prize I will put together. 

I'll announce the winner and the right answers here on New Year's Eve sometime.

So without further ado, here's the 8 questions!

1.  The last Sunday before Advent was known as 'Stir-Up Sunday' where, in the kitchen it was considered good luck for everyone to give the mixture a stir.  What was the mixture for?

2.  Name three spices you're likely to find in mulled wine.

3.  'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens was about Ebenezer Scrooge

 - name three other characters from the book.

4.  Name the inventor of the Christmas Cracker.

5.  Why are mince pies so called, when they contain no mince at all?

6.  Name the well known poem written by Clement Clark Moore about the night time visit by Santa Clause.

7.  Which Royal introduced the decorated christmas tree to England in 1841?

8.  The Twelve Days of Christmas - when do they begin and end?

Good luck!

Now, I promised you a list of Christmas Eve Party Blogs, here they are:

Gayle

Julie

Leanne

Kristin

Barbara

Diana

Michelle

Kelly

 

Hope you get time to visit them all, enjoy the party and most of all,

Merry Christmas to you xxx