Today is Christmas Eve and my favourite day of the year! However old you are the 24th December always seems to have a feeling of magical anticipation about it. All the cards have been delivered, the presents wrapped and the decorations up! This year my husband and I have been invited to my son’s house for Christmas dinner so I am feeling rather relaxed today. I’d usually be preparing veg and making desserts but instead I’m looking forward to watching a good Christmas movie and opening a box of chocolates!

This year I have both a real and an artificial tree. My stunning 7.5ft faux fir (an on-line Boxing Day sale bargain several years ago) has pride of place in my lounge. It is full of gorgeous red, green and gold glass baubles (more sale purchases made over the years). Last week I went on my usual pre-Christmas trip to Sevenoaks with my dear friend Sue. In recent years we always go on a Wednesday to coincide with the weekly flower market. As we arrived at the market I noticed a little 4ft compact but rather beautiful rooted Christmas Tree in a pot standing on it’s own by the rest of the displays. “That’s the last one” the stalllholder shouted, “yours for a tenner”. It certainly was mine and a few minutes later we had managed (after a lot of seat moving) to secure it in the back of Sue’s car. Luckily she had offered to drive as I don’t think it would have fit in my Fiat 500! After some final present shopping we had lunch in our usual pub in the town and discussed our festive plans. It was, as always, a wonderful day and I am thrilled to now have a real tree in my dining room this year!

This week was the start of the school holidays and my grandsons and I have been busy baking. The highlight was making our annual Christmas Tree Cake. The tin I use for it could now be described as vintage as I purchased it over 20 years ago when my own children were small! Luckily as it is only used once a year it is still in a relatively good condition. The sponge cake was iced and decorated with smarties, although quite how many went missing in the process I dont know. I have many photos of the varying artistic creations over the years!

Traditions like these, shared with my family and friends always help make my Christmas extra special and create wonderful nostalgic memories. I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported Vintage Dawn this year. I love running my small business and really appreciate every single order. I have lots of new stock ready for 2024 and exciting plans for some new makes so keep an eye on my Instagram and Etsy shop.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year