Christmas Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/tag/christmas/ Tales from a down-shifted family - Making the most of modest means in West Wales Sun, 04 Jan 2026 09:33:35 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-favicon-160x160.jpg Christmas Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/tag/christmas/ 32 32 2696646 Island Hopping in the Phillpines – Days 8 & 9 – Coron https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/01/island-hopping-in-the-phillpines-days-8-9-coron/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/01/island-hopping-in-the-phillpines-days-8-9-coron/#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2026 13:26:35 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=47702 Christmas Days and Karst Adventures in Coron Merry Christmas! It was Christmas Day, and we were in the Philippines, staying at the very plush Bacau Bay Hotel in Coron, on the island of Busuanga. The staff wore Santa hats, Christmas carols played softly in the background, and the grounds and restaurants were strung with festive...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2026/01/island-hopping-in-the-phillpines-days-8-9-coron/feed/ 1 47702 Bands, Fayres, and Festive Cheer https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/12/bands-fayres-and-festive-cheer/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/12/bands-fayres-and-festive-cheer/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2025 08:08:17 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=47480 I think we’re beginning to slip properly into the Christmas spirit now. Anna probably has been for a while thanks to the various Christmas concerts and carolling she’s been doing with the band, but I joined her for the festive fun at the weekend too. After a gentle run around Borth on Sunday morning, we...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/12/bands-fayres-and-festive-cheer/feed/ 0 47480 An Early Start to Christmas https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/12/an-early-start-to-christmas/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/12/an-early-start-to-christmas/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:31:42 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=47426 It’s December, just, but we kicked off the Christmas events slightly early this year with a pre-Christmas trip to family in Bristol. Logistics meant going a week or so earlier than usual, so we weren’t quite in full festive flow yet, but it turned out to be a good way to get things started. It...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2025/12/an-early-start-to-christmas/feed/ 1 47426 Christmas at Portmeirion https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-at-portmeirion/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-at-portmeirion/#comments Fri, 27 Dec 2024 16:35:06 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=44369 With Morgan in Canada last year, Christmas at home for Anna and me was something of a non-event. We still had presents around the tree, Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, and even stockings. There was the usual snooze in the afternoon and some corny Christmas films. But with just the two of us, it...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-at-portmeirion/feed/ 1 44369 Christmas Decorations https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-decorations-3/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-decorations-3/#comments Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:35:52 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=44225 With the family visit to Bristol complete and a day off on Monday for Anna and I, we were able to get the Christmas decorations up. It’s all change this year with new lights, a new pergola to decorate, various things going in the bin and a new location for the tree. Let’s hope it...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-decorations-3/feed/ 1 44225 Christmas Gatherings – Victorian Style https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-gatherings-victorian-style/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-gatherings-victorian-style/#comments Tue, 10 Dec 2024 11:34:44 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=44211 It’s that ‘most wonderful’ time of the year again. I’m sure it comes around quicker each all the time! Anna and I have a slightly, no, scrap that ‘very’ different Christmas planned this year. I’ll let you in on what it is once we’ve done it, but the run-up to Christmas is going to be...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2024/12/christmas-gatherings-victorian-style/feed/ 2 44211 Christmas at Home https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/christmas-at-home/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/christmas-at-home/#comments Sun, 31 Dec 2023 08:17:12 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=41591 Christmas is usually a quiet affair for us. If you look back through blog posts from years gone by you’ll see that they usually follow a similar format. The main change during the past decade or so has been that the opening of presents gets later and later. When Morgan was younger he was up...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/christmas-at-home/feed/ 2 41591 Westonbirt Aboretum Light Trail https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/westonbirt-aboretum-light-trail/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/westonbirt-aboretum-light-trail/#comments Tue, 19 Dec 2023 14:36:46 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=41501 We had our annual festive trip to Bristol at the weekend. With Friday off work, we took a leisurely drive down and headed into Yate to do some shopping. We needed masks and snorkels for the New Year and surprisingly managed to find some that looked suitable in Yate. We wandered around a few other...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/westonbirt-aboretum-light-trail/feed/ 1 41501 Christmas Decorations https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/christmas-decorations-2/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/christmas-decorations-2/#comments Sun, 10 Dec 2023 03:30:53 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=41433 It felt a little weird putting the Christmas decorations up without Morgan here, but it would also have been weird and somewhat miserable not to have bothered. So yesterday morning we had Christmas songs playing throughout the house and made the annual trip into the attic to find the tree and the lights and soon...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/12/christmas-decorations-2/feed/ 1 41433 Christmas Day 2022 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2022/12/christmas-day-2022/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2022/12/christmas-day-2022/#respond Mon, 26 Dec 2022 13:46:20 +0000 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=38580 It wouldn’t be Christmas with a Christmas Day blog post. To be honest, there isn’t a huge amount to blog about really. You could probably look back to the Christmas Day blog posts from the past few years and it would be almost the same! That’s not a complaint of course, more an observation that...

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