Festive greetings funseekers! For some of these experiences you may need to wrap up warm, so pray don your gay apparel and follow me on a carefully gritted path (safety first – there will be no scrimping on grit in my imaginary Christmas land). Hopefully I can help illuminate your life with the frosted sunshine that is the gift of festive fun.
Having given this a bit of thought, I’ve decided to divide this into 2 sections: the giving of fun as a gift and the gift of fun for yourself and others.
Giving fun as a gift has become more popular, which I suppose is a by-product of the fact that many of us are now trapped in the gift conundrum vortex. The vortex is created when forces such as
‘I’ve already got/can buy myself X/Y/Z’ collide with
‘ No-one can actually afford what I want, including me’.
This and the ‘Dad equation’ (Dad + occasion – inspiration = Aaaaaarrrrghhh – more on this later) have meant so many more of us are turning to giving experiences as gifts.
A friend of mine for example has bought tickets to ‘The Nutcracker’ for her mum for Christmas. Seems inspired to me…Going and sitting in the Grand Theatre, surrounded by the incredible artisan smorgasboard of colours, whilst ballerinas pirouette to the Nutcracker? Perfect mum gift. Plus, does it get much more Christmassy than the Nutcracker? Brownie points set to maximum for that one.
Another idea for giving fun as a gift for mums is to get a relaxation experience voucher from a voucher site. I’ve tried these, and given them as gifts….I have to say it all went swimmingly, what with all the swimming and whatnot.
On one voucher fuelled trip, myself, my friends, their mum and my teenage daughter all went on an adventure to a day spa. We all live pretty stressful lives in one way or another, and it’s fair to say were looking more frazzled than a packet of brand name streaky bacon crisps when we were welcomed into the spa. Having gone in a small herd of very stressy catterpillars, we were cocooned in the spa and emerged butterfly like – all shiny and new by the end of the day.
Moving on to blokes… just what do you get for the man who, not so much has everything, but more complains that the house is full enough of stuff and regularly threatens to throw it out?
I mean, he has only one tangible interest, and the house is now so choc full of VW campervan memorabilia, I’m not sure we’re able to gain anymore without someone coming up with campervan earmuffs or a campervan toilet brush holder (n.b. DO NOT feel the urge to share these things if you know of links to such items, there is only so much one home can carry off the ‘campervan’ look). Anyway, I digress. What he also likes is racing cars. Boom, jobs a good’un, voucher for a Ferrari experience in the bag. He loved that.
I also bought two of my best male friends a Zombie shooting paintball experience. Seeing as they spend the majority of their lives playing Xbox live on first person shooter games, it seemed perfect. I also think it might do them good to remember that there are things like weather and other humans (albeit dressed presumably as zombies) in the outside world (We also come not surrounded by a screen). I bought it for 10 people from Skirmish paintball so maybe I’ll be invited too. I do like to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse, I just hope my jingly elf shoes and tinsel deeley boppers don’t give me away…
Right, I’ve been putting it off, but I’ll try and tackle the dad conundrum. Dads: the real nightmare before Christmas. All’s I can say is, if you’re getting him an experience, keep your eyes peeled for things like brewery tours, falconry days, wine tasting experiences.
And now to the second category, giving the gift of fun to yourself & loved ones in the festive season.
There are some really obvious ones, such as the Kristkindelmarkt. I took my kids and partner all together for the first time. They loved the carousel. Watching them sitting on it together, all bathed in a golden glow gave me wonderful photo opportunities. These pictures will in future years allow me to mentally gloss over the Mexican standoff that erupted over the armrest in the car on the journey there… They were transfixed, delighted & fascinated by the twinkling crafts, the giant hotdogs and the myriad of sweets on offer too, this is genuinely a fun time for all ages.
I have been with friends too, and it’s hard to resist the pull of the Yule-tide, raising even the Grinchiest of brows and cracking a smile on the Scroogiest of misers…
Between the wafting scent of mulled wine, waffles, roasting almonds, smoky hotdogs, warm mead and the Christmas card perfect stalls it’s nigh on impossible not to feel festive inside. In fact, this would be the perfect setting for the Nutcracker suite to be performed…
Oh my lord, that’s GENIUS! I do hope someone from the Grand theatre reads this and actually does this next year. Watching the Sugar Plum fairy tiptoe joyfully from a picture perfect stall, whilst I eat hotdogs and drink mead would possibly be the most Christmassy thing EVER. Please do it. I swear I’ll be good all year!
Another completely inspired way to have festive fun is to get tickets to one of Highlight’s Christmas Comedy parties. I went last year and it was fabulous from the mulled wine reception, to the tasty food. The service was perfect, the hosting funny and the drinks well priced. Obviously the highlight of the evening was the stand-up performances, which had us creasing from start to finish. Couldn’t recommend this more highly, but a lot of their nights are selling out fast – so get them booked quick if you want to go!
Finally, I would like to introduce you to our little tradition. We started this about 7 years ago in one group of friends and last year in another. It’s called Mini Christmas. Or pre-Christmas. Basically, we all get together one day in early December, about 11 o clock and start preparing food. Christmas C.D’s will be playing in the kitchen, terrible singing ensues.
Christmassy films go on (Father Christmas and The Muppets Christmas Carol are a must). We drink, we play board games, and we eat a 3 course roast dinner. Wearing our paper hats and groaning at the cracker jokes, we move on to secret Santa… there’s been some brilliant presents unearthed, and there are some really flattering photos of me sporting my brand new festive chefs hat & apron. Sexy.
Then the games really begin. We’ve started buying new board games every year (we all put into a kitty for food, wine & entertainment) and we work out how to turn them into drinking games. It all gets highly competitive and hilarious, with shots and forfeits being doled out like coal for bad kids. We love Mini Christmas, it’s so much more relaxing enjoying a full Christmas day with friends, getting very merry. Much more laid back than say having to watch your language round elderly relatives or tiptoeing about cos the olds have gone to sleep in front of songs of praise.
I’ll elf off for now, but remember to get the right amount of naughty in with your nice & you’ll have a great time!