Christmas is Christmas... no matter where you are!

It occurred to me in mid November that Mark and I had only once, in our ten year union gone to the trouble of having a Christmas tree in the house.  Neither of us have even lived in the same state as our  respective families since leaving University and given we have always traveled to be with family on Christmas day it just never seemed worth the trouble..... then Miss May arrived.  The table was flipped and suddenly having the biggest and best christmas tree and all the associated 'hoo-ha' in the lead up to Christmas was essential.  How else will our daughter grow to feel part of the culture of her parents if we don't make the effort?  So in our home Christmas was the word and for six weeks we covered a lot of territory!  Here is a summary...

Choosing the biggest and best (and freaking expensive...) Christmas tree!

Visiting the Singapore Botanical Gardens to see the lights at dusk...

Christmas lights on Orchard road... so crowded!!!

Homemade Advent Calendar... clearly mummy did this project but inside we had 25 little christmas related activities rather than sweets (not so much because I'm a stickler for healthy options - I just dont think daddy could have resisted...)

Home-Made Wrapping Paper ... we used glitter paint which was probably more exiting for Mummy than Miss May)

With the help of some enterprising mums at our condo we held our first ever Christmas fair.   It was a great day and included stalls by some local designers and vendors (check out the lovely stuff from the lovely Emma at www.emmalaue.com and beautiful wears out of Bali from Coco and Ginger (http://cocoandgingersingapore.com/).  We organised a range of Christmas activities for the kids and were lucky enough to have a guest appearance by Santa himself.  Santa luckily remembered his shorts and t-shirt for the sticky Singapore weather! 

Thank you all the other Mummies, and one Daddy in particular (you know who you are), who helped out.

Home Made ornaments were a huge hit.  We tried both the Salt Dough recipe and the White Clay recipe... both were easy to make and fun to decorate.   We took plenty home as gifts for Nanna and Grandma for their own Christmas trees too.  Checkout The Imagination Tree for instructions of how to make.

Our homemade snow-globe was interesting... jar, water, glitter and a store-bought ornament... problem was our angle looked a little worse for wear after a couple of days submerged in water.. 

We traveled back to Australia with Miss May just before Christmas and spent a fabulous 2 weeks with family and friends.  By the time we returned Singapore had stripped itself of Christmas and Chinese New Year decorations were everywhere.  So stay posted for our Chinese New Year post!