Lessons in Christmas

We took a festive detour last night. On a whim we decided to join an everyone-welcome raggle taggle collection of carollers on a street corner. The kids in Santa hats, a nativity scene set up on the pavement.

The 7 year old saw the statues and asked aloud in his best everyone-look-at-me voice did we want him to name them all.

As a lax, lapsed Christian I was more than a little nervous how it would go.

'That's the cow' he said, pointing to the cow.

'And that's the sheep' he said, pointing to the ox.

'And that - ' he announced pointing to the baby Jesus

'...is...'

'...um, what's his name again?'

Then louder, to the crowd - 'What's he called again?'

'Jesus Christ' I muttered in despair.

'Oh yeah, Jesus'.

I pushed him to the back of the group and told him to behave. Always a mistake.

'Boring! Bor-rrring!  I hate this one.' he said as the carols began.

'And this one. When can we leave?'

Everyones smiles became fixed. Mine was gone a long time ago.

I grabbed his arm a little too tightly as he accidentally on purpose pushed his brother into an older lady.

Hissing into his ear I told him how much trouble he was going to be in when we got home.

'Stop ruining everything for everyone you spoiled little....'

The music struck up again -

'Peace on earth and mercy mild...'

Yep, Christmas has begun.

Drape yourself in tinsel and Christmas cheer with the £1,900 KiddyCharts advent calendar giveaways!

We have a guest today; the somewhat frazzled, Helen Neale. Frazzled because she is trying to look after two small people, while working at home as a freelance writer and blogger. Her kiddycharts.com website is where she dresses up in high heels and a pressed suit to offer parenting tools and advice to parents of under 9s. She even sells personalised kids charts from there. On stickersstarsandsmiles.com she is a little more relaxed. Often to be seen running after the kids, stuffing chocolate in her face, while trying to manage her personal life through Facebook. Occasionally, she might even have wine.


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It is wonderful to finally come and visit Kate in Spain *I wish*, even if it is only virtually. Thanks so much for having me; where is the Sangria though? *searches frantically*

A while ago I was a business analyst. I know that is hard to believe. I was deadly serious, and even did maths sometimes.

Then I had children, and ended up getting slightly annoyed with the demands my clients were making at the same time as my babies were screaming. Not sure who was shouting the loudest to be honest.

In some strange eureka moment; I gave up and decided that I was going to start my own business. KiddyCharts was born. The charts we sell were precisely what I had used to get through my parenting challenges. We now have potty training charts and the usual toddler sticker charts; all made with parents like me in mind. The ones that worked best with my kids, our progress-type reward charts also seem to be the most popular with others.

As it is now the season to be jolly, we have sprinkled a few stars, stolen a few baubles *not really*, and grabbed a passing Santa, and turned one of our charts into an advent calendar; just for you. *we aim to please*

But, wait for it. This is not an ordinary calendar. It doesn't have a chocolate in it; I ate them....

Well no, actually, I didn't eat them, what they DO contain is a new giveaway every single day for you to enter, so that you might get just that little bit more for Christmas for either yourself or the kids. We do have a little bit of something for everyone.

Some of the great prizes that are already available include a Micro Scooter and even a few vouchers at website likes Experience Days, and Truprint. This means you get to choose what you would like to buy.

Because I know what it can be like getting yourself organised, the giveaways are open for a full seven days. This means you have that little bit of extra time to get sorted and enter. The first giveaway closes on Sunday 8th December.

It would be amazing if one of Kate's readers wins one of the 24 prizes up for grabs. Why not sign up below to the mailing list to get alerts daily when a new giveaway goes live on the KiddyCharts' site?

Subscribe to KiddyCharts Advent Calendar Giveaway-a-day mailing list

You could even pop over there now, and check out what has started over there already. Santa is waiting on the advent calendar for you to open that first present for him. We wouldn't want to disappoint now, would we?

Elf on the Shelf - The Arrival

Well it turns out that Santa has been informed about the children's big move from Ireland to Spain this year and so has sent a little buddy to report back to him on how they are getting on.

Buddy it seems is a bit of a mischievous elf however, and so Sparky has been tasked with keeping an eye on him during his visit.

They arrived this morning via the chimney, in their own little Santa sack with a letter from the man himself explaining what they would be doing. They will spend the next few weeks with us returning to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, until next year rolls around again.

If you have never heard of Elf on the Shelf then this is it in a nutshell: The Elf visits, he comes alive at night, gives his report to Santa and invariably gets up to all sorts of antics whilst everyone is sleeping. Oh, and his shenanigans are often caught on camera.

Whilst some elves get their kicks from swinging on the Christmas tree...

I heart faces

Others go to more x-rated extremes...

And end up like this...

That's an actual cell people - lets take this shit seriously!

I do hope Sparky manages to keep Buddy in check for us. Do you think he will...?

Operation Smile!

This morning my 5 year old woke me up at 6am by saying that he wanted to send four fresh bottles of water to the poor people so that they didn't have to drink dirty water anymore.

I have no idea where he came up with this or what he had seen to cause him to ponder on it at 6am in the morning but it was a wonderful thing to hear. We had a chat about those people and he ended up wanting to send them not just water, but duvets, toys and clothes too. This afternoon we are going to pick out some gifts online that we can send.

I think educating our children gently into seeing that not everyone is born as lucky as we are is really important. It helps them to learn compassion and understanding and gratitude among many other things. What a great gift for a child to receive.

That is partly why I am getting behind a fantastic project called Operation Smile.

As parents we all know how wonderful it is to see our children smile.

You know that huge grin that just screams HAPPY!

Or even that cheesy camera face that makes us laugh.

Now imagine for just a moment if your child couldn't smile.

Whilst cleft palates in our world are a minor problem that are fixed in the first year of a baby's life, in other parts of the world such as Rwanda, no money and a lack of specialist medical care mean parents of children born with a cleft are helpless.

But here's the great part: 

You can help these children and their parents right now!

Here is Marceline Before and After surgery:

All you need to do to help people like Marceline is to download a fab new single 'Smile' by those lovely boys The Undertones, and 100% net profits from each single sold will go towards helping Operation Smile raise £56,000 to fund its next project in Rwanda in April 2014.

The Overtones travelled to Rwanda in September to see for themselves the devastating impact cleft lips and palates can have on children. They were so moved by their experiences in Rwanda that they decided to record and release the song as a Christmas charity single to help raise the much needed funds. 

I think this picture perfectly captures how much it means to them.

This video tells their story and lets you hear the gorgeous version of the Nat King Cole song



82 peoples lives were transformed during just 5 days by the amazing team during their visit, but 108 children are still waiting for their life changing operation. 

So why not send the gift of a smile to one them today by going to iTunes.com/Overtones now. 

Available on pre-ordered now and is available to download from  16^th Dec. 

All they want for Christmas. . .

As many of you know my sister Siobhan set up Netmums a million years ago and has since then been helping to make the journey of motherhood a little easier for women all over the country.

Netmums also do a lot of charity work behind the scenes and one of the charities that Siobhan and I both have a great affiliation to are the wonderful Kids Company that is run by the fearless and larger than life figure of Camila Batmanghelidj.

Siobhan recently visited Camila at Kids Company and was shocked at what she saw. 

Camila and Siobhan at Kids Company

Here's what she had to say:

“I have been down to visit one of the Kids Company centres, where children from 4 upwards go, by themselves, before and after school and at weekends for food, company and advice.

They really don’t have anyone to look after them – their parents (usually just a mum) are unable to as they have issues like drink and/or drug addiction or mental illness.

I was shocked as I had assumed that in these cases social services would be involved but there are too many children and it seems if they are not being actually abused – “just” neglected, there aren’t enough resources. I was also shocked that Kids Company have to beg for money through charity to feed and cloth these children.

They try to give them a winter coat, pants and socks, and they can get a hot meal every day, but they need our help. Please do send a quid if you can – text KIDS GIFT to 70700 to make a £1 donation – I promise it will get straight to the kids who need it. And tell your friends. Thank you”

The stories that the children tell of what Christmas means to them are heartbreaking. Rose, 12 says -

'One Christmas, Dad completely destroyed our flat; chairs, plates, everything broken, even the unopened presents were trampled and smashed. I remember this bit because I had always wanted a whistle and I saw it through the wrapping paper all broken. We’re told Christmas should be about family and friends, happiness, love, good food, relaxing and presents. But to me it’s been alcohol, fighting and arguing. Kids Company Christmas brings me closer to my dream Christmas, a happy family, a lovely spread of food, no worries, people helping each other to cook, decorate and the feeling of being together”.

My heart just broke for that little girl. All she wanted was a whistle. Hearing stories like this stop you in your tracks and make you think about what Christmas is like for some less fortunate children, as opposed to your own. 

The good news is that with our help Rose and many, many others like her can be given a real Christmas. One to remember fondly, not with shame and sadness.

On Christmas day, children at Kids Company will enjoy hot food, individually wrapped presents, Santa’s Grotto, storytelling and games. Children can make hats and puppets, create a Christmas mural or join in fun activities such as football and a bouncy castle. Kids Company create all of this with the help of over 200 volunteers who work tirelessly to make a magical and unforgettable Christmas wonderland.

So how can you help give these most vulnerable of children the Christmas they deserve?

1. Join Netmums Merry Quidmas campaign by Texting KIDS GIFT to 70700 to make a £1 donation to help provide a gift for a vulnerable child.

2. Spread the word. Whether you tell your friends in person over a coffee, text them the number, share the message on Facebook, Tweet it or write your own post on it - every little action will help.

Surely they deserve that much for Christmas?