Obviously we’ve been thinking about Christmas a lot recently, and we remembered A Christmas Carol and, well, to be honest, The Muppets’ Christmas Carol in particular. Who doesn’t love a bit of Muppets?!
Like so many Christmas stories, it’s about family, about coming together, and about celebrating each other and sharing some good times. We couldn’t be more on board. Even if there’s only two of you in the house, or you’re celebrating with an adopted family of friends and neighbours, Christmas is all about chilling (sometimes literally if we’re lucky with the snow!), lounging in pyjamas, and sharing the love.
Every year, in our own ways, we bring together Christmas Past, Present and Future. Not necessarily with all the big life lessons that Dickens shared, but we get to reflect on the past, enjoy the present, and look to the future each year. It’s one of the meaningful things about the festive period, and we’re keen to embrace it.
It’s a magical time – full of nostalgia and hope – and it got us thinking about how we can bring past, present, and future together.
Commemorating the Past
Often, the things that bring us together at Christmas are shared experiences, shared stories, and shared memories. Whether it’s just the past year, past decade, or further back, we can cultivate nostalgia and happiness with family and friends by reflecting on our adventures.
What are the Christmas traditions you celebrate each year? How do you bring memories into your Christmas décor, and even your gifts? How can you share the memories of your adventures and all the things you’ve done?
Wrapping gifts is always a bit of a competitive sport in the Betsy Benn household and this year is no exception. Betsy is labelling her gifts with old family photos of each person and they have to hunt their cute (or potentially cringe-worthy) pictures themselves.
Thinking of different ways to do to enjoy the memories you’ve created together is definitely a big theme for us! We find that those pesky Dads and other family members who are tricky to buy for often love gifts that honour their favourite memories of the past, and our Destination Prints offer an amazing way to display their fondest recollections:
It could be all the places they’ve visited, where the kids (and grandkids) were born, or simply all the places they’ve lived. To display the places they’ve spent their time is so special, and can really make a statement in their home.
Celebrating the Present
Of course, every year we have the opportunity to create new traditions or simply create a Christmas that’s right for us and our family right now. Yes, we bring our traditions and preferences for the Christmas routine with us, but every year we get to decide what we want to do, no matter what the past routine has been.
Perhaps you’ve always had smoked salmon for breakfast, or watched a Bond film. Or maybe it’s always been a big family affair. Stuart, our artworker, has a cracking family tradition where, after dinner, each person has to perform a little something. It could be a song, a tune on the guitar or (our favourite) reciting some old verse like the Magna Carta in a funny accent.
So whether it’s a long-standing tradition that you absolutely love or something totally new, this year, you get to decide. Have cake for breakfast, or watch something new, or play it really low key if that’s what you really want.
One of the things we’ve tried to do each year is to create a beautiful snapshot of our family as it is in the moment every year. With mobile phones and digital cameras, it’s so easy for photos to stay hidden in the digital world. And yet there are so many gorgeous and creative ways to display photographs!
A subtle and stylised way to capture the present is with our Family Silhouette Print.
Remember just how little the kids are, and include all the family members who are less comfortable in front of the camera using the flattering silhouette effect. One of the things we love about this piece of artwork is that it’s so simple but effective – a great way to capture the people we care about most.
Anticipating the Future
With all the nostalgia flying around at Christmas, it can really balance things out to look to the future, to imagine the next phase, with all the celebrations and challenges it’ll bring.
What are the things you’re looking forward to in the new year? Where do you want to be in a year’s time – or further ahead? What are you most hopeful about for the future?
Christmas is such a lovely time to reflect and look forward, and the family time and down time can really offer a brilliant space to anticipate a bright future.
For us, looking forward is all about the future of our families and the new members we’re welcoming. We love to initiate new babies and young children into the traditions and celebrations at Christmas!
On his first ever Christmas, Betsy’s son, Ben, got a tag from Father Christmas and it’s still the first decoration he looks for when they’re decorating the tree so we know first-hand how precious these new traditions can be.
Our Baby’s First Christmas Telegram from Santa/Father Christmas can be personalised so that we call the man in red whatever he’s known as in your family, and there's also a letter style one in case your Santa is more about the letter writing than the telegrams!
These little touches are all about creating the traditions of the future, and planting the seeds of happiness for years to come.
Making It Easy – And A Reflection Of You
However you choose to integrate Christmas Past, Present and Future into your celebrations this year, we at Betsy Benn would be honoured to help. Ordering gifts with us is easy, but still offers you personal service and unique ways to bring your celebrations and memories to life.
Our mission is to help you give great gifts, with bags of personality. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
And we wish you all the best for the most delicious, happy, cosy Christmas yet!
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We thought for a long time about whether to have a break, how that would look, what kind of business we would come back to if we did and what our impact is on the other businesses we work with and our customers.
