After a long year, full of uncertainty and changes for everyone… Christmas has finally arrived!
Despite the hustle and bustle of these last few days, at The Villã we did not want to stop looking back at all this time and thanking everything we had learned, valuing the good and keeping the best memories and small details in our lives.
Christmas for us is a time of joy, togetherness and quality family time. As you know, family is one of the most important pillars at The Villã Concept and all our designs are inspired by family stories, memories and moments. Each of the Villã products has a very special meaning and for this reason, on these dates more than ever, they have a unique value.
In this post, we wanted to convey to you a message of joy and hope for the future. Although it sounds like a cliché, we really believe that it is the best time to show affection, gratitude and love to everyone around us. Propose to be the best version of ourselves and understand that what is truly important about Christmas are the moments we share with our loved ones.
In addition, we also wanted to share with you the moments and plans that we most enjoy doing as a family and that are already tradition! We leave you some ideas so that you are encouraged to propose them at home!
Organize an invisible friend
We thoroughly enjoy hosting Secret Santa as a family every year! This year, especially although we cannot hold meetings with many people, it is the best solution to have that special detail thought for each one. Just buying a gift for another symbolizes affection and has a very positive effect on the person who receives the surprise gift.
For example, now on our website you can "send a hint" of what you most want to be given for Christmas and thus make it easy for the person you have touched 😉
cooking gingerbread cookies
We like NOTHING more than an afternoon cooking together and more than a typical Christmas dish or sweet. Where each one adopts a role and in the middle of a fun conversation, the Christmas classics sound and we drop some other dance.
In our case, gingerbread cookies (the classic “gingerbread cookies”) are a classic at our Christmas and easy to prepare and decorate with children. And if it is accompanied by a hot chocolate or marshmallows... the afternoon is done!
We leave you this recipe that we love!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of fresh ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¾ mild molasses
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Method of preparation:
Mix the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a bowl. Separately, beat the butter and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add to this mixture the egg, molasses and orange zest. Little by little mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones until you get a stiff consistency of the dough.
Start in a new family tradition
Dare to think of a new family Christmas tradition! This year Christmas will be different for many, so why not take the leap and propose ideas and plans that you have never had time to do. Just like during confinement, we all became very creative and full of ideas to do at home... this Christmas is no less!
Here are some ideas:
- Christmas decorations for the tree or for the house : As easy as buying felt fabric in many colors and beads or beads to glue on top of the "cutouts". Poke a hole in them and attach a string or bow to hang them on your Christmas tree. That from this year, which we will always remember, you add a new year each year with some meaning or special message.
- Send themed postcards to your relatives . With a drawing, photo or moment that reminds you of them. It is hardly written on paper anymore and this tradition of sending postcards has been "lost". We are sure that you love receiving them! Why not this year, be you the one who sends them?
- Create your own bouquets or Christmas wreaths. There are thousands of tutorials on how to make your own Christmas wreath, the important thing is some good pine and eucalyptus branches, pine cones and decorative bows to decorate the center along with some candles as well.
- Collect all the written wishes and goals of the whole family in a box , and read them the following year to see if they have been achieved and fulfilled.
An afternoon of marathon of classics
Who doesn't like to enjoy a Christmas movie marathon at this time? It is a classic and we will never get tired of doing it!
We leave you our favorites:
- How The Grinch stole Christmas . In all its versions!
- Home Alone . We stay with the 2 ;)
- Scrooged. Because it is simply a classic!
- Little Women . A story that inspires us by its women.
- Bridget Jones's Diary . Our favorite character.
- TheHoliday. Because a love story never hurts at Christmas!
Write a letter to someone special
As an activity to practice gratitude, we suggest that you encourage yourself to write a letter to someone special, telling them how grateful you are to have them in your life. What we write often has more weight than what we say, because we have time to think about it and express it well, and it also symbolizes a great display of affection, since it represents time invested in dedicating a few words to someone.
