It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

Quaintly decorated trees, snow flurries and hot chocolate by an open fire topped off with timeless Christmas classics are just some of the things to look forward to this festive season. Amidst the ghouls and ghosts suspended from window to window, in ample time for spooky Halloween celebrations, Christmas has tiptoed its way into the shops, and for some even into our bags!

With this in mind it seemed like a no brainer that thestudio join in with all the festive preparations! For those of you on our mailing list, you may have already been greeted by our Christmas email. If you’re not and are interested in finding that all important venue we’d love to help. With novelty knits and cocked Santa’s hats being the obvious seasonal attire, we welcome you @studiovenues for a great Christmas do!

What a better way to anticipate this pleasant period than to reminisce on past get together? The team let us in on what they love most and their own quirky traditions.

Let us know your Christmas customs and kitchen catastrophes @studiovenues, we love a good story!

Emma: “In the morning we light the log fire, open the champagne for bucks fizz, put on the cheesy Christmas music whilst we open presents, there are always some for our “fur-babies” Wilf and Tatti to open!

Then we go for a nice walk with the dogs and go and meet friends at the local pub for pre-lunch drinks. We then head to our friends house (he is the local butcher) and have a fabulous Christmas lunch.

We play games at the table and then all retire to the sofas and for the last 3 years we have watched the film “Love Actually” and we re-cast all the characters as people we know that live in our town! If we are cast in a character we have to get up and act those parts … I always get the Martine McCutcheon part and Jim always gets Hugh Grant … yes he does get up and dance the “pointer sisters” disco bit!!”

Nigel: “My Christmas in recent years has been spent with my family in Fife, Scotland. I stay with my Mum with my brother living just around the corner in a beautiful little village. Christmas Eve my brother and I spend picking up food from the butchers etc and then do food prep in the afternoon with music playing. There are always visitors popping in so the kettle is on continuously.

Christmas morning Mum and I go for a long walk in the countryside with plenty of views and open Christmas presents to each other normally on a picnic table by the water. It’s quite a lovely way of doing it. Then it’s over to my brothers for large family Christmas. It is also his birthday so we change to birthday mode from pudding onwards. We are generally joined by up to 8 including my nieces.

Boxing Day is a chilled affair, normally culminating in leftovers, tea at my Mums and more family gatherings. For a small family there appears to be quite a lot of us these days.

After Xmas I head back down south for a day with Aidan, Hays and Tom and we also open presents outside on a walk and find a nice pub for lunch. Following that I like to escape as I’m not the greatest New Year fan. Last year it was Florence and this year I have booked Milan for a few nights.”

Lawrence: “Growing up used to alternate between grandparents. Opening presents was very different: one set free for all as soon as you woke, the other set was after Queens speech, one present at a time… Now I have my own children, can you guess which version we do now? Boxing Day was always pantomime, will start this tradition again this year.”

Julian: “I don’t tend to make a big fuss of Christmas… For the last few years I have treated my 81 year old neighbour to lunch followed by a mammoth dog walk in Leamington to help burn it off. The best Christmas days I can remember have always been spent with Friends rather than family… so I always make sure wherever possible I share it with friends.”

Dawn: “My favourite bit in our house is the Christmas Eve box. It’s opened on Christmas Eve night and has new pyjamas for everyone, a Christmas book to read at bed time, a Christmas film to watch and some festive snacks and drinks. We get our pyjamas on, get cosy under a blanket and watch the film.”

Katie: “Christmas eve, bubble bath, new pj’s, fresh bed linen and a Christmas movie. We can open one small present before bed! Christmas day, we have to wear some of your new clothes for lunch. We have 2 Christmas days every year, one with my family and one with my in-laws.”

Evie: My favourite Christmas tradition is how we open our presents… There are 5 people in my family, plus 1 dog. We all choose a number between one and six, and then grab a dice. In order to open our presents we play a fun – and slightly frustrating game. If your number lands face up then you get to open a present. It is then that persons go to roll the dice. Sometimes it takes ages for your number to come up as you patient (or not so patiently) wait to see what horrendous present Aunt Elaine brought you this year! It’s something that we’ve been doing for years and has become a real tradition.

Jyoti: “Banga Christmas’ are usually loud, full of ruckus and a bit overwhelming. With a family which is 12 people strong (14 including the cats: Betty & Alex), you can imagine how crazy the house hold can get! Even though we are all adults now, it seems we revert back to the childish bullying for occasions for when we are together, hence there aren’t many when the whole family is together! That said, we wouldn’t change a thing. We wait till everyone is home to being opening presents and usually have chicken instead of turkey (just preference) but our spread is laden with tons of variety, a feast fit for at least 3 kings! This year we are testing out secret Santa to be kinder on our pockets. Don’t worry, the little ones are excluded from this… we aren’t that tight!”

Wendy: “My Christmas in really relaxed. We open presents in the morning and then my husband cooks the Christmas dinner for the whole family and then we have a sleep in the afternoon. But I think form this year it will be different having an 18 month old who will be excited and love the presents. My favourite part is just spending time with my family and I think in the future I will enjoy seeing Gabby’s excitement.”