Christmas Blogger Q&A // Abbey Louisa Rose

Welcome back to my Christmas Blogger Q&A series. The series is running from 1st December right up to the big day. Today we welcome Abbey Louisa Rose.

Abbey Louisa Rose

Hello! My name is Abbey Louisa Rose and I’m a PhD student and lifestyle blogger based in the East Midlands. I’ve been blogging since 2016 about a variety of topics – everything from food and fitness to style and sustainability! I’m really excited for Christmas this year (as always!) and it’s been a pleasure to contribute to Steph’s Christmas Blogger series. Get your sleigh bells jingling and prepare for my answers!

1) Where do you spend Christmas Day and what do you usually do?

I always spend Christmas Day at home in East Anglia with my family. We have a slow start to the morning these days – my little brother who is five years my junior always used to drag all of us out of bed super early to open our presents but now that he’s 17, it’s the older siblings who have to pull him out of bed! We open our gifts as a family, everyone taking it in turns to open one. We start with the youngest person and go up to the oldest. It’s really nice to see what everyone gets and it draws out the present-opening fun a little longer. After gifts, my Mum starts the Christmas dinner prep! My sister and I really enjoy helping her out, it’s good fun and a nice family activity. Once we’ve eaten, we take the dogs out for a walk – they pick up on the Christmas excitement for sure and have a great time bounding around! As the evening draws in, we’ll usually play board games or card games as a family and more often than not, we have an early night! It’s always a chilled day and I love it!

2) Do you have any traditions which your family have or you have started?

Since I am a vegetarian, alongside my Mum and sister, we have some fantastic veggie friendly Christmas food every year! My all time favourite is an aduki bean and chestnut loaf – the smell of it cooking always makes me think of Christmas! We always tend to play a lot of games together as a family over the holidays too – my siblings and I usually challenge my Dad to a Wii golf tournament! It’s pretty much the only time of year that we play Wii any more but it’s a tradition now!

3) Which Christmas character would you like to be and why?

Now, I would say Buddy the Elf because Elf is my number one favourite Christmas film OF ALL TIME (seriously, I watch it every year without fail and I always laugh). However, the thought of putting sugary candy onto spaghetti and eating it cold for lunch – blergh! Sorry Buddy, I can’t choose you! I think I might go for Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas – his enthusiasm for Christmas and sheer determination to make everything Christmassy is a lovely thought! Obviously I’m not so keen on the way he goes about it by kidnapping Santa but let’s just focus on the good stuff! It’s the thought that counts, right?! Plus, Jack is the ideal combination of spooky and festive!

4) If you were able to invite 3 famous figures (past or present) to Christmas dinner, who would you invite and why?

Oooh, this is such a hard question! It might stretch our catering facilities a bit but I’d love to invite Henry VIII to Christmas dinner – provided that he didn’t try to marry and then cut off the heads of any of the other guests! He’s an incredible historical figure who I’d love to have a conversation with and I bet a feast with him would be a real experience! I would also be so delighted to have dinner with Cleopatra – she might be a bit confused about what was going on because she would never have celebrated Christmas herself but meeting the incredible Egyptian queen who bewitched Julius Caesar and Marc Antony would be absolutely amazing! I might invite Albert Einstein as well, just because my scientist boyfriend would be beside himself with glee haha! Plus I’d be really curious to see what kind of person he was actually like behind all of the genius!

5) If you could spend Christmas anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

I went on a beach holiday over Christmas with my family back in 2012 and it featured as My Best Christmas Ever in a festive blog post that I wrote in 2016! I’d love to go back to Cape Verde for Christmas again, I have such good memories of that vacation! Definitely check out that post if you want to learn more about why it’s my dream destination again!

6) Tell us your best Christmas cracker joke…

This one is awful but… “Why did Santa’s helper see the doctor?”

“Because he had a low “elf” esteem!”

7 ) In the past I have asked about your favourite song & movie, this year I’m asking, what is your favourite Christmas TV Special?

The Vicar of Dibley all the way! The episode where she eats like four different Christmas dinners is absolutely hilarious! I love the characters on that show and the Christmas episode is a lovely mixture of heart-warming festive cheer and hilarity! Dawn French is a brilliant actress too and dippy Alice never fails to put a smile on my face. Christmas TV can sometimes be terrible but The Vicar of Dibley never lets you down!

8) Do you own any Christmas Jumpers, and do you have any favourites?

I actually only own one Christmas jumper! I got it in a charity shop last year and I love it! It’s so cosy! I was wearing it in my Vegan Christmas Dinner blog post that I wrote last year and you can bet it’ll be making an appearance this year too!

9) Do you usually hit the shops or do your shopping online?

which means that I’ve been making a lot of purchases on Etsy. I absolutely love receiving books as gifts so I’ve been purchasing books as prezzies for other people, but I’ve been buying bookmarks from small businesses to accompany them! Gifts from small businesses make really charming and unique gifts, and by shopping small you’re helping to put the turkey on an indie seller’s Christmas table too which is a lovely feeling! I’ve been doing lots of shopping on my friend Zoe’s store and my pal Ellis’s small business too – I’d definitely recommend them to anyone wanting cute, handmade and amazing quality gifts!

10) Where is your favourite place to visit on the run up to Christmas?

Although I have mostly been shopping online this year, there’s nothing better than a visit to the shops over Christmas. I love hearing carols being played while you’re bundled up in your winter woollies, looking for that final stocking filler! I love craft fairs too, I’m helping out a friend of mine who is running stalls at a few craft fairs over the Christmas period and I can’t wait! They always have a lovely atmosphere.

Is there anything you have been proud of in 2018?

Frankly, I’m just really proud that I’ve kept my blog going this year! It’s been a real whirlwind for me with starting my PhD, taking on new jobs and with event organisation taking up a lot of my time as well, I’m happy that my blog is still pottering along. I have made some amazing friends through blogging and it’s a real pleasure to still be a part of the blogging world. I wish the entire blogging community a very merry Christmas!

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