There’s so much to think about at Christmas, so we’ve popped a few things here that we thought may be helpful reminders.

 

Here at STAG Mumbler, we are always keen to hear your recommendations of things for our Mumblers to do during the holidays. If you have any suggestions, or you’re running a festive business, activity or event, simply drop us an email telling us all about it at stag@mumbler.co.uk and we’ll get you listed!

We are adding to this page all the time, so please keep checking back.

‘Dear boys and girls,

Christmas is a very exciting but busy time for me: the elves are making toys, the reindeer are practising their sleigh runs, and I’m busy preparing my list of who’s been good this year.

I will be getting my sleigh ready for the long journey on Christmas Eve and in between I will try to reply to as many of you as possible.

Please send your letters to:

Santa/Father Christmas
Santa’s Grotto
Reindeerland
XM4 5HQ

Make sure your letter reaches Santa before the 30th November, and don’t forget your stamp!

Full details here

 

Featured Listing

Bin Collection Days

When is my bin day? What colour bin is it this week? – If you’ve forgotten, you can use this handy Check Your Collection Day Search here 

Need information on the Waste Recycling Centres and Tips, click here

FEAST brings the fun to the school holidays, offering loads of different activities for everyone to take part in, helping children and young people in North Yorkshire to stay engaged, active, fed – and warm – this Christmas.All children and young people across North Yorkshire can get involved in a range of activities, with free places and a free meal for eligible children and young people, thanks to funding from the Department for Education. Some of the activities we offer are specifically for children and young people with special educational needs, and many others are inclusive for those children.
If your child is eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals or is made eligible by exception (see the website FAQs for details), you will receive a voucher from their school. This will enable you to book school holiday activities that are part of the FEAST programme for free, using the online platform HolidayActivities.To see all the fantastic activities on offer and learn more about how to claim a free place, visit the FEAST website. You can also get the latest updates on new FEAST activities and resources by following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

sleep, baby not sleeping, sleep help, sleep support, baby wont sleep, sleep regressionEvery festive season sees my inbox inundated with messages from parents seeking tips to tackle the undisputed trickiest bedtime of the year. The unbridled giddiness that often accompanies Christmas Eve creates the potential for a bedtime banana skin – but to keep things on track, here are my top tips for a bedtime that is a dream rather than a nightmare before Christmas… 

1.Get outside during the day on Thursday. Fresh air & physical activity are great for sleep. A bike-ride, game of football or a family walk gives little ones a constructive outlet for pent-up excitement.

2.Don’t aim for deliberate exhaustion, be tempted to skip a nap or push bedtime back though. This can lead to overtiredness which commonly drives bedtime battles, frequent night-waking & early-rising, due to the hormone response that happens when we go too far into the red and need to “keep going”. Whilst, logically, latertobed equals latertorise, a bedtime that is too late is one of the most common reasons for a 5-something wake-up the following day.   

3.Support your child’s body to produce the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin, by avoiding screens after your evening meal on Christmas Eve. Really focus on the last two hours of the day on Thursday, planning for quiet, calm family activities to fill the dinner to bedtime window & try turning the lights down just a little – it will help get the melatonin flowing.

a sleeping christmas baby - little sleep stars blog4.Check out sleep-inducing foods & work them into your evening meal if possible. Great options are salmon, tuna, rice, whole-wheat pasta, onions, sweet potatoes, warm milk & bananas.

5.Avoid sweet treats close to bedtime, especially chocolate as it lacks a punch with hidden caffeine as well as sugar. Some less well-known saboteurs of sleep include tomatoes, steak and hard-cheeses 

6.Complete your child’s bedtime routine in full – skipping a step can really throw them off & lead to a protracted settle to sleep.

7. Stay calm! Trying to rush is likely to lead to a little one stalling & procrastinating. Resorting to, “Santa isn’t coming unless you go to sleep right now” tends to result in a child ramping up rather than down, driving their cortisol level higher, making getting to sleep & staying asleep even harder. Keep calm and give away no clue that you are actually desperate to get back down the stairs to finish some last-minute wrapping of presents whilst munching on the mince-pie lovingly left out for the Big Man.

As with all things sleep, if Christmas Eve doesn’t go exactly to plan and your nights get bumpy for a while, be consistent over the next few days and you will get back on-track in time to start 2024 in great sleep-shape.  

Merry Christmas Mumblers – see you on the other side..! 

With special thanks to the lovely Lauren at Little Sleep Stars for this super blog.

Royal Mail 2nd Class & 2nd Class Signed For
Monday 18 December

Royal Mail 1st Class & 1st Class Signed For
Wednesday 20 December

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed*
Thursday 21 December

Parcelforce Worldwide express48 and express48Large**

Wednesday 20 December

Parcelforce Worldwide express24. expressAM^

Thursday 21 December

** express48large is only available in certain Post Office branches. Please contact your local branch for special availability.

*Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed offers on-time delivery for delivery to UK addresses or your money back. A Saturday guaranteed delivery is available for an additional fee and offers on-time Saturday delivery to most UK addresses or your money back. Conditions and exceptions apply.

^Parcelforce Worldwide offer a guaranteed next working day delivery (Mon-Fri). Extended delivery times exist for outlying areas. Parcelforce Worldwide Guarantee definition: A refund of the whole or a proportionate part of the consignment charges in the event of late delivery in line with UK or International Conditions of Carriage for Retail Services. Delivery time begins from date of collection.

 

Sending overseas? Click here for a full breakdown of recommended posting dates, by country.

Lastly, don’t stress. We all have so much on at this time of year, no one is perfect and if you don’t make it to the letter box in time, it’s not the end of the world and we are sure your receiver will forgive you. Just don’t do what STAG Mumbler did one year…..in a mad dash to get a million jobs done at once, we grabbed a big pile of cards (the top one had a stamp on), threw them in the post box, completely forgetting that all the ones underneath still didnt have stamps!!! 🙁 

Need to send a card? Post that all so special Christmas parcel? Find your local Post Office or Parcel Service  below.

Post Offices Near You

Find a Evri Parcel Shop

Send a parcel with dpd Local

Send a parcel with ups

NOW AT BOSTON SPA ACADEMY

Bookings live for February, Easter, May Half Term and Summer.

BOOK NOW

If you’re looking for active, educational camps for your children during school holidays, or want your children to play team games and access different sports in a supportive friendly environment, book with SCS Sports Camps Ltd! These multi-sports camps are run by experienced coaches, providing boys and girls age 4-13 the chance to play a variety of sports and team games. Wraparound childcare can be booked from 8.00-9.30 and 16.00-17.30. The camps are device free zones ensuring active, screen-free fun!

Numerous short team games run throughout the day to make sure kids get to try different sports without getting bored, with the programme of sports suiting all sporting tastes and all abilities. The sessions are carefully designed, and structured to both entertain, and educate. Simon Scholfield started SCS Sports Camps Ltd to provide fun learning through sports during school holidays using his extensive teaching and PE experience.

BOOK NOW

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www.scscoaching.org

Become more Eco-Friendly this Christmas Time

“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

Since becoming a mum this statement really hits hard. Of course we want to do what we can to be more environmentally friendly, but it can be overwhelming knowing where, when and how to start.

Christmas can easily become a time of overindulgence and wastefulness, so it’s a key time to take action!

Just a few simple changes really can make a big difference to the impact you have on the environment this Christmas, so we’ve pulled together some tips & tricks to get you started.

Gift Giving

There’s so many alternative, more eco-friendly options when it comes to gift giving this Christmas. Buying something brand new should be the last resort.

Buy an experience, give the gift of fun and fantastic memories this Christmas.
Ideas include: Theatre/Concert tickets, spa voucher, a term of classes, cinema pass or an annual pass. Many of our wonderful local swim schools offer gift vouchers.

Give a gift voucher for your time e.g. a voucher for babysitting or to do one basket of ironing! etc

Encourage someone on their eco-friendly reusable journey by getting them a reusable coffee cup, drinks bottle or bag. There’s also eco-friendly products they may not have tried e.g. A shampoo bar or beeswax wraps as an alternative for clingfilm. We love the wax wraps from local mum Bobby, at Bee Eco Friendly.

Buy second hand. This is made so easy these days with Facebook market place, gumtree or ebay. Don’t forget you can buy and sell child related products every weekend on the STAG Mumbler Chat Group. There’s also many fantastic charity shops in STAG and surrounding areas to peruse!

Make something! Examples include: Fudge, a cake or some cookies, grow a plant and decorate the pot, or have a go at making a face mask, body scrub or candle – there’s lots of DIY recipes online!

If you do have to buy something, buy local where possible. Our Christmas Special is packed full of local craft fairs, where you’ll be able to pick up some super items.

Gift Wrapping

The Majority of wrapping paper isn’t recyclable, meaning tons and tons of it ends up in landfill. What about using brown paper this year instead??? It’s cheaper (always a bonus), easily available and can be recycled. It looks beautiful tied up with string and a quick google shows you lots of creative ways to decorate the parcel including using ink stamps or a spring of Holly!

Christmas Cards

An astronomical amount of Christmas cards are thrown away each year. Consider whether you wish to send them at all this year?

Some people choose to donate the money they would have spent on cards to a charity instead and spread the Christmas cheer that way.

You could send an e-card! Lots of free options are available online.

If you do wish to send a few cards, try finding ones made from recycled materials and also fit to be recycled again.

Advent Calendar

Material or wooden advent calendars are available, these can be used year after year so a definite money saver in the long run and reducing plastic too.

Ideas for a daily treat:
Handmade treats – gingerbread / fudge
A joke
Chocolate but ideally buy a box of chocolates and use these rather than chocolates all individually wrapped in plastic.

What about a reverse advent calendar?
This involves putting something each day into a box e.g. food items with a long shelf life or toiletries. These can then be donated to a local charity /food bank/ person in need at Christmas time.

Christmas Decorations

A lot of Christmas decorations are made from plastic – tinsel and glitter for example. Trying to reduce the use of this is definitely desirable for the planet.

Other options include:

– Recycled paper chain decorations – hang where you would have hung the tinsel and have great fun making them with the kids too.
– Recycled paper decorations – snowflakes are the obvious choice but with some simple folding techniques beautiful creations can be made to decorate the tree.
– Edible treats for the tree – How about making gingerbread decorations? Decorations you can eat, what’s not to love?!!!
– Salt dough – try your hand at some salt dough decorations, easy recipes and tips can be found online.
– Make or buy a natural Christmas wreath, holly and pine cones create a lovely Christmas feel.

Christmas Tree

Ideally don’t purchase a brand new plastic tree, if you already have one however, you may as well carry on using it. If you have your heart set on a plastic tree, consider buying second hand.

If you have your eye on a real tree this year, consider if your tree been grown sustainably. After use, ensure your tree is recycled, so they go on to be used as mulch or recycled as compost. We have some fabulous local Christmas Tree sellers listed on our website.

Food Glorious Food

The food we eat has a massive environmental impact. While a lot of people will not wish to consider giving up meat, what about replacing some with vegetarian / vegan goodies this Christmas? There’s a great choice out there and you may discover some new favourite family recipes in the process.

Try to reduce food wastage this Christmas. Calculating amounts when guests are staying can be difficult, but consider recipes to use up any leftovers e.g. turkey curry or sandwiches the next day.

Food often comes in large amounts of single use packaging (a big no no for eco-friendly living). Whilst a lot of shops make this tricky, try to avoid unnecessary plastic wrapping where possible. Market stalls rarely use it on their fruit and vegetables and more supermarkets offer the choice now. You can take your own containers along to a lot of fish/meat/deli counters too to reduce packaging waste that way. More shops are popping up that allow you to take your containers along to refill with certain produce, so just buy the amount you need and avoiding the plastic.

Key points for an Eco-friendly Christmas:

🌍 Reduce waste – less to landfill
🌍 Recycle
🌍 Less plastic – avoid single use plastic wherever possible
🌍 Reusable is the future

🎄 This list is far from exhaustive but it’s a few ideas to get you started on the road to more Eco-friendly living this Christmas time.

🎄 Good luck and Happy Christmas!!! (🎅 Eco Ho Ho!)

 

With special thanks to York Mumbler for this super blog

Christmas Cleaning Tips

Spills – Candle Wax: Don’t panic! Let the wax go hard and them scrape off what you can with a knife. Place a brown paper bag over the top of the wax and iron onto the bag, which should then soak up the wax. If the surface that the wax is on isn’t suitable for an iron, try the same process put using a hairdryer instead. If the item can be moved, eg a tablecloth, instead place a towel onto an ironing board, place the waxed item on top of the towel, then the paper bag, then gently iron on a cool heat.

Spills – Red wine: Don’t panic! Blot as much of the wine as you can with kitchen roll. Sprinkle the stain with plenty of Bicarbonate of soda and allow to try thoroughly, you should see the bicarb drawing the wine out and changing colour. Once dry, vacuum.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t work, don’t let it ruin your day, simply call the lovely Stuart from Carpet SOS who will be able to come to the rescue.

Dessert and baking inspiration

Cheese Board: Do you know you can freeze many cheeses? Cheese makes a great dessert or nibble board when everyone gets the munchies later into the evening. You can freeze what’s left, or even use it to make yummy cheese toasties the next day.

Forgotten the chutneys? Don’t worry, honey makes a delicious drizzle for cheese.

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream: Do you have leftover Christmas Cake or Pudding? Don’t let it go to waste, whizz it up in a blender with vanilla ice cream. You can also add a little tipple such as sherry or baileys and mixed spice. Serve once frozen with your favourite sauce.

Cookie perfection: If you’re looking for the perfectly shaped cookie (especially if making as gifts), place the cookie dough balls in the bottom of bun/muffin tins. This will give them a perfect round shape and ensure they’re all the same size.

Elf On The Shelf Inspiration

We’ve brought back one of our old favourite blogs this year to help assist you with some Elf inspiration

In our experience, parents of younger children can be grouped into the following categories:

  1. Parents who have never heard of Elf On The Shelf
  2. Parents who have heard of it but have chosen not to embrace it
  3. Parents who have heard of it, embrace it but keep it simple
  4. Parents who have heard of it and embrace it and have turned it into an actual job for the month of December!

At STAG HQ we have a parent from two of the above camps. Kathryn made a very wise decision a few years ago to opt out of this modern Christmas tradition. She knew that making a commitment to moving an elf around every night would not fit in with her already crazy December calendar of Christmas things to remember, attend and prepare for. I however, decided to dive in with both feet having been inspired by a friend of mine on Facebook who was documenting her Elf on the Shelf antics. There have certainly been times where I have regretted doing so – like when I remember that I haven’t moved the elf in the middle of the night, or when I am completely out of ideas, but I have to say that I absolutely adore doing it and look forward to the month of December. I would also definitely say that I enjoy it more than my girls seem to as well but hopefully they’ll look back at the photographs one day and appreciate the effort?! They will right??

So whatever camp you’re in, I thought it would be nice to share a few of my personal tips for anyone needing or wanting inspiration. If you’ve been an Elf on the Shelf convert for years or if you’re just thinking of starting the tradition this year, then hopefully you’ll find this blog helpful.

 

Top Tips for ‘Elfing’:

  • Plan ahead – I know it sounds ridiculously organised but I always start by mapping out what we have going on as a family every day in December (Nativities, Santa visits, play dates etc) and then try to think of themed ideas to match those days. I then think of other ideas and drop them into my calendar. I use this planner very flexibly but it ensures that there are very few evenings when I am stuck for what to set up.
  • Think about themed days. Do you have a Christmas outing or treat planned? You could set up an elf scene based on that (eg I made a little pantomime stage on the day we went to a panto a couple of years back)
  • Make use of your children’s toys – I get new inspiration every year as my children’s toy collection evolves.
  • Pinch ideas and inspiration from everywhere – Google and Pinterest have so many inspiring pictures (many of which I’ve used before).
  • There are key activities that I plan in every December that our elf sets up for the kids: Christmas crafts, Christmas breakfast, Christmas card making, letters to Santa, tree decorating, Christmas film day etc.
  • Decide how many days you’re willing to commit to this for – I always do the whole month of December but I have friends who do the two weeks leading up to Christmas or even the week leading up to it.
  • Don’t compare the way you do it to anyone else. There are loads of different types of elves out there (at different prices) and everyone has their own way of doing it. Some families go down the naughty elf route, others have their elf appear now and again, some love it, some hate it!

 

 

Happy ‘Elfing’ Mumblers and I know it’s early but have a fantastic December!

Caroline x x

Leftover wine?

Don’t let leftover wine go to waste, simply pour it into ice cube trays and use it at a later date for when you’re cooking casseroles, stews and other recipes.

Our guide to the best Christmas phone apps

Technology plays such a big part in our daily lives these days – and Christmas time is no exception. So whether you’re looking for a bit of festive fun, or something to help you get Christmas all wrapped up, there’s an app for that!

Here are our favourites.

1. Christmas Countdown – An advent calendar of the digital age. Christmas countdown is just one of many countdown apps and it gives you a festive quote every day.

2. Gifster – get your friends and family to join so all their wishlists are in one place and then you can buy with a single click! Visit the website here

3. Elf Yourself – This one is soooo much fun! If you haven’t used this app before, give it a go with the kids, they will be howling. It’s free to download and you can Elf Yourself for free plus there are in app purchases if you want more song/video options.

4. Christmas List – List lovers will love this! The app let’s you add people, gift ideas and budget and takes you straight through to Amazon to purchase if you need to. You can also tick off when you’ve wrapped it! Free from the app store,

5. Christmas Booth: Photo Fun – Snap a picture or chose from your camera roll and add seasonal stickers to turn yourself or friends and family into seasonal characters! Free app with in app purchases.

6. PNP – Portable North Pole – Create personalised videos from Santa. The app is free, you can personalise for free and there are also in-app purchases

7. Catch Santa AR – The app that lets you superimpose Santa into a photo of your living room! Proof he’s real!

8. Not on the High Street App – If you’re stuck for what to get, you’ll be sure to find something unique on here. You can filter by recipient, budget, or theme/idea.

9.Christmas Radio UK – a radio app entirely dedicated to Christmas songs! What’s not to love? You can now get festive on the move! Free app.

10. STAG Mumbler…. Did you know you can add our website to your phone home screen so it appears like an app and is there at the touch of a button for all your local Christmas info and inspiration! Just visit the website from your phone and click on the export/send to button at the bottom of the screen. Then scroll down and click ‘add to homescreen’ and hey presto, your own STAG Mumbler app. ….And it’s free!

Happy Apping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

With special thanks to Stockport Mumbler x

Top Gravy Tip

Get it ready nice and early and pop it in a thermos flask. It will keep it nice and warm, leaving you with plenty of time to focus on other things.

Twas the night before Christmas

Santa’s Footprints: On Christmas Eve, sprinkle flour or talc on the floor and walk through it, leaving the perfect Santa footprints.

Cheeky Reindeers: On Christmas Eve, let the kids leave a carrot out for the reindeer. When they’re asleep, cut little bits off it and sprinkle a trail to then chimney or door. My Mini Mumblers love mummy chuntering on Christmas Day about how those naughty reindeer have been eating with their mouths open and have left carrot all over the floor!

Wrapping Paper Smash: Just before you go to bed, place festive wrapping paper over the door of the room with the presents. The kids will have super fun smashing through it on Christmas Day morning.

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