The temperatures are dropping, we’re popping open advent calendar doors like there’s no tomorrow and Christmas music is jingling away round every corner… yes, that time of year is here once again!
So get into the holiday spirit with Team Sassy, with our fave Christmas songs, our funniest Christmas memories and of course, what’s top of our lists to Santa. Here’s to A Very Sassy Christmas – Part 2 (and don’t forget to check out Part 1 here)!
Top of my wishlist: I’ve been lusting after the Philip Lim Pashli bag for well over a year and therefore it is at the top of my list! I love the black on black version, which is perfect for work and my everyday toting needs! Plus, the long strap that Lim added on the most recent version makes it even more versatile!
Available at 3.1 Phillip Lim, Shop G310-311, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, 2113 0311
Funniest Christmas memory: When I was little, I took ballet and when Christmas came around, the entire dance class had to ride on a float in the town parade. While the older students got to dress as cute little Santas, us younger kids had to dress as the reindeer. I had no interest in being on the float and cared even less for wearing a costume with a stuffed antler coming out of my forehead! Not to mention the fact that the hoofed pants were at least 10” too short for me! But when you are that age you have no say in your own affairs, so they strung a bell around my neck and made me wave to strangers. Needless to say that was my last year in ballet!
Fave Christmas song: My favorite Christmas song is I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas by The Drifters. This version is in two of my all time fave Christmas movies: Home Alone and The Santa Clause. In my family, as soon as December hit, we would watch a Christmas movie every night leading up to Christmas and then an all day movie-a-thon on Christmas day! This song takes me right back to all those family fun movie nights and how magical my mom has always made the holiday season! Hope your holidays are merry and bright… and Sassy!
Top of my wishlist: I have been wracking my brain to think of things I want for Christmas. Coming up with a basic list is easy, but the trouble is most of the things I come up with are things that I could buy for myself but am just suggesting others buy for me. Whilst practical, these sort of gifts lose meaning so this year, I’m wishing and hoping someone picks up on my hints to take all my wedding photos and put them beautifully in an album for me, as it’s something I’m just never going to get around to myself.
Funniest Christmas memory: It was quite daunting the year I went to my husband’s (then boyfriend’s) house for Christmas for the first time. I was on best behaviour, being polite, helpful and trying to be funny too. I was in my element playing games after Christmas lunch and almost burst with excitement when playing Trivial Pursuit and a Harry Potter question came up, exclaiming that I was a Potter expert. Then – I got the question wrong. Almost as mortifying as the time when fuelled by wine I called his Mum Cazzle not Carol!
Fave Christmas song: The Pogues – Fairytale of New York
Top of my wishlist: Being a total Disney geek, I wasn’t too happy when my only trip to Disneyland Hong Kong this year was timed with torrential rains that closed half the rides before it turned into a full-blown T10, which resulted in us being ejected from the park in the early afternoon (despite paying full entry fee)! I’ve still not visited either of the two new lands and still have plenty of characters I need my photo with (plus the thought of annoying my boyfriend by riding It’s A Small World for the hundredth time is too good to resist), so I’d love to receive a Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel staycation (plus sneaky trip to their spa thrown in) to make up for the T10 disappointment!
Funniest Christmas memory: Every school play, I was always the narrator (gobby even from a young age!). However, come nativity play time and only the older children were cast as narrators and I instead had to play a Hawaiian dancer (why there were Hawaiians in a nativity I’m not sure). Numerous photos still exist of me red-faced and attempting to cry off all my make-up! Despite this, I clearly made an impression as for months afterwards, whenever I went to collect books from other classrooms, their teachers would make me repeat my only line – ‘Aloha, the pineapple is very sweet’. Not quite ‘To be or not to be’, is it?!
Fave Christmas song: For the title pun alone, Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses. And the song is pretty catchy too…
Top of my wishlist: I just got my hair cut rather short and I’m having a bit of cutter’s regret. So in order to not go crazy every day styling it, I really want to leave my hair to its natural wavy ways and that means I need a hair diffuser. So Santa, please put under my tree a Solano Finger Softstyler Diffuser Attachment. My short hair, my sanity, and my dating life thank you.
Earliest Christmas memory: Every year, my family and I would go to a Christmas tree farm (remember I’m from small town USA…) and we’d cut down our very own tree. Traipsing through the snow in snow pants and boots, it’d take us hours to find just the right one. When we found our Charlie Brown evergreen, my dad would take a handsaw and cut it down, and my brother and I would shout ‘Timber!’ as it crashed to the ground. It would then get dragged back to our mini-van and strapped to the roof with rope. Once we made it home, the real fun began – getting the tree to fit properly in the tree stand I’m pretty sure this is where I learned my first swear words! I loved (and still do) going through old handmade ornaments and decorating the tree with lights and tinsel. I’m excited to spend this holiday season with my family decorating again… just this time we have a fake tree because we’ve finally learned our lesson!
Fave Christmas song: JT and my N*Sync boys! Their entire album Home for Christmas still gets put in my CD player every year and cranked on high!
Top of my wishlist: The Isabel Marant Blackson Boots in my dreams but I’d be very happy to find a brand new Smythson Diary in my stocking on Christmas morning too!
Earliest Christmas memory: My earliest Christmas memory is from when I was about four and just about to make my stage debut as the Angel Gabriel in the playschool nativity play (complete with silver tinsel halo and matching wings). I’d spent the day before carefully drawing up my letter to Father Christmas which I had then given to my Mum to take to the ‘Pixie Pick Up Point’ (for anyone not aware, in the run up to Christmas Father Christmas sets up regional Pixie Pick Up Points around the world. Each Pixie Pick Up Point is manned by a team of elves from the North Pole whose job it is to collect all the letters to Father Christmas and take them back up to him). As I was eating my cereal before playschool, my Mum was telling me about the elves at the Pixie Pick Up Point (the St Albans Point was in the woods apparently) and all the other mums that she’d bumped into there.
So I get to playschool, I’m all halo’ed up and practising my single line (‘Follow me to Bethlehem’), when I decide to relay to the rest of the cast whose mum were and weren’t at the Pixie Pick Up Point the night before! Cue a nativity play with a sobbing Mary, donkey and two shepherds, devastated because they think Father Christmas won’t be getting their letters… oops!
Fave Christmas song: Dean Martin – Let It Snow!
Top of my wishlist: I have my eye on this gorgeous Rooster Red Embossed Lizard Mini Lips Clutch by Diane Von Furstenberg, which would be such a fun way to brighten up any evening outfit… and perfect for the Christmas and New Year parties to come!
Earliest Christmas memory: My earliest Christmas memory was when I was 4 years old and I received this awesome fake pink jewellery set of earrings, a bracelet and a necklace. I spent the entire day wearing them and posing. I thought I looked very glamorous!
Fave Christmas song: Nothing tops the classic, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra. Gets me into the Christmas spirit every time!
Check out the rest of Team Sassy’s picks here… and don’t forget to read our Christmas Guide for everything you need to know for the holiday season!