It’s that time of year already!
At Happy Creative we all love Christmas, and so to make it even more fun and exciting, this year we’ve decided to spread the happiness to get you all as much in the mood as we all are!
Whether you’re a traditionalist and prefer the smell and look of a real tree, or go for an artificial version, few images conjure up the perfect picture of Christmas better than a glowing tree, and it’s commonly accepted that you start to feel ‘Christmassy’ when your tree goes up. A lot of you will have been putting up your Christmas trees over the weekend, and at Happy we’re exactly the same. We’d have had it up weeks ago if we could!
For children across the world, and all of us who are still big kids at heart, there is a magic to a Christmas tree that you can’t get at any other time of year. Just for all of you who still revel in this magic, here are a few titbits that you can add to your own Christmas tree repertoire:
• The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter season occurred before the birth of Christ
• The first decorated Christmas was in Riga, Latvia in 1510
• The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531
• Recycled trees have been used to make sand and soil erosion barriers and been placed in ponds for fish shelter
• Christmas trees remove dust and pollen from the air
• 59 per cent of real Christmas trees harvested are recycled in community programs
• An acre of Christmas trees provides for the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people
• Christmas trees take an average of 7-10 years to mature
• 100,000 people are employed in the Christmas tree industry
• 98 per cent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms
• The best-selling trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine
• Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the past
• 73 million new Christmas trees will be planted this year
• Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882
• Christmas tree lights were first mass produced in 1890
• Every year since 1947, the people of Oslo, Norway have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster, England. The gift is an expression of good will and gratitude for Britain’s help to Norway during World War II
• More than 330,000 real Christmas trees are sold via e-commerce or catalogues.
This last fact ties us in nicely to our Social Media led Christmas Incentive! If you’re reading this, then you’re obviously keen to win our fabulous Christmas hamper!?
In case you’ve arrived here without receiving the email, a quick outline of our Happy incentive is here:
Each day you will receive a Christmas email (or follow our progress on Twitter and Facebook) which will ask you to perform a task. It may be to comment on a blog (like today!), follow on Twitter or to ‘like’ a page on Facebook for example. When you perform this task you will be added to a free prize draw and have the chance to win every day of the campaign. You can take part on all 12 days so good luck!
We have collaborated with a number of our Happy friends and so each day is sponsored by a different organisation.
Today’s task is simple, and it’s sponsored by the whole of the Happy Team!
Leave us a comment (click the little speech bubble at the top of the post) letting us know what makes you happiest about Christmas and be in with a chance of winning our Christmas hamper stacked with tasty goodies! Looks nice doesn’t it!?
There’s a few other goodies in there as well…
If you’re not on our email list and want to take part on all 12 days of the competition, please send an email to hello@happy-creative.co.uk and we’ll be more than Happy to put you on the list! Remember to keep an eye out for all the other days’ tasks, and good luck!
Please also forward the emails to your friends and family – let’s spread the happiness!!
Finally, all of us at Happy would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Fabulous New Year.
Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to
Simple, a glass of mulled wine, a real christmas tree and the film Elf.
That’s Christmas!
The best thing about this time of they year is spending time, not money with your family! Time is precious and can not be replaced, presents can be!
The scond best thing about Christmas is when it is all over!!!
What makes me happiest about Christmas is family squeezing round a dining table, fighting over the last chipolata, eating till you burst stating “no more food” then falling asleep on the sofa and waking up a few hours later saying “anyone peckish!”. Merry Christmas 🙂
Morecambe and Wise, chocolate tree decorations and a good row with the family. Christmas would be Christmas without all of those things!
Happiness at Christmas time is a belly full of food & watching Dr Who with 17 people crammed into ur living room!
Waiting for it to snow on Christmas night! It almost never does – which is what is so special about it when it does!
Christmas conjures up a lot of happy memories from when I was young and excited about Santa to when I got old enough to realise just what the “Merry” from “Merry Christmas” really meant!
One of the happiest experiences of Christmas for me is meeting an old friend in the local pub after church on Christmas Eve. He lives in the States now and it’s become a yearly tradition to meet up for a few Christmas drinks and discuss the last 12 months of our lives followed by discussions, debate and generally agreeing a formulae (aided by alcohol at this stage) to rid the world of all its problems – famine, war and poverty. Doubtless, it will be the economic doldrums of the euro and banking crisis that will lead this year’s Christmas summit!
One of the best moments of happiness is when all the family is together, normally beginning on Christmas Eve when, as time as gone by and we are all getting older, we appreciate each other more. With the arrival of kids, the true spirit of Christmas with its innocence, hope, excitement and celebration is re-kindled and once again alive and well in our house! With the sounds of wrapping paper shredded open on Christmas morning – without a thought for the blood, sweat and ears that went into ensuring that wrapping was spot on!, smell of the turkey and stuffing roasting in the oven and the panic of “not enough chairs for everyone!” emanating from the kitchen whilst the men folk watch TV and playing the kid’s games – momentarily relishing in the fact that they can still surprise the kids with their ability to master a game. The women handing over the washing duty to the men after the democratic agreement of “I cooked, you clean” is enforced, whilst cracking open a bottle of red or indeed festive sherry to be topped off with the obligatory box of Quality Street / Roses and latterly Celebrations all whilst watching the always tragic rarely happy seasonal specials of the soaps!
Good times and good memories!
Christmas is about spending time with Family and Friends, watching great films, eating and drinking loads, laughing a lot……..and if a few crisp bright sunny days can be thrown in then even better x
For me what makes me happy about Christmas is the buzz of excitement and anticipation in the air as it gets closer and closer. The excitement begins when the Coca Cola advert first airs…”the holidays are coming, the holidays are coming”, when you feel the first chill in the air, when the Christmas markets set up in Manchester and the twinkly Christmas lights making everywhere looks festive and the cafes and bars are full of friends making the most of catching up for a bite to eat or quick drink “because it’s Christmas”. For a few short weeks the world just seems a happier place.
Christmas is about spending three days eating After Eight mints, turkey and mini sausages followed by a huge yule log
I can beat the lot of you.
One of our Christmas traditions is that I have a ‘whisky stocking’.
Life doesn’t really get much better than that.
Christmas is stockings, terry’s chocolate orange, family, wine, beer and Christmas cheer (oh and time off work)
I love Christmas just as much now as i did when i was a child. I love getting the decorations out and Christmasing the house. I love it in an evening when the only lights on in the living room are the ones twinkling on the christmas tree and you get to watch great films like a Muppets Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street. Richard Attenborough is Father Christmas, I’m almost convinced!
I love it when the family get together and squeeze round the table, everyone wearing paperhats, looking silly but nobody caring about it.
Its the time of year when everyone puts someone first, where people go out of their way to make someone smile. Seeing people happy at Christmas makes me Happy.
Now I feel really Happy and Christmasy after writing this… thanks Happy. 🙂
It has to be the awful jokes in crackers!! Its the only time of the year that you allow yourself to laugh at such terrible terrible jokes!!
To get you warmed up:
What did one Christmas cracker say to the other Christmas cracker?
My POP is bigger than yours!
Two snowmen in a field, one turned to the other and said “I don’t know about you but I can smell carrots.”!
What does Santa suffer from if he gets stuck in a chimney?
Claustrophobia!
Did you know that Santa’s not allowed to go down chimneys this year? It was declared unsafe by the Elf and Safety Commission.
What do you call Santa’s little helpers?
Subordinate clauses!
What do reindeer hang on their Christmas trees?
Horn-aments!
Why did Santa’s helper see the therapist?
Because he had a low “elf” esteem!
What happens if you eat too many Christmas decorations?
You get “Tinsel”-itis!
What’s the best thing to give your parents for Christmas?
A list of everything you want!
What’s the favourite Christmas Carol of new parents?
Silent Night!
We can’t choose a best one, they all make us laugh. 🙂
Christmas for me is watching everyone close their doors for business on Christmas Eve, leaving AB as a shining light. Guiding wise men (& women) like the bright North star towards Batley in West Yorkshire where we’re open throughout the festive period, ready & waiting to provide a service, second to none to Happy Creative & the good people of the UK……….. In the words of the mighty Noddy Holder…..Merry Xmas everybody!
Christmas for me is all about spending precious and quality time with all your loved ones, be that family or close friends. Although just one day, christmas starts in our house the minute the decorations go up and although my daughter is more grown up and I miss having that nervous excitement about Santa on christmas morning we still treasure the time we have together just the same 🙂
Having my family over from South Africa and having snowball fights with my niece and nephew!!
Then some mulled wine and spiced apple pie with vanilla custard!! Yum Yum!!
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Seeing the last customer leave the pharmacy because we were still open and they could not get their emergency medication!! Happy customers = happy Christmas!!
Our little tradition to start us towards christmas : Since they were old enough, Jack (8yrs) and Amy (6yrs), put up and decorate their own little sparkly christmas trees in their bedrooms. They burst with anticipation every morning to open their advent calendars, and we go to the cinema as a family to watch the ‘must see’ christmas film of that December…. this year it was ”Arthur Christmas’… it was awesome, and we all came out feeling so happy that it would soon be christmas and the childrens belief in Santa’s trip to all the children on Christmas Eve was strengthened for another year… bless x
Having my family visiting me from South Africa who have never experienced a UK Christmas before.
Having snowball fights with my niece and nephew who are 12 and 10 years old and letting them win…
Then having mulled wine and spiced apple pie with vanilla custard! Yum Yum
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Elf on DVD. Die Hard and Gremlins back to back film showing. Christmas jumpers and joke socks as gifts. Terry’s Chocolate Orange in my stocking. Billy Murray being a meanie and trying to glue ears on mice. Carol service at a church. The European markets in Manchester. Gingerbread! Fairy lights, tinsel and the star on the top of the tree. 1,000 sausages in bacon for my husband, sprouts. Fights over how many sprouts the Andy should eat. Losing the sprout war.
Hugs. Hugs from old friends and loved ones that you see once a year. Grandma playing Wii bowling, winning even though she’s got a bad hip. Making New Years resolutions. Breaking them before 12th night.
This is why I love Christmas.
Visiting the Manchester Christmas markets, mulled wine, Christmas Tree up by 12th, Christmas Ties. Setting the Table on Christmas Eve, with Champagne. Sharing fun and games with friends and family.
Family time, laughing until you cry, Father Xmas, prezzies, mistletoe, turkey curry, sprouts, sledging, snowmen, wizard of oz on xmas day, new slippers, cheese & wine, falling over and laughing through the pain, sleeping in until dinner time, cocktail sticks with cheese, pineapple & sausages on them, hugging random strangers, singing to cliff richard songs and . . . . . happy people! 🙂
We like time off work with the family watching them open presents. Not to mention a little wine and too much food yipee Happy xmas to all xxxxx
Time spent with loves ones, goodies and treats!! Rooms filled with laughter and smiles from everyone you greet…. The scent of christmas trees filling the air, the twinkle of fairly lights and the heat off the fire…Watching snowflakes falling whilst toasty and warm inside.. all to be enjoyed with a nice mulled wine!!
Going to bed on Christmas Eve and leaving out a mince pie, a glass of sherry and a carrot. Yes, I may be nearly 30, but Santa and Rudolph still need their treats!
My main highlight over christmas which really makes me happy, and gets me in the christmas spirit, is have a good old catch up with friends from back home that I rarely see! A good pint with a great catch up! I also get extremely happy when my pate starter hits the table yum yum yum
Waking up at 4am and 5am and 6am and 7am, wondering if Santa’s been. Then , phoning Mum straightaway to wish her a Happy Xmas (Mum’s are precious ya know).
Family telephone calls, Morecambe & Wise repeats, Dell boy…….the sound of the turkey basting, feeling tipsy before 10am, the new Xmas jumper not fitting, no batteries with my new toy (grrrrrr), snow snow and more snow. Making Xmas lunch for my chickens – mealworms & hot porridge hmmmmmm
Eating far too many Thorntons and cheesey balls.
The Queen 🙂
Getting the chance to go home to Scotland, and have a proper big HAPPY scottish Christmas with the whole family.
Christmas is about finding new hiding places for the presents!
Watching “Where Eagles Dare” !!!
Buying an extra turkey leg to avoid arguements (we need 3)!
Most of all its 7 days away from deadlines!!