This Christmas, Why Not Spend It...

...Striking a Yoga Pose in the Himalayas

For a unique Christmas experience, venture to Ananda in the Himalayas, India's leading destination spa. Soothe Christmas stress with Ananda's Himalayan Bliss package including a wild rose soap scrub, personalised yoga session, honey and rose facial and bespoke massage. 

Once you are completely revived, take in the stunning snow-covered Himalayan peaks with a trek to the Kunjapuri temple. Celebrations begin on Christmas Eve with a Gala Dinner and carols, continuing into Christmas Day with sightseeing in the Himalayas. You might even be lucky enough to spot native birds such as barbells and golden eagles.

Price

Himalayan Bliss Package: from $3,850 USD (£2,453 approx) per single room for five nights.

Gala Dinner: $125 USD (£118 approx) plus 18.45% tax per person (subject to change). All three and five-night packages booked before 31st October will receive the Christmas Gala Dinner complimentary.

Contact: reservation@anandaspa.com

...Sipping Cocktails at Sunset on an Island Paradise

With an all-inclusive stay at Lily Beach Resort & Spa, taking a tropical holiday to the Maldives is more affordable than it sounds. Located on Huvahendhoo Island in the Maldives, surrounded by pristine beaches, lush tropical vegetation and dive sites, this five-star resort allows all the benefits of a luxury stay - minus the hidden extras. Swap your roast lamb for a fresh lobster or your Yorkshire pudding for a coconut dessert and after a big day of water sports, enjoy unlimited cocktails and signature drinks as you watch the sun go down.

Price

From £1964 per person for 7 nights. Contact: reservations@island-hideaway.com

...Unwinding in a Vinothérapie Barrel Bath

If your favourite part of Christmas is mulled wine, indulge in a Relaxing Moments package at The Yeatman, a multi-award winning luxury wine hotel. Wine lovers will be soothed by a Caudalie Vinothérapie® Massage or drift away in a Deep Barrel Bath. On arrival you will be welcomed by a Signature Cocktail from Dick's Bar and complimentary food and drink from the Special Spa Menu. In the morning, enjoy a continental breakfast served in The Orangerie Room followed by more pampering in the Vinothérapie® Spa by Caudalie. Here you will enjoy the indoor and outdoor infinity swimming pools with stunning panoramic views across the River Douro.

Price

From €418.50 (£330 approx) per room, per night, based on two people sharing a double room.

Contact: Reservations@theyeatman.com) or (+ 351) 220 133 100 mentioning 'Relaxing Moments'

...Enjoying Dutch Wine by the Canal

Situated amid hundreds of kilometers of canals and awarded one of 60 best new hotels in the world, Canal House in Amsterdam surrounds you with all the Christmas festivities right in heart of Jordaan. The traditional Amsterdam Christmas falls on 25th to 26th December and this is when the celebrations really begin. Wander along to the Westergazfabriek winter Festival where you can ice skate, drink Gluwein (hot wine) and sample delectable Dutch food and drinks. Take a stroll to nearby shopping streets, museums and Rembrandt Square. Return to Canal House for a blissful stay with its 17th century dug canal, 23 bedrooms and distinctive horseshoe design. The hotel captures all the historic fixtures, while providing 21st century modern facilities. For New Year's Eve, there are plenty of parties at Museum Square topped with spectacular fireworks.

Price

From €240 (approx £189.00) including buffet breakfast and all taxed (except city taxes).

Contact: https://bookings.curioushotels.com/www.canalhouse.nl/

Adorn your Christmas Tree with Handmade Decorations from Susie Watson Designs

Susie Watson has been designing and creating beautiful, high quality products for the home for many years. For Christmas, Susie has developed a gorgeous range of decorations that are all made and finished by hand, for unique designs that you can treasure for many years to come.

  

Ceramic Decorations - From £4

Available in four shapes; dove, heart, angel and star, these cute ceramic decorations in blue or white are handmade and hand painted with hearts, spots or holly.

Christmas Baubles Star and Bow (Box of Four) - Small £14 - Large - £19

These hand blown glass baubles are decorated with stars that are hand etched into the clear glass. Each one has a pretty bow detail on the hanging fixing. Available in two sizes; small (6cm diameter) and large (8cm diameter).

Crackle Glaze Baubles (Box of Four) - Small £14 - Large £28

Add some glamour to your Christmas tree with these beautiful hand blown, crackle glaze baubles that are available in six stunning colours; ruby, plum, aquamarine, dark silver, pale gold and moss. Available in two sizes; small (6cm diameter) and large (10cm diameter). These striking baubles also look great piled high in glass vases and dishes.

Susie Watson has been designing and creating beautiful, high quality products for the home for many years and has a simple philosophy – that the things we use everyday should bring us pleasure. The product range includes everything from hand decorated pottery through to handmade soft furnishings for every room in the house.  

Susie Watson’s covetable designs are available in over 300 independent retailers nationwide including her own shops in London, Marlborough, Alresford, Tunbridge Wells and on-line at www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk. New shops are also planned to open throughout 2012.

Creative Christmas Treats from Yummy Dough

Forget buying the kids traditional modelling dough this Christmas, Yummy Dough from Maps Toys is so much more fun and what’s more children get to eat it without getting into trouble off Mum.

The mouldable dough allows young children to get creative all Christmas making festive shapes or whatever their imagination allows. Simply add water to the powder mix and get a pliable Yummy Dough mixture. Work the dough into different shapes - then comes the exciting part....bake it and eat it! Yes really! Children will love seeing their handiwork made into edible creations that they can share. Why not get them to make festive themed treats for all the family.

Yummy Dough is the safest modelling dough around and retails at around £7.99. It develops skills in young children including hand-eye co-ordination, motor skills, colour recognition and of course it teaches them about food preparation. It now comes in a handy, resealable tub with carry handle to store all your cutting tools.

The product comes with four different colours (red, blue, green and yellow) which can be mixed together at the powder stage or when the dough is moulded to create different colours to create with. The product can be eaten raw or baked. Yummy Dough is made in Germany by one of the country’s leading baking manufacturers. Made using high quality food products, it is made under strict European safety guidelines.

Yummy Dough is available from Amazon, Firebox and other toy retailers.

Tasty Christmas treats for your little monsters!

This year has been all about the loveable Moshi Monsters – school kids have gone Moshi mad over this unique collectable craze so this Christmas, why not treat your little Moshi fan to their ultimate stocking filler?

The brand new Moshi Monsters Cookie Kit from Maps will appeal to fans of the cute characters allowing them to get creative and bake their favourite monsters. Each colourful carry-handle tub includes 2 Moshi Monster Cookie Cutters, 2 decorating tubes, 450g of cookie mixture (makes 24 cookies) and an instruction leaflet featuring a bonus download code for Free Rox on the popular moshimonsters.com website.

The contents are stored in a cool reusable storage tub and there are six different designs for fans to collect. At around £4.99, this is a perfect stocking filler pressie that will keep children entertained during the long Christmas break.

(Available from Amazon at

www.amazon.co.uk/Moshi-Monsters-MM001-Cookie-Kit/dp/B0092OO4CU/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1346516283&sr=1-1-catcorr)

Blast off for space this Christmas with MAPS Toys!

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…. the brand new Aeromax NASA Space range is the perfect Christmas gift for budding astronauts.

Boys (and girls!) will go wild for the brand new Deluxe NASA Spaceman costume (RRP £35.99). Made from high-quality material (moon dust proof!), the bright orange, zip-fronted suit features authentic NASA badges and is guaranteed to create costume envy. There is also a white spacesuit available for the ultimate astronautical adventure.

Top this off with the cool Talking NASA Space Helmet and you’re all set for blast off. The Talking Space Helmet is priced at around £35.99 and looks just like the real thing. It features a mission control countdown and life-like blast off sounds. A spring loaded retractable visor allows kids to really get into character too.

Complete the costume with cool NASA branded boots (RRP £18.99) – for your first steps on the moon as well as must-have astronaut gloves (RRP £13.99) perfect for picking up space specimens! Once your kitted out on Christmas Day, load up the Astronaut Space Backpack Water Blaster (RRP £14.99) and get squirting those Aliens…or your annoying brother!

In addition to the NASA range, there’s also a Deluxe Firefighter costume available. The Firefighter costume (RRP £37.99) is complemented by the The Firepower Super Soaking Fire Hose (RRP £12.99) which will provide hours of fun for boys and girls of all ages. Fill the backpack with water and use the pump action hose to squirt your friends - and pretend to put out fires!

There’s also a collection of costumes perfect for every day dress up play including a doctor, firefighter and road worker to name but a few.

Kids of all ages will love to impress their friends with the Aeromax 2000 Parachute. Throw the parachute high in the air and watch it sail to the ground. Unlike other toy parachutes, the Aeromax 2000 Parachute is tangleproof and is made of tough material so won’t be used once and then discarded. Dads will love this – ask them, we bet you they remember throwing them out of their bedroom window! The perfect stocking filler priced at around £4.99.

Get the full Aeromax range from Amazon. (www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dtoys&field-keywords=+Aeromax)

Marshmallow Christmas Madness from Maps Toys

Having a play battle with your mates, forget last year’s crazes the only toy shooters you’ll need in 2012 are the Marshmallow Blasters from Maps Toys – the sweetest shooters around!

The unique Bow & Mallow is part of the Marshmallow Fun Company range and fires real marshmallows at your target showering them with edible bullets. Just load up your bow with mini marshmallows, draw back the arrow, aim and fire up to 30 feet. The Bow & Mallow is suitable for ages 3+ shoots out tasty treats in quick succession beating your opponent into a sugary submission! RRP £22.99.

The Bow & Mallow can be loaded with any brand of fresh mini marshmallows which are available online and at speciality food retailers. The shooters compress different shapes of marshmallow as they enter the nozzle and they spring back into place once fired.

If you want a blaster with real attitude the Classic Blaster is the ultimate way to get sweet revenge on your foes. Firing large marshmallows up to 40 feet, the audible POP as the soft sweets fly from the barrel is awesome. The blaster is perfect for older and children (aged 14+) and of course the big kids in every family. RRP £21.99.

Completing the trio of tasty toy weapons is a Classic Crossbow. This cool piece of kit (suitable for ages 5+) is sure to be the ‘sugar’ hit of Christmas! RRP £19.99.

The full Marshmallow Fun Company range is available from Amazon.

(www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Marshmallow+Fun+Company+)

A magical Christmas adventure for your children from Itsyourstory!

Take your children on a magical adventure to the North Pole with this wonderful book from Itsyourstory!

The truly unique Christmas story combines a child's photograph throughout, so they'll be able to really immerse themselves in the festive fun!

Children will love to see themselves as the main character in the book. Watch the delight on their faces as they discover a Snowman packed double-decker bus in their garden on Christmas morning and follow them as they transform into an elf to help Santa Claus save Christmas.

Your little one will be transfixed by the story which sees them help wrap and deliver all of Santa Claus’ presents. Will they make it back home before everyone wakes up? And will their family believe that they helped save Christmas?

The book features the child’s photograph on every page of the book along with their name. In addition, it includes personal information about the child such as their address, name of a special friend and family members. You can also include a personal message at the front of the book to make this special Christmas present a book to treasure forever.

Earlier this year, Itsyourstory ran a competition to rename their loveable Snowman and the winner Alexandra Rossiter from Minehead chose the mystical Zamber Frost! As part of her prize, Alexandra’s name will be on the front cover for a year – so you’ll be getting a unique collector’s item too!

Priced at £12.50 for the A5 version and £17.50 for the A4 version, this book is available exclusively from www.itsyourstory.co.uk. The last date for Christmas orders is 18 December.      

Christmas outfits with a difference

Renowned for their photo-personalised children’s books for many years, Itsyourstory are adding a new twist to their range for Christmas 2012. Their brand new range of photo-personalised children’s t-shirts and tops make fantastic presents for your little ones and solve Christmas outfit dilemmas!

The high-quality clothes feature your child as different characters with their name emblazoned below. Choose from a beautiful princess for your wannabe monarchs and an astronaut for an out of this world t-shirt. There’s also a super-cute fairy to spread Christmas joy and if your child is into all things medieval, they will love the Knight T-shirt. Finally the hero of the family will enjoy strutting around in their very own superhero t-shirt.

The range includes organic cotton babygrows, long-sleeve and short-sleeve t-shirts, polo shirts and a zipped hoody.

This present is sure to become the talking point of Christmas day and will be the envy of all their friends.

The babygrows and t-shirts are priced at £14.99, the polo shirt at £19.99 and the hoody at £24.99. Sizes range from 0-6 months to 12-14 years. The last date for Christmas delivery is 18^th December. Available exclusively to www.itsyourstory.co.uk.

Special Delivery from Santa!

The anticipation of Christmas can be almost as exciting as the day itself, so let Itsyourstory add to the thrill with this unique photo-personalised letter from the big man himself.

Each letter is personalised to feature the child's address, the name of two of their friends, their age and a uniquely personal PS at the bottom of the letter. This will create even more magic as it is written by the sender and relates to something personal in their lives eg – how well they’re doing at school, getting a new pet etc. The letter also reveals which friend or family member has asked Father Christmas to get in touch.

Priced at just £4.50, the Father Christmas photo-personalised letter is available exclusively from www.Itsyourstory.co.uk. Customers can choose from two letter designs featuring the child alongside Rudolf or Father Christmas. The letter arrives in a Christmas-themed envelope addressed to the child and complete with a North Pole stamp. What better way to build the excitement in the run up to Christmas!

Orders will be taken from September. Last delivery date before Christmas is December 18th.

(EDITOR: Orders are being taken now, from 1st September! So what are you waiting for? Click on the above link and start early with your Chirstmas purchases!)

Who needs Selection Boxes this Christmas? Not us!

Forget naff selection boxes and same old, same old tins of chocolates this Christmas – treat your loved ones to a unique Christmas Confectionery gift from BabyBlooms.

The Chocolate Flower Bouquets are a beautiful gesture and the festive bright colours will brighten Christmas morning. Priced at £34.00, the Hearts and Flowers Chocolate arrangements comprise tasty chocolate flowers and hearts and will delight the lucky recipient. Eight chocolate Lollipops and 24 sweet dragee hearts mean there are enough to share (if you want to) and the arrangement comes luxuriously packaged so are perfect to send directly to loved ones you won’t see this Christmas.

What better way to wow your Christmas guests than with the collection of brand new sweet and chocolate trees from BabyBlooms. Looking just like a real topiary creation, the sugary shrubbery is a truly unique way to welcome your loved ones on Christmas day and make an ideal gift for relatives and friends with a sweet tooth.

Treat yourself and others to the Chocolate Truffle Tree which features perfectly rounded scrumptious truffles in the shape of a delightful tree decoration. The Malteser Drizzle Tree includes everyone’s favourite light chocolate treat and guests will love to help themselves. Younger loved ones won’t be able to resist the Haribo Tree – this delicious arrangement includes all your favourite Haribo sweets including cola bottles, fried eggs and many more.

Each tree comes in two sizes which are priced from around £30. Prices available on request from www.babyblooms.co.uk. So go on treat yourself to an extra special tree this Christmas.