A Christmas Throwback With New Look

*Red Christmas jumper: c/o NEW LOOK

Christmas is probably my favourite time of year; I just love the atmosphere, the decorations, the lights and (naturally) the winter fashion so when New Look challenged me to write a Christmas throwback blog post around this red Christmas jumper I jumped at the chance. I've never actually owned a Christmas jumper before so I was over the moon when this super cute, super cosy one arrived on my doorstep! They used to be an embarrassment but now they're a novelty wardrobe essential for the festive season and I know I'll be wearing mine on Christmas Day along with a little paper hat out of the crackers!

As part of the Christmas throwback I decided to do a list of why Christmas was better 15 years ago as anyone who is my age and had their childhood Christmas memories in the late 90s and early noughties know just how much times have changed since then, especially those of you who, like me, have younger siblings who Santa still visits!

What Made My Childhood Christmas

1. Decorating the Christmas Tree: There was none of this matching the baubles to the home decor like we all do now (including me!) - my brother and I would just throw every decoration we could find onto the tree from tinsel to santa clause ornaments to angels and absolutely none of it matched!

2. Making random decorations at school: I'm not sure about other primary schools but I know my 7 year old sister doesn't make decorations like we used to! We made biscuits to hang on the tree, santas out of that glittery piping and we even sewed little stockings to hang up there! Those were the good old days of D&T at school..

3. Advent calenders went right up New Year's Day: These days, advent calenders are extremely stingy with their chocolate; you're lucky if you get a bigger chocolate on Christmas Eve! Back in the day, the advent calenders went right up to New Year's Day with a mini chocolate bar or giant chocolate as the last one!

4. Genuinely good Christmas songs: Mariah Carey, Destiny's Child and The Darkness...the 90s and the early noughties were home to some of the best and most original Christmas songs that are still played over and over again in our Christmas seasons today. These days the charts are rife with Cascada dance covers of the 80s classics that make us want to barf.

5. Non-X Factor Christmas number ones: Don't get me wrong, I like the X Factor and do watch it weekend after weekend in the run up to Christmas but there's no denying that it has ruined the concept of the Christmas number one. Did anyone else love that year that Rage Against The Machine beat Joe McElderry to the top spot?!

6. The classic Christmas movies: It's a well known fact that Christmas films were a hundred zillion times better in the 90s; we had The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Frost, The Muppets Christmas Carol...the list goes on. Today the Christmas films are so tame and fariy-fied (everyone knows what I mean by that right?!) that they would send me to sleep rather than get me into the Christmas spirit (except Elf. Everyone loves Elf). Where's Tim Burton when you need him?!

Well there are my top 6 reasons why Christmas was better in the 90s and noughties... a bit of a random list but I'm sure you can all relate! What made your childhood Christmasses good?

Amy x