Pre-Christmas Me Time Ft. Bright House

Christmas is my favourite holiday, it can be such a cosy, festive and lovely time of the year, with christmas food, films and presents but it can be stressful and tiring especially with my blog this year as I've had so much to do in terms of christmas gift guides and christmas content for both of my blogs as well as learning to drive, organising christmas meet ups with friends, making mountains of gingerbread for my primary schools christmas fair, writing quizzes, guest posting and all of the other things related to this somewhat hectic time of the year.

I think it is so important to have pamper nights and me time, at any time of the year but especially over the christmas period so you don't end up in a panicked and delirious state as then you don't enjoy the lovely things about christmas such as spending time with friends and family, giving gifts, baking and having cosy nights in *that's what I do anyway!*.

My main way to de-stress and relax is to have a bath, especially with Lush bath bombs or bubble bars as they feel so luxe and indulgent as well as fun! I was very kindly sent the cinders bath bomb from the Lush christmas collection as part of this lovely pre-christmas relaxation package. Cinders is one of the few that I haven't tried even though it's one of their staple bath bombs for christmas. Simple pampering such as using a face mask, hair mask or treatment and a flicking through a glossy magazine is an easy way to look after yourself, relax and get away from the stresses of the season.

Additionally putting on a christmas film (The Grinch and ELF are my favourites), lighting festive candles and drinking hot chocolate always help me get in the festive mood without all of the stress! I love hot chocolate, especially the Malteasers one but I cannot wait to try this Whittards salted caramel hot chocolate, it sounds amazing!

Spending time with my parents, sister, grandad and friends is important at this time and with the awful christmas tv and cheesy christmas films, it can be nice to get away from the box and play a board game. My favourite board game has to be Cludeo but monopoly is great too although I always end up cheating, oops! Hands up if you always cheat at monopoly...

Lastly, even getting ready for a christmas, work or new years eve party doesn't have to be stressful. I like to take some time for myself and get ready while lighting some christmas candles (I love the christmas candles from Twig and Dot) and catching up on Youtube videos. I have been loving watching Diary of a Spendaholics vlogs as well as Julia Graf, A Little Obsessed, Ruth Crilly (A Model Recommends) and Samantha Maria's (Beauty Crush) christmas vlogs this year. Having great tools always helps too and takes some of the stress out of getting ready - the Babyliss dryer and straighteners from Bright House are fantastic, my first straighteners ever were from Babyliss and they lasted for ages!

Here's a little video featuring some of the products that I've been loving recently to help me relax during the festive season and items that I think would make lovely gifts too, especially Lush bath bombs, luxury hot chocolate, hair tools which most people don't really want to spend a lot of money on and beauty products; also I think a magazine subscription would make a great christmas gift.

Do you have any pre-christmas or pre-party tips? How do you like to relax during the festive season?