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Staying Calm This Christmas With Bookblock

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Louise Ashlee

As well as thinking of gift ideas for members of the family you didn’t even know you had…there’s Christmas cards to write and the hunt to tick off all those food items on your list! We would love to take away some of that stress, so here’s a list of things you can tick off straight away.

Planning
Firstly, having somewhere specific to write down all your planning really helps. We have so many beautiful personalised notebooks ready and waiting. You can choose any text you’d like printed onto the cover, so everyone knows not to move it!

Additionally, you can choose your notebook design in either hardbound or soft bound. We think this is great as everyone has their own preference when it comes to notebooks and planners.

For example, two of our gorgeous, festive designs are shown below.

***Winter Oranges and* *Ornamental Leaves***

We have our Winter Oranges. This bold and bright design with plump oranges and beautifully detailed leaves all around is ideal. The contrasting colours and bright orange name box are a sure way to make sure it doesn’t get lost!

Ornamental Leaves is our second design. We love the elegant and simplistic pattern of festive leaves, with the colours complimenting each other so well! It’s such a lovely, wintry aesthetic.

Cards
Secondly, let’s help you get those cards sorted. We have a huge range of gorgeous Christmas card designs, with personalised cards and beautiful printed motifs.

If, like many of us, you seem to have a ginormous list of people to send to, we definitely suggest our Unlimited subscription. You’ll be able to send as many cards as you like with no hassle! This way you can also pick lots of different Christmas cards depending on your loved one’s styles.

***Nutcracker and* *Sleepy Sloth Cards***

For example, our new Nutcracker design is a lovely design for someone who adores a beautiful Christmas illustration. It has such lovely details with each character and the bordering festive foliage.

Or if you know someone who isn’t such a fan of Christmas time, our Sleepy Sloth is perfect. We love the fun ‘Wake me up when Christmas is over’ text with a cosy looking sloth.

Simply add your chosen text inside the greetings cards and we’ll do the rest!

Relaxing Bath
If you do manage to find some time to relax, make it count! Run a bath and relax with our lovely Lavender and Ylang Ylang Bath Salts by Leende.

They are completely natural with no chemicals, colour, or artificial perfumes. Just nature’s finest ingredients. There’s nothing quite like luxury dead sea relaxing bath salts to revitalise the skin or lavender and ylang ylang essential oils in this beautiful blend.

They’ll do just the trick to help you relax and stay calm for the rest of your Christmas jobs.

Lavender and Ylang Ylang Bath Salts

Vitamins
To ensure this calm continues, the key is to stay healthy. Vitamins are crucial this time of year, so we’re suggesting our Devon Blend Green Tea with Hibiscus & Blackberry. Thanks to this Bookblock Deli blend, the tea is absolutely packed with antioxidants and can help to improve your brain’s function. Additionally, hibiscus can help to boost your immune system and blackberry tea is high in Vitamin C. So, keep sipping on this tea as you go!

Devon Blend Green Tea with Hibiscus & Blackberry

A Lovely Scent
Next up is one of the ultimate winter comforts, a gorgeous scented candle. This Plum and Rhubarb candle is a comforting blend that releases such a beautiful smell. It’s also made from 100% soy wax, so will burn for longer than others. Around 40 hours to be precise! Additionally, it’s presented in a lovely terracotta pot that can be reused once your candle has fully burned.

This doesn’t minimise your Christmas jobs, but at least when you’re running around the house it will smell amazing! Alternatively, it’s an ideal Christmas gift idea for any of the family members, because who doesn’t love a luscious candle?

Plum and Rhubarb candle

Sweet Treat
Lastly is a little treat to finish off, as we think you deserve it! Try our Bookblock Deli Butterscotch Biscuits. They are beautifully buttery and loaded with pieces of smooth butterscotch. Perfectly crumbly Christmas biscuits for you to enjoy and will hopefully give you a sugar boost!

Find Your Festivity with Bookblock’s Christmas Gifts

Posted on November 17, 2021November 30, 2021 by Louise Ashlee

We’re starting with one of the first things we do to feel festive, Christmas tree decorations! Most of us love the process of digging out and re-discovering our decorations, then carefully placing them on the Christmas tree and around our homes. We have a range of baubles and decorations, all would make wonderful Christmas gifts for you and your loved ones. Header photo by Katie Elizabeth Wright.

Beautiful Baubles

Nothing says sparkly and festive like sequins. Add a shimmering festive touch to your gift box with our sequin glass baubles. You can choose from gold, red and green, or treat yourself and your loved ones to all three for a vivid jewel collection. Think how lovely the complete set would look on your Christmas tree!

If sequins aren’t your go to, we have more designs such as our beautiful wooden decorations and jolly gnomes. Shown below are two from each collection; Snowflake Wooden Decoration and one of our cute Gnome Hanger Decorations.
Firstly, our Wooden Decorations consist of this gorgeous Snowflake, Intricate Snowflake, Patterned Tree and Woodland Reindeer, with festive red and green ribbon ties. They are all beautifully detailed to add to your winter wonder gift boxes. We love that these little Christmas gifts are created by our in-house designers and are completely plastic free. They are perfect for other rustic themed Christmas decorations.
Secondly, our Christmas Gnome Hanger Decorations are adorable touches to a gift box. Choose from three red and white gnomes, featured in different glittery hats. Their total lack of facial features, button noses and little red mittens are so sweet, and as a result, make wonderfully festive Christmas tree decorations.

Red, green and gold Sequin Baubles

Festive Flower Wreath

Continuing with Christmas decorations, next is our Festive Flower Wreath Kit. Making your own floral wreath can be a wonderfully cathartic experience, not to mention a festive one. Why not encourage your loved ones to take some time to create something lovely with this wreath kit? It has been thoughtfully assembled by our in-house Bookblock Florists and includes everything needed to create a gorgeous Christmas wreath.
Each kit contains a selection of our dried flowers, a golden metal hoop, hand-made and naturally dyed ribbon for a premium gift idea.
As you can see below this selection looks absolutely beautiful on the golden hoop, with the contrasting greens and reds and silky ribbon standing out as the star of the wreath. Because of this, we think they are such perfect Christmas decorations.

Festive Flower Wreath Kit

Festive Food

Next up is Christmas food. We all love treating ourselves over the Christmas period, so we made sure to have festive treats waiting and ready.

Firstly, our Merry Chocolate Selection is jolly and generous. It contains four mini boxes of festive chocolate delights, hand-picked based on their amazing taste and festive cheer. Enjoy forest gateau bites, churros almonds, tiramisu rounds and white chocolate pistachios. Additionally, this box also has some awesome packaging. It includes bright and bold colours on the cover with abstract shapes that catch your eye so well. The mini boxes are no different as the beautiful floral designs and more simplistic abstract shapes make a wonderful aesthetic. These Christmas chocolates make great additions to any festive gift box.

A Merry Chocolate Selection

Christmas Crackers

Lastly, we have a brilliant finishing touch; Christmas crackers! Each is filled with yummy chocolates for exciting Christmas treats.
The first is our slightly more sophisticated cracker with port and raisin truffles, hand-made by the Norfolk Truffle Company. They’re coated in dark chocolate with a delicious milk truffle interior, with added raisins and ruby port. These treats are housed in a luxurious cracker design, with luscious blue and gold details to really stand out.
Next is another classy cracker containing three delicious milk Lindt Christmas chocolates. These are perfect to add a little festive fun to your gift box with the surprise of Santas inside. Additionally, the cracker has a beautifully elegant design with festive, botanical motifs all around.
Lastly, for more fun, is our Santa Cracker. These charming Christmas gifts house delicious milk chocolate Santa belts, which are fitting for the giant friendly Santa around the cracker! They are (just like the others), a lovely finishing touch to a gift box.

Port & Raisin Truffle Cracker, Lindt Santas Cracker and Santa Cracker

If you’d like to add more of a personal touch, we have hundreds of greeting cards for you to add to your gift boxes that would make them extra special. A Christmas card goes a long way for sending a personal message.

Time’s ticking for the countdown to Christmas so start your browsing!

Our Top 5 Personalised Christmas Cards

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Louise Ashlee

Cards are a huge part of gifting in the UK, even more so over the festive period. As a result, we have ensured that our card service provides something for everyone. These cards are also a lovely finishing touch to any gift box and Christmas presents.

Humour

Christmas should be a time for feeling merry and having a laugh around the people you love. So we’re starting off with humour! Us Brits love a good pun and play on words, so we have designed some cracking greetings cards for you.
If you know someone who’s a bit of a Grinch for Christmas jumpers, our Jumper Time is perfect. Simplistic and to the point, with a lovely illustration of a dazzling jumper.
Another sweet and minimal design is our Pining for You. With two loving Christmas trees, it makes a charming little card to send to a loved one to show you’re thinking of them.

From left: Bubbly, Jumper Time, Dachshund Through the Snow, Go Crackers, Naughty Cat, Pining For You

Animals

The next theme we feel definitely deserves a place in the top five is animals. They can help to add so much emotion to a card, as well as humour and (of course) cuteness.
For example, we love our Singing Polar Bear with its sweet smile to increase your merriness and festive red Christmas hat. Clutching its decorated Christmas tree, it makes you excited to decorate your own!
Even greater, this a personalised Christmas card so you can add your own message on the front as well as the inside for a personal touch.

Our Naughty Dog card also ticks many boxes. Featuring a cute and funny illustration of a cheeky dog getting tangled in the fairy lights, this gorgeous illustration makes a great addition to our Christmas cards.

From left: Singing Bear, Chilly Penguins, Jingly Reindeer, Naughty Dog

Simply Beautiful

Continuing with illustration, sometimes simply a beautiful design and typography can make a wonderful greetings card. The festive colours can brighten up any room over Christmas.
Our Lights design involves a gorgeous mix of brightly coloured fairy lights and tinsel on a luscious dark blue night sky.
We also have our Beautiful Baubles, with captivating white details filling the background and every bauble in a different style. Just like the previous designs, it provides excitement with Christmas decorations.

From left: Beautiful Baubles, White Floral Stencil, Lights, All Is Bright

Typography

Sometimes, it’s the text that can really make great Christmas cards. There are endless designs when it comes to typography and they help push the message of the card. For example, the friendly ‘Ho Ho Ho!’ on our Snowy Trees card brings it to life, you can really imagine the voice of a certain man dressed in red!
In contrast, our Christmas Joy uses text to show a magical snowy scene with Father Christmas and his reindeers flying above the sky. The blue dotted pattern creates a lovely contrast and creates such a beautiful greetings card.

From left: Ho Ho Ho, Christmas Joy, Snowy Trees, Merry & Bright, Blue Watercolour

Scenery

The last of our top 5 is scenery. Who doesn’t love receiving an enchanting Christmas scene on a greetings card?
One of our favourites is the Monochrome Christmas design and its attention to detail. The lack of colour creates a timeless scene and reflects the night time story of Father Christmas flying over our homes. The text also helps, with the decorative ‘Bright’ expressing the idea of magical stars and lights.
Another is the adorable illustrations on our Winter Houses scene. The scattering creates an almost abstract village with sweet little snowy houses and trees.

From left: Snowy Wonderland, Textured Forest, Monochrome Christmas, Winter Scene, Gingerbread House

We have so many Christmas cards to choose from, so head over to our seasonal cards section to get into your festive mood and start sending to your loved ones!

Our love affair with Christmas cards

Posted on December 20, 2019October 21, 2020 by Sarah Bennett

We’re a sentimental bunch us brits.

Every year, we send nearly 900 million Christmas cards. 900 million! That’s more per person than any other country in the world.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret. I absolutely love them. From the first red-breasted robin to the last bawdy limerick, I can’t get enough of Christmas cards. I store them on mantles, I hang them on walls, I even fold them into origami nativity scenes (maybe not that last one).

As soon as that first emerald envelope hits my doormat, I get all giddy knowing that Christmas is just around the corner. But why do we love this tradition so much? And if you’re a first-time sender, how can you fully embrace the joy of card giving?

Here are seven reasons why this is the year to start sending Christmas cards.

An age-old tradition

Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we? The name Henry Cole may not ring any Christmas bells. But we have him to thank for the Christmas card as we know it today. Back in 1843, the then civil servant teamed up with artist and friend John Horsley to create the very first Christmas card.

The simple design depicted a hearty family Christmas dinner, complete with turkey and wine-supping children (no, honestly!). Since then, designs have varied from the traditional to the downright bizarre. And these little gestures have been spreading joy for over 150 years.

From me to you

Whichever style you prefer, Christmas cards all share one thing in common. They last. In the age of social media and instant messaging, a Christmas caption can be bashed out in seconds and shared with the entire world. A Christmas card, on the other hand, isn’t so fleeting.

They act as a physical reminder of our care and affection to those we love. Rather than being resigned to the trash folder, Christmas cards take pride of place in our homes (for a few days at least). In a world where things are designed to be consumed in seconds, there’s something beautiful about a handwritten Christmas card.

From the heart

Like writing a good letter (link to letter writing article), penning a Christmas card forces us to slow down and consider what we’re saying. Because we can’t backspace our way out of trouble, every word counts.

In fact, some of the most touching letters I’ve ever received have been Christmas cards. It’s incredible how open and honest we can be when we pick up a pen. They’re wonderful for the reader too. In a recent study, 83 per cent of people said a handwritten message involved more thought and feeling than a simple text.

So if you haven’t tried it before, make this year the year to send a message from the heart.

Works of art

If you’re anything like me, you adore great design. And if you think Christmas cards aren’t the place for it, think again. Over the last few years, artists have turned cards into an amazing platform for sharing their work with the world.

Plus have you seen Christmas cards recently? They’re things of beauty! I don’t mean the ones of Santa Claus passed out after too many sherries. I mean the ones hand-drawn by expert illustrators. If you haven’t already, check out our range of festive favourites.

So if you’re stuck for Christmas gift ideas, a handwritten Christmas card could be the perfect solution.

‘Tis the season to be boastful

Let’s be honest. Who doesn’t love a good brag? When I was growing up, my dad used to compile an annual newsletter of all my family’s achievements. Whether we were passing our driving tests or playing innkeeper 2 in the school play, he would shout it to the heavens.

And who could blame him? Christmas cards are one of the few chances we get to be unashamedly boastful. Plus my innkeeper 2 was the talk of the town. So if you need an excuse to do a little self-promotion, Christmas cards might just be the ego boost you were looking for.

Write, lick, stamp, repeat

We each have our own little ways of getting in the festive spirit. Whether it’s the first sip of a gingerbread latte or a cheeky hit of Wham! in October, we all love getting in the mood for Christmas.

For me, it’s Christmas cards. Every year I set aside one glorious afternoon where I lick, stick and stamp my way into the season. Sure, it helps that I’m a stationery nut but if you’ve never tried it, you’re missing out.

There are, of course, a few key ingredients to the perfect Christmas card writing session. I would recommend a woolly jumper, a tall glass of mulled wine and a hearty dose of Michael Buble. Bliss.

Express yourself

One of the things I love most about Christmas cards is the chance to express yourself. From understated chic to silly family portraits, they’re a great chance to share a little piece of your personality with those you love most.

And with a wider choice than ever before, you’re bound to find something as unique as you. From subtle and sophisticated to bold and beautiful, there is a Christmas card out there waiting for you.

The future…

You’d be forgiven for thinking Christmas cards are on their way out. But recent research has shown that the next generation of Christmas carders are intent on keeping this wonderful tradition alive.

My advice? Choose quality over quantity. You don’t need to send them to every person you’ve ever met. Instead, pick a few close friends and family and send a card that they will love. You never know, it might just make their Christmas.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to take care of your Christmas cards, check out Bookblock Unlimited. Send as many cards as you like with one monthly subscription. Or for more Christmas present ideas, check out our amazing range of gifts.

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