A capsule Christmas in your suitcase

November 26, 2014

Essential items for spending Christmas abroad

This year will be the first we’ve hosted Christmas at our new house, so I’m pretty excited about the decorating potential. But have you ever spent Christmas out of the country? I was in India and Thailand on my pre and post Uni gap years, and then went away with my family to a family friend’s villa in Spain a few years back.

So when guys at Villa Plus challenged me to style up Christmas out of a suitcase – with the things I’d take with me to make it a festive winter break – here’s what came to mind. I would chose southern Spain as the location for my theoretical holiday away, as it would be warm, and the food and wine is great (paella and Cava for Christmas dinner? Yes please).

Obviously you can’t take much in a suitcase and you can buy food and all the good Christmas wine while you’re there. But above are the things I’d take to make it feel more festive, despite the disconnect with the usual cold and grey UK:

  • Diptyque spice scented mini candle – Space NK
  • Gavin and Stacey Christmas special – Amazon (it’s my recent tradition to watch this on Christmas Eve)
  • Christmassy pink bikini – New Look, and Christmas jumper decoration – Paperchase (as it’ll be too hot to wear the real thing)
  • Baby reindeer onesie – John Lewis (someone might already have this…)
  • Decorations (tree lights, gold paper chains, gold ‘cheers’ banner, mini tree, pink stag) – all from Paperchase – all the Christmas things from here are brilliant this year
  • Mini sprout crackers – Paperchase

They also asked me to style a dress of my choice (which they bought for me) for a Christmas day outfit. I’d pick this ASOS breastfeeding dress in festive mulberry. So here’s how I’d wear it at night for Christmas dinner:

Christmas party outfit for breastfeeding

  • Dress – ASOS
  • Swedish Hasbeens – ASOS
  • Statement necklace – Zara
  • Sparkly vintage-style shrug – Monsoon

What one thing would you pack to remind you of Christmas at home?

(Collaborative post)

1 Comments

  • Hannah Budding Smiles

    November 30, 2014 at 6:08 am

    I’ve spent a Christmas I’m Brazil and one on a plane to Cambodia (via China and Thailand) and neither felt like real Christmas because my family wasn’t there, so I’d love to take my husband, son, parents and brother!xx

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