BLOGMAS DAY FIVE: Holiday Favorites

We are almost halfway through #12DaysOfBlogmas, mes chéries! I hope you’ve been enjoying each day’s new post as much as I enjoy creating them for you. For day five, we’re going to be discussing some of my holiday season favorites from beverages to products to activities. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or none of the above, the holiday season is more than just a religious or cultural holiday. It’s about closing the year out with warm memories with the people that matter the most to you regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.

You may have noticed that my blogmas posts are a lot more conversational. As bloggers, we often feel so pressured to constantly share information with you all that we tend to forget to stop for a second and just have a chat with our readers. Since I stopped vlogging, I wanted to make this series a bit chattier and more casual so we can simply share our love for the holidays together. So, let’s continue chatting today about some of the season’s best!

Grab a coffee (I won’t judge you if it’s spiked), because we’re starting off with beverages!

 

Beverages

You know Thanksgiving is over and the holiday season is in full-force when Starbucks brings out their holiday cups! Despite the obscenely silly controversy over the cups lately, we can’t help but feel a little festive when we are graced with their presence! (After all, it’s what’s inside the cups that matter, right?) I love drinking holiday beverages out of a festive cup in the early mornings or mid-afternoons. My go-to order used to be the Peppermint Mocha, but lately discovered that it’s just simply too sweet for me. My current holiday favorite is the Chestnut Praline Chai Tea Latte. It’s basically my favorite latte with a warm fireside twist. That’s just my personal favorite though, as I know almost everything on the Starbucks holiday menu is fantastic for the holidays.

Speaking of twists, we can’t forget our favorite drinks with a little twist! There’s always the classic coffee with Bailey’s, but what about hot chocolate with a twist of peppermint vodka or Kahlua? Or a peppermint vodka martini with a little candy cane, like this one on Pinterest?

To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of flavored alcohol, but I have to say peppermint hot chocolate beats that peppermint mocha. It really gives you an extra warmth for the wintertime, you know? 😂 Other great twisted drinks everyone loves (except me, ironically) are eggnog with a bit of brandy or bourbon. I’m not sure what it is about eggnog, but I’m just not all that jazzed up for it. As for other alcoholic beverages I enjoy, I can definitely appreciate a gingerbread White Russian or honey lemon tea with Fireball. You could also never go wrong with a good red wine.

I do have to say though, my all-time favorite is still my childhood favorite: warm milk with soft chocolate chip cookies or M&M sugar cookies… 🍪🥛

 

Products

Did you know that winter used to be my favorite season? I only recently started loving fall more than winter time, but that’s because Pittsburgh winters did me dirty. I do have to say when it comes to “things” all I want is a good ugly Christmas sweater. After all these years, I still have yet to find one that I can wear forever!

For now, my favorite winter items are tall boots and my large blarf (blanket scarf). I have no idea when and where I came up with “blarf” or if it’s even original, but I definitely enjoy feeling like a walking burrito when the wind chill hits.

My go-to scarf has been this dusty rose and blush one from H&M that I bought for $12 two years ago. I bunched it up so that it would drape around my neck in the photo below, but trust me when I say it’s massive if I expand it. The scarf came in two shades, a black/white/gray and this pink one. I was going to purchase the monochromatic shade scarf at first, but my ex convinced me that the pink one would be a much better staple in my wardrobe. I have to say, that was (the only) good advice he’s ever given me because I’ve worn this scarf daily in the winter time for three years now! 😂 Sometimes the men that pass through our lives can be somewhat useful I guess… 🙃

Aside from this one, I also own another teal polka dot blarf and a circle scarf a friend crotchet for me. Scarves are seriously your best friend in the wintertime! We’ll get into styling them soon. 😉

Some other things I can’t get through the holiday season without include curling wands, gold glitter, and red lipstick. Honestly, need I even explain? 💋✨ There are tons of different holiday looks you can create this season, which we will also get into in later posts, but the gold glitter with a red bold lip and big curls is always such a classic. This year’s stars include the gold glitter from Jolie Beauty’s Bomb Dot Com palette and Nars Cruella.

My other favorite thing in the wintertime is a musky, warm scent. My go-to has been Tom Ford Black Orchid, which you saw above. The musky and woodsy tones with a tint of something sweet, like vanilla, really compliments your body temperature in the winter. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it adds an alluring warmth to your natural scent that smells exotic and festive even if you’re standing in subzero degree weather. If I’m not out and about, I love lighting candles to create that aura for me. My favorites include Yankee Candle Warm Luxe Cashmere and Mountain Lodge, White Barn Peppermint Suede and Flannel, and anything with either pine scent or vetiver in it.

Lastly, the holiday season is also never complete without something fuzzy! Whether it’s fuzzy socks, furry robes, or boots with fur inside them, you want to be wrapped up in warm, cozy joy when the frost bites. My personal favorite are my Christmas themed fuzzy socks my mom gifted my aunt, uncle, and I last Christmas. They just keep your feet nice and toasty (as long as you’re not sweating through them) at night! With the temperature this low, you want to protect your outermost extremities and keep them warm to ensure you have proper circulation throughout your whole body.

 

Activities

For the last part of today’s chat, we have to dedicate it to the fun winter activities! I loved winter so much because of the activities more than anything else, so it made sense that I lost that love when I was away from home. As a kid, I lived for snowdays where I could sled down the steep slope that is my driveway, reach the end, and make snow angels. When middle school came around, I picked up skiing when my entire group of family friends would hike up to Killington, Vermont each Christmas week together. After a while, I switched to snowboarding and have not turned back since. I haven’t gone back to any slopes since my sophomore spring semester, so I’m beyond excited to head to the Poconos with my new hire class this January!

Rewinding back to my glory days, I also used to ice skate every week! I made my way through all the levels, eventually joining the freestyle classes. However, at that point I had to make a decision between high school sports/clubs and skating. The latter did not win. While I have lost most of my skills, I still love skating in the rink with friends for fun. Lucky for me, there are a number of rinks around me in the city!

However, my favorite activity of all time is decorating a tree as I belt Christmas tunes. This year, I’m not home to set up my tree/my mom refuses to do it herself, so I had to bring Christmas to my small apartment. My roommate and I lined up our cabinets with white Christmas lights. I purchased a small poinsettia and mini tree from Trader Joe’s, which I hung a cute ornament of my dog on. Then yesterday, my roommate surprised me (and probably herself) with a real mini balsam tree which is now decked with colorful lights and tinsel! I’m only doing a close up because the actual tree looks a bit ratchet, if I’m being honest… My apologies, Bouge & Rouge is more Budget & Rough these days. 😅

 

That’s it for this quick chat about my holiday favorites! I know it’s not a traditional favorites post, but I’m not the most traditional girl out here. I hope you all enjoyed spending some time with me today. I’d love to hear what you all love during the holiday season, so leave me a comment below or tweet me it @bougeandrouge!

Merci beaucoup for tuning in so loyally every day, mes chéries. See you tomorrow! Bisou, bisou…