Books to Inspire Festive Charm

Welcome to the very first day of Daisybutter Blogmas. Today we’re talking festive reads. Is there anything more indulgent than taking 15 minutes from your day to sit down and curl up with a book?

Reading is easily one of my favourite hobbies, and it’s a great medium through which to totally unwind and lose yourself in a different world entirely.

Personally, I’ve found great comfort throughout 2017 in switching off my laptop and phone in order to read a real book. Having said that, I’m also finding a select handful of blogs a perfect reference point to really fuel the festive fire. Here are my favourite festive reads this year:

Milk Bubble Tea

Becky’s blog has consistently been one of my favourites for years, so I knew I had to include her in this round-up.

Over December and, indeed, throughout the winter, Milk Bubble Tea is packed with the cutest photos, dreamy photo diaries, sweet treat recipes and more. Her blog photography is truly beautiful and a real source of escapism for me.

Read it here.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

How could I not include Harry Potter in this list?! Whilst arguably the film feels more festive, the book trumps the film in all other ways. Easy to digest, I break out my Harry Potter series once a year and Christmas is certainly a great time for it.

We Browns

One of my favourite blog discoveries of 2017 if not of all time, We Browns is penned by New York-dwelling Alexa. Her blog is a wonderful glimpse into her life with her husband and, more recently, bump!

I first fell in love with blogging when blogs were little reels of film, used to portray a lifestyle and We Browns is reminiscent of that. Alexa’s writing style is oh so dreamy; poetic and evocative. Her photos are of the highest calibre in personal photography and I couldn’t be more thrilled that she is welcoming her first baby this winter.

Read it here.

Gossip Girl: All I Want Is Everything by Cecily von Ziegesar

Back in 2003, my friend and I came across a scandalously sexy (at the time) series named Gossip Girl. Of course we had no idea that one day, it’d be piloted for a TV show and then go on to be one of the most popular TV series out there!

The books, however, remain a firm favourite of mine. They fall into the YA category but I think they make a great read for any twenty- or thirty-something too, in a guilty pleasure sort of way. Personally, I prefer the characters in the books to the series and the storylines are less dramatic but lean a little more vapid. You get a peek into the world of privileged teenagers on the Upper East Side in its full written glory.

Elijah’s Mermaid & The Last Days of Leda Grey by Essie Fox

One of my favourite books this year has been Elijah’s Mermaid by Essie Fox. Intoxicatingly enchanting, I managed to read it all in a weekend and am half tempted to read it again before the year is up!

The Night Before Christmas

This classic poem is a childhood favourite and I genuinely can’t wait to invest in beautiful hardback tomes for my future kids, that I can read in the evenings before Christmas falls. Nostalgia always hits firmly with this one and it’s one everybody should probably at LEAST skim read before the big day.