It’s December, and you know what that means – it’s time to put ourselves in an over-indulgent food coma thanks to weeks of celebrating the Christmas season at work, at home and with friends. It’s also the time to stress and freak out about what you need to get for your great aunt Helen, a time to celebrate the joys and magic of being with your family, and a time to dress your dog up in an elf costume.

No matter what Christmas means to you, whether it’s an over-commercialised reason to shop, a chance to have a break and enjoy the beach and the sunshine, or a chance to get involved in some festival cheer, Christmas definitely has a unique flavour to bring to the table. Check out some of the amazing parties that are blowing up the blogosphere right now and if I don’t say it before I see you – have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Party Round Up:

• Check out these 12 Legitimately Awesome Non-Traditional Themed Weddings from BuzzFeed. I love the idea of the camping wedding, the carnival themed wedding and the glitter wedding. Super cute!
• Would you go to Dianna Agron’s Gleeful lavish dinner party? I definitely would… While you are at it, check out the photos as Tammin Sursok relives her Italian wedding day. Gorgeous!
• A carnival themed wedding is an amazing idea, but this bridal shoot from The Bride’s Diary is dripping with Day of the Dead colour, summer whimsy and carny games. Absolutely beautiful!
• Look at these wedding cakes from Choccywoccydoodah. Just look at them!
• If you want to plan a party, make sure you check out Kitya Palasakas’ My Candy Castle first for amazingly colourful ideas and while you are at it, buy your Christmas presents from Nectar and Stone!
• Pretty Mayham has released a beautiful post on making your own Sundae bar, which is perfect for these hot Australian Summer days, as well as 10 DIY Gift Baskets to get all of your Christmas presents sorted. I love the kitchen utensils in a mitt idea, someone get me that for Christmas!
• Check out Hooray Magazine’s Christmas presents for the perfect party.
• And finally, as usual, Rock n Roll Bride has some amazing weddings on the blog at the moment. I love the bridesmaids dresses in this Skulls and Scotland Themed wedding, and this beautiful bride’s sparkly attire in this Epically Sparkly, Hyper Rainbow themed wedding. Not to mention the most EPIC wedding ever with this Burning Man celebration.

Other Articles:

• News.com published an awesome list about life at 25…
• I have major issues staying in the moment, and it causes me to be distracted and flighty. I love Gala Darling’s tips on how to not float away with your mind, as well as how to survive a job you hate.
• These dog portraits are some of the greatest I have ever seen!
• This lady hasn’t made any trash in 2 years. Think it’s impossible? I dare you to try!
• Check out Jon Contino’s stellar artwork for the Halloween movie The Book of Life! It’s absolutely beautiful and he is a talented designer – I can’t wait for the movie to come out here in April.
• Check out this super powerful video called One Second A Day. As Don’t Panic, a British charity part of Save The Children, describes it, the video is “Our solution was to tell a story that would bring the realities of Syria home, and to do it we combined the one-second-a-day and photo time-lapse formats to create a new way of showing an ordinary girl’s world falling apart in just a year.” It shows some shocking realities of the wars in the Middle East and really correlates to the lives of refugees and just why they ended up asking us for help.

• This video below popped up as one of those annoying advertisements you get before watching a video on Youtube. What transpired by letting it go was one of the most inspiring videos to promote going to a country for more than just getting drunk and giving us a bad name. See this one man’s experience to something extra-ordinary in Thailand.