What I got for Christmas 2018

Hello & Happy Thursday lovelies! How is everyone enjoying the snow? It feels a little surreal, but wonderful nonetheless, that I am sat writing a Christmassy themed post and with the ground outside covered in snow, it feels more like Christmas now than it did on the big day! I wish it would snow more though because I want to get out and enjoy it while it lasts! Also I've been ever eager to take some toy photography in the snow, since all of my friends in other countries inspired me throughout December with their beautiful snowy shots :') I shouldn't be going outside at all at the moment, because I have a chest infection! And this is the reason why my post is going up a little later than I had planned, but I hope you all enjoy having a read about the lovely presents that I got for Christmas :) This post is of course not to boast about what I got, but to celebrate and share my happiness with you all, and I know I love reading about what presents people get from their loved ones, it fills me with joy for them, and so I hope my post might do the same for my awesome readers! 

My mom always finds the most wonderful wrapping paper that she knows I will love!? (Thanks mom!) That shiny emerald green one though! I almost never want to open my presents because it will ruin how pretty they look all wrapped up, haha! I always try my best to open a few of them carefully so that I can save some of the wrapping paper. I have been doing this for years and as a result, have random bits of wrapping paper hoarded away in boxes... Does anyone else do this? I used to scrapbook things more as a kid, maybe I should start up that hobby again? Each year I am so touched by how wonderful my mom is, I only ask for a couple of things but she surprises me with so much more! Keep reading to find out what I got :) 

When I was asked what I wanted for Christmas just gone, the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was at the top of my list :) I have been after this book for ages now! Just look how beautiful the artwork on the cover is!! I am so happy that there's a barn owl on it, as they are my favourite species of owl. Who else has a favourite owl? Also what pet would you take to Hogwarts with you? I'm sure you can imagine how stunning the rest of the book is; I am in love with it! Jim Kay has done such a wonderful job! I have always been a big fan of seeing artists interpretations of my favourite books and their characters, because it's fascinating to see how other people picture things in comparison to my own imagination :) 

I also asked for this book! I have always wanted my own copy of Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, so when I spotted this wonderful illustrated edition on a YouTube video, I had to have it :) I went to university for Zoo Biology, and if I worked in the Wizarding World, I would totally be a Magizoologist like Newt! Something that is very interesting about the artwork in this book is that Olivia Lomenech Gill seems to have been inspired by so many of the beautiful and diverse species that exist in the muggle world. I think it's awesome to imagine these creatures living alongside the species that they resemble, basically hidden within groups of them :) But then again, I personally picture the creatures to look otherworldly, and therefore nothing like species we see on the planet today. Regardless, I am delighted with this book and all of it's facts about the creatures! I like how many of the papers are made to look like they would come from a scientists field notebook too. I can't wait to have a good read through it :) Let me know guys if you would like me to share a post showing more of the inside of the two books I got for Christmas. 

I was surprised with more Harry Potter goodies, including this awesome version of Trivial Pursuit. I'd seen it earlier in the year in a magazine, and mentioned how wonderful I thought it was and so it was lovely that my mom remembered and bought it for me :) I'm really looking forward to playing it! As someone who is a little addicted to buying notebooks, I am always over the moon to get more, and I think the design on this one is gorgeous! Even though I'm not a huge fan of the colour gold, it goes so well with the black on this notebook so I can't not love it! Something that is cool about the pencil you can see on the side of the notebook, is that it's actually a pen in disguise!! 

I love the Hogwarts crest on the front of this tin of playing cards, which my mom bought for me purely because I have a bit of a thing for tins :D I don't know why, but ever since I was little, I have been a fan of products that come in a decorative tin. Playing cards are always handy to have, and I was in need of some more since my old ones got covered in alcohol during a drinking game and had to go in the bin, oops! 

Yes I'm 26 years old, and yes I was extremely happy to unwrap a Care Bear plushie :D Funshine Bear has been my favourite Care Bear since childhood, and I am very glad to now have a plushie to him to add to my collection. I love how vibrant the yellow they've chosen for him is, it makes me feel a little uplifted each time I look at him, and of course his smiley sunshine belly and heart-shaped nose help too! The plushie is made of lovely material and I can't decide whether I want to keep him in the box or not, because he looks super cuddly! Do you have a favourite Care Bear? Let me know in the comments. 

I love how when I was younger, I would always dislike getting socks and would think like, socks? as a present?!. However, as an adult, I am always happy to get more socks, especially when they are as cute as these! Primark makes such awesome socks, and it's marvellous that they have been doing collaborations with so many cute brands! I was surprised to see that they'd made Molang socks!! Does anymore know if they have made more Molang productions?? If not, I hope that they do. I have loved Molang for the longest time! Oh my gosh, I need Primark to do a Sanrio/San-X collab next! How cute is this super fluffy, grey bunny thing that I also got!? 

Awww, this little cat trinket dish that I got is really sweet! I love the simplistic design of it, and how it's got raised pointy ears :) I got another notebook, and it's got such a groovy design on the cover. I think it looks like water that has had a paintbrush dipped into it several times. The pages inside are a cream colour, and I always prefer notebooks that are like this, especially for using for any writing projects I am working on because, I don't know, it almost feels like you're writing on old fashioned paper and I just love that aesthetic. It's the little things :) 

If you're a fellow toy lover, then you'll love the rest of today's post! It's going to get picture heavy from now because I was surprised with lots of blind bags, so there's many little toys/figures to show you all. I'm very curious to know which of the figures I received are everyone's personal favourites, so please let me know :) 

I got several Disney Tsum Tsum blind bags and packs; some of them I didn't manage to photograph the packaging for because they were plastic and I cut them open with scissors on Christmas Day! I have a few unboxing videos saved from my story posts over on my toy photography Instagram if you're interested :) Find me here. It's a shame that the popularity of Tsum Tsum's has declined here in the UK because I can't get hold of the ones I would love to get for my collection anymore! The last time I visited a Disney Store, which was last month whilst I was in Manchester city for the Christmas Markets, there wasn't a Tsum Tsum in sight! The only advantage is that the blind bags and such have become a lot cheaper and it's probably easier to get the figures that you don't have if you're a collector, since a lot of people don't buy them anymore. I only collect the mini plushies, but I am a big fan of figures so I can't help but pick up a blind bag whenever I see them for a reasonable price! 

One of the packs I got was the kind that you get one mystery figure in and the rest you can see in the packaging; my mom picked it specifically because it had Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas in it and she knows how much I love the movie :) The surprise figure that I found inside this pack was Flynn Rider from Tangled (2010). I love his little goatee beard! The other pack I got included flocked (furry-textured) Tsum Tsum figures, one mystery and one was the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland. I was very happy to find Sully from Monster's, Inc. (2001) inside my pack, because who doesn't love Monster's Inc? 

Above are the figures that I got inside the circular Tsum Tsum blind bags, which include two from Series 8, one from Series 7 and another from Series 6 :) My favourite by far is the Series 8 Rafiki figure, just look how pretty it is with the tree! The Lion King 1 & 2 have forever been my favourite Disney movies, and you don't see much merchandise of good old Rafiki, so I'm so glad  to have gotten this figure! I have to admit that even though these figures are super adorable, the little props that they come with can be a little annoying, especially when you are trying to sit your figure on them the way that the packaging shows! The other figures I got are Winnie the Pooh's Piglet, Mr Big from Zootopia (2016) and Heimlich the caterpillar from A Bug's Life (1998). Seriously, how cute is the Heimlich's face!? 

Yayy! More Care Bears! I'd never seen these Care Bears blind bags before, and it was such a fun surprise! The bags are so colourful and that just made me even more excited, I'm such a sucker for pretty packaging! I was really hoping that I would get Funshine and it must have been a case of Christmas luck, because I got him, eeee! That literally never happens to me when I have one or two blind bags, I always seem to get the figures I don't want as much, so it was fabulous to get him!! I also got a bear that I don't remember from the old cartoons, called Laugh-A-Lot Bear, but she's cute! Who do you prefer: Laugh-A-Lot or Funshine? 

On my birthday back at the start of October last year, I started collecting the new Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts Lego figures, from the blind bag series, after seeing lots of unboxing on YouTube and Instagram. Although I have always thought Lego was brilliant, I never played with it much as a kid and I didn't want to end up getting obsessed with another collectable figure series, however when it's a Harry Potter related thing, I find that my power to resist goes out of the window, and thus I am now a Lego collector XD On Christmas Day, I 'unboxed' Cedric Diggory to go with my Cho Chang and Voldemort figures :) I love that this figure looks a lot more like Robert Pattinson who played Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) than the Funko Mystery Mini Cedric that I have. I think his Hufflepuff coloured uniform looks fantastic too! 

The final mystery toys that I got are a very lovely Dalmatian puppy called Fetch, from a TY Mini Boos blind box (series 3) and a Sylvanian Families 'Baby Band Series' teeny yellow Labrador figure :) From being very young, I have wanted to collect Sylvanian families but they were always too expensive, and you had to buy all of the houses and other accessories separately too! When I got older, I was very tempted to start buying them myself but I know that I don't have the room so I'm waiting patiently until the day I can start collecting them! My mom hasn't helped me by bringing this blind bag series to my attention though! XD Now that I know they exist, I want them all :) They are such pretty little figures with the cutest instrument accessories! 

To conclude my post, I want to show you guys the gifts that one of my brothers bought me for Christmas. He got me so much this year! There was also supposed to be a packet of those American sweets called Nerds in the photo, but I love them and couldn't resist devouring them! I'm looking forward to trying out these fabulous-looking unicorn horn bathbombs, I want to see how differently they react once they are added to the water! They are almost too pretty to use, and I'm hoping that they smell good! It's going to be very interesting to try and make this sheep plushie though, considering I have never been any good at stitching, and haven't knitted in my life! Oh well, new year, new adventures, right!? 

How cute is the packaging for the bath salts!? Foxes are one of my favourite animals, and I don't think I'm going to be able to open this item because I don't want to risk ruining the fox packaging! I'm very happy to have a new plushie to add to my little Teenie TY collection (read more here). My brother didn't even know that I had started collecting them so it's great that he got me one that I don't have already. I have wanted to try Hershey's kisses for years now so it's awesome to receive some of those too! 

I've been very spoilt this year by my loved ones and I am so thankful to get so many excellent and thoughtful gifts! ♥ I also got some new Funko Pop! Vinyl figures but I forgot to snap a photo of them, as usual, I always miss something! I hope that you all enjoyed my post, and please share a link in the comments for me to check out any Christmas present posts that you shared, I'd love to have a read :) 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

What was your favourite gift that you received this Christmas?

Did you treat yourself to anything, especially in the Boxing Day & January sales?