It's Christmas time again! Time for Mariah Carey on repeat, the smell of pine in the air, and giving out candy canes to school teachers. Are there any special traditions you and your family do at Christmas time? I have compiled a list of the 5 best Christmas traditions I intend to force my husband to do with me at this time each year.

The first, and most important of all traditions! Decorate a Christmas tree. A real one, a fake one, a stick off the tree out the front, it can be anything, as long as it says "Christmas!" on the first week of December (always the first week of December, because why wait?!).

We got my first real tree this year, and it's a fat one! I love it. Searching for the box of Christmas decorations among the spider webs in the garage really sparks the Christmas joy, and the smell of pine in the house is so cheery! The pine needles you sweep up each day are a real joy too!

Number 2. Decorate the house with some Christmas goodies. These can be traditional Christmas spruce and Magnolia sticks in a vase, candy canes in a jar, little reindeer statues, sparkly lights or whatever your creative little mind thinks up.

Make an Orange garland, and hang it somewhere in the house. The smell of oranges wafting through your home as they dry is a smell everyone should smell at least once a year. Here's a quick how to:

1. Cut some oranges into thin slices.

2. Line them up on baking trays and put them in the oven set on 160 degrees celcius for 1 hour.

3. Flip them over and bake for another hour.

4. String them together by poking 2 holes in the top of the slice about 2cm apart!

5. Enjoy.

Get a wreath for your door! Because nothing says 'We are home so please don't rob our house' like a Christmas wreath hanging on the front door. Bonus: if you get a cute one like this, you can use it all year 'round. It can be a New Year, Easter, Christmas in July, Melbourne Cup and next years Christmas decoration too. Mostly because by the time the new year rolls around, we are all too busy to take our decorations down. Am I right?!

Last but definitely not least, make some gingerbread cookies! Or, if you're feeling really adventurous, a gingerbread house. If you do it with your kids, it can be a decoration too! Because there's no doubt they will run crumbs all around the place and smear it over the walls!

Let me know if there's Christmas traditions I've missed out on!

T x