But why do we celebrate St Valentine's Day? Where did it come from? Was it just a commercial idea dreamt up by entrepreneurs of yesteryear (and if so why didn't they invent a LOT more similar celebrations? Grrrr!) or does it have some more deep seated mystical relevance? Oooohhhhh (spooky mystical ghost sound).

And whilst we're on this journey of enlightenment, why do we celebrate it in the way we do? Why cards flowers and chocolates? Why only the 1 day and why this particular day? Thankfully we tasked our analytical brain box (Amanda) with these questions and she gleefully scurried off to find the answers for your delectation's...

The Origins of St Valentine's Day

The origins of Valentine’s Day are thought to date back to the time of the Roman Empire around 300AD and the martyrdom of a Roman Priest called Valentine with festivals linked to fertility taking place in mid February (what is it about those Romans? Everything was about killing and sex!)

These festivals are far removed from the current notion of Valentine’s day, as they included the sacrifice of goats and involved boys wearing the resulting hide slapping women in the face!  In a precursor to Blind Date, another ritual was the placing of girls names in an urn, boys then drew a name and the matched couple spent the year together to see if they fell in love. They could have saved themselves 364 days 23 hours and 59 minutes by simply using our Love Compatibility Test on the Little Love Bot (blatant plug number 1 for our new website!).

Seems that 300AD was a popular year for all things 'naughty' as it is also thought to be the year when the Kama Sutra was written! Bazinger!

Why do we send Valentine's Day Cards?

The first recorded Valentine’s card dates back to the 1400s, with the first manufactured cards appearing in the 1800s. But why send cards in the first place? Well, in 'Ye Olde Times' people used to sing to their Valentine in an demonstration of their love. Then, in the 1400s some bright spark had the notion of jotting down these verses and adding drawings and embroidery and before you knew it the Valentines Day card was born!

Seems us humans are a soppy lot! Last year over 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards were sent in the world, which marks a whopping 14.2% of the population. The average card costs £3 which means that as a species we spend a gargantuan £3billion’s on cards!

Why do this? In its place we could buy 18 Octopus yachts like the one owned by Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen? FYI the Octopus comes complete with 2 helicopters, a swimming pool and a 10 man submarine and you’d still have a bit left over for the £20m a year maintenance costs.

Sadly 1 billion cards equates to 500 tonnes of card, which would use 12,000 trees - enough to cover the UK  4 times over. Instead spending billions on cards this Valentines Day we recommend everyone saves their money whilst still conveying a romantic message. How? Simply leave a message of love on the Little Love Bot (blatant plug for our awesome new website number 2!). The money saved could buy Buckingham Palace 3 times or rebuild the White House a whopping 31 times. In your face American buildings of importance. Ours are soooooo much better!

Flowers and Chocolate - the way to a womans heart

By far the most popular Valentines gift is flowers with 2.3 million bunches being sold in the UK last Valentines, enough to fill 77 football pitches and equating to £34.5m.  For £34.5m you could have bought Ireland on Dubai’s famous World development and still had a bit left over for a Bugatti Veyron.

The red rose is a flower synonymous with love, which is probably why it is the most purchased flower at Valentines and the most expensive.  Part of the expense is down to the time taken to produce the perfect single stem, which is 50-70 days, by which time you could have rowed the Atlantic or completed the Tour de France 3 times!

What do you do if you’re not expecting to receive any flowers this Valentines?  Well you could do what 15% of American women did last year and send them to yourself. Britain 2, America 0!

After flowers, chocolates are the next most popular Valentines gift with £29m being spent on them last Valentines, which is roughly 5.8m boxes.   If all these boxes were stacked side by side they would reach from London to Moscow.

Struggling to find the perfect gift? (I think you know where this is going...) Then why not check out the 'Gifts of Love Generator' on our awesome new website the Little Love Bot (blatant plug number 3 yada yada yada!).

How much should you spend on the other half?

When it comes to how much to spend on a valentines gift men are the most generous with 33% spending more than £20 on a gift compared to women who tend to spend less than £20 #gomen!

But what about going that extra yard (or 0.9144 metres for those who prefer metric)...

If you’re looking to splash out this Valentines, how about snapping up Castle Carbonana in Italy?  This castle, which dates back to 400BC comes with its own helipad (added much later) and makes a perfect get away if you have a spare £10m lying around.  It would take the average person in the UK 365 years to earn enough to buy it but based on current salaries and bonuses RBS banking chief John Hourican could buy it from 2 years work and still have £1.8m in loose change. In fact if all the RBS chiefs pooled their bonuses for the year they could buy it 50 times over!!!

If a castle is a little bit out of your price range how about your own private island in Brazil? A snip at only £1.6m.  You could have the money in 59 years, or alternatively you could ask David Beckham to give you 24 days pay or Wayne Rooney a gargantuan 49 days earnings.

Other gifts of exuberance... How about the World’s largest cut emerald the size of a watermelon valued at $1.15 million (obviously not THAT popular as it recently failed to sell at auction), a diamond encrusted bra by Victoria Secrets for $10,000,000, a night in the imperial suite at President Wilson Hotel in Geneva for  £20,800,  or a cute little pedigree German Shepard puppy for between £2,000-£15,000! Woof!

What do Celebrities buy one another?

When it comes to expensive Valentines gestures then take a look at how the celebs do it.  Before they were married Katy Perry bought Russell Brand a Lilac Bentley Brookland for around $341,000 and when Courtney Cox was married to David Arguette she gave him a carousel horse costing around $630,000 and George Clooney treated his then girlfriend to a romantic $40,000 hotel suite.

But does money buy you love and happiness?  Based on these examples, no.  Brand and Perry split this year, Cox and Arguette split in 2010 and Clooney and Larson went their separate ways in 2008.  Maybe best to stick to flowers and chocolate!

So there you have it... Next time you leave it till the last minute to buy your nearest and dearest a Valentines Day card from the local garage with a bunch of manky old flowers remember that you're potentially disrespecting 100's years of tradition. Not to mention the Little Love Bot.

Sources: BBC, CBNC, The Telegraph, Professional Florists UK, Office of National Statistics, British Musuem, www.history.com, In style, www.celebs.com. Forbes, www.conservatree.org, Daily Mail

As the winter draws in (wasn't it summer like 3 days ago??) then there's not a lot better on a Saturday night, than popping open a bottle of vino, snuggling up on the sofa with your slanket and Giant slipper and popping on the Factor. Splendid!!

The only thing that enhances this already 'delightful' experience is the possibility that you're going to win a pretty packet on the eventual winner and thus a super-dooper X factor Sweep Stake is required. But where to find one? (Oh the suspense!!!)...

Evidently our designer was a little bored on Friday morning ... erm... The marketing team, rather than driving copious amounts of sales to the website felt that an X Factor Sweepstake kit was required and before you could say 'wibble' Laura in Design had knocked up this impressive sweepstake kit.

....Ta daaaaa!

For those of your who are not 'au fait' with the ways of the Sweepstakes they are as easy as pie! All you need do is:

1. Print out the attached PDF.
2. Cut up the squares with peoples names on.
3. Fold them up.
4. Put them in a cup or some similar storage device (hat, bowl or any other recepticle is fine).
5. Allow interested parties  - be it family members, colleagues, friends - whoever. You decide! (Ed - wrong programme - that's Big Bro!) to pick their name from the recepticle.
6. Make sure you collect the pre-determined monetary denomination from each entrant. Don't do IOU's. It gets messy!
7. Jot down the entrants name next to the contestants name that correlate with their selection from the afore mentioned recepticle.
8. Each week - when one of the contestants is 'booted off' the show then cross that person off the list.
9. On the final week you'll be left with 2 or 3 finalists and the suspense will be...well...unbearable!
10. When the winner is announced hand over the dosh to the person who picked out the winners name (point 5).
11. Simples!

So there you have it guys. My money is on Janet or the Two Essex girls. Unfortunately I picked out Kitty from the PB.HQ Sweepstake, so I'm guessing that was a waste of £1.

Oh well, there's always the Strictly sweepstake...

Are you planning to do your Christmas shopping online this year?

If not then you bloomin well should be!!! Obviously we've got a vested interest in encouraging people to get out their lap tops as opposed to donning their overcoats but we need more than just ghusto. We need good hard evidence. So, we tasked super statto - Amanda - to look into the effects on your ticker, your wallet and the World in general of high street shopping and she came back with some pretty alarming stats which you can see below...

Health Impact

When it comes to the stress caused by high street Christmas shopping, it can have a very real impact on your health. Here's some alarming stats:

• 50% of shoppers experience an increase in blood pressure that can be classed as dangerous. According to NHS Direct blood pressure levels of 140/90mmHg are classed as high so beware!
• 10%  of shoppers increase in heart rate.
• 47% of shoppers suffer from headaches.
• More likely to come into contact with cold and flu germs

It gets worse!

According to NHS Direct numerous injuries incurred during Christmas shopping include cuts from packaging, strains and sprains from carrying heavy bags and bruises from other shoppers, whilst a women had her arm broken at a Toys R Us store in the US after being trampled by other shoppers during post Thanks Giving sales (www.angelfire.com).

So, has anyone actually died Christmas Shopping?

Unfortunately YES!

A 75 year old women died in Oxford in 2008 after being knocked to the ground while Christmas shopping (Daily Mail), whilst in the US in 2008 several people were trampled to death by eager shoppers in shopping malls (ABC news).

The Weather

If the potential of getting seriously injured is not bad enough there's the cold weather to contend with as well...

Last Christmas snowfall increased in 2010 by 45% on 2009 at an average snowfall of 8.4cm throughout the entire country (NOAA)! 76cm of snow fell in the Peak District on 1st Dec 2010 and snow fell on 12 days between 1st Dec and Christmas Day.

whilst the average maximum temperature was a paltry 4.5 degrees centigrade and minimum of -1.2oC (Met Office). In fact, 2010 was the coldest December for 120years! The maximum temperature in Dec was 12C, whilst the lowest was -21.3C, with a shocking average temperature of -0.6C. The temperature fell below -18C on 10 nights. Brrrr!

Strangely enough 7 out of 10 people say online Christmas shopping is more relaxing than the high street. Go figure!

Stress

So, what is it about Christmas shopping that people find stressful?

In short this is pretty obvious (but we've made a nice graphic for it anyway!). Things that people find stressful are:

1. Crowds
2. Queues
3. Not knowing what to buy
4. The cost
5. Not finding what you want. Grrrrr.

With all this "stressfulness" people become agitated and then bad things tend to happen!

A Walmart worker died during Black Friday in 2008 whilst 2 men were shot at ToysRus in California during the same 'festive' season (CNN News). Thankfully there were no deaths in 2009 but there were a number of stabbings whilst at a Memphis store shoppers threatened queue jumpers with tazers and pepper spray (consumerist.com). Last year 7 people died, one of whom was a man stabbed by a fellow shopper to prevent him buying the last Xbox 360, whilst another was a women bludgeoned to death for a doll (www.uncoeror.com).

Don't believe us? Check out some of the links on Youtube here and here which aptly demonstrate the madness!!!

Whatever happened to 'Goodwill to all men'?

Wealth Impact

If you compare the cost of doing your Christmas shopping on the High Street compared to Online, it would look something like this:

The High Street

Petrol - The average cost of fuel is 133.8ppl Unleaded(AA). The average journey in to a town is 12 miles – so this is going to cost £2.09 each way in petrol. Cost = £4.18.

Parking in city centre for 6 hours  = £7.50

Refreshments e.g. coffee = £2.80

Lunch - sandwich, crisps and drink = £3.30-£6.05

Total = £17.78 - £19.53

Online

Delivery Charge = £4.00 average

Refreshments e.g. coffee = £0.23

Lunch - sandwich,  crisps and drink = £1.80-£2.00

Total = £6.03-£6.23

Plus products are on average 15-20% cheaper online and sometimes even 50% cheaper and it's easier to compare prices.

But what does this mean in real terms?

Savings would be £13.30 per person, which are gargantuan £812 million based on the adult population of the UK which could buy 17,500 units to house the homeless or could pay the salary of 37,600 newly qualified teachers for a year, or if the mood take you 10 Cristiano Ronaldo's!

Environmental Impact

Every year we throw away 100,00 tonnes of carrier bags. This is the equivalent weight of 14,285 male adult elephants (each weigh a splendid 7 tonnes) or 500 Boeing 747s (which come in at a huge 200 tonnes each).

There is an 18% increase in carrier bag usage at Christmas compared to the rest of the year.

Traffic pollution increases in the run up to Christmas due to increase use of cars and increased journey times due to congestion. The average emissions per 12 mile journey is a huge 0.01 tonnes of CO2 based on average petrol car! (www.carbonfootprint.com)

Time Factor

You'll also save time shopping online.

The average time online shopping in total is 6 hours (ISACA), whilst shopping on the high street on average time is 3 times this at 18 hours over several trips. The average length of 1 shopping trip according to a recent John Lewis Christmas Survey is 3 hours. Online shopping therefore equates to 840hrs time saving per shopper per lifetime which they could spend flying to New York and back 60 times, Cycling from Land’s End to John o’Groats and back with a few days spare. Alternatively you could read War and Peace (twice), or watch all the James Bond, Harry Potter, Lord of Rings and Star Wars films 9 times each!!!

Conclusion

So there you have it folks. Conclusive proof that it is detrimental to your health, wealth and the environment if you shop on the High Street this Christmas. We suggest you stop it pronto!

Disclaimer: Prezzybox disclaims any inaccuracies in the content contained in this blog post/release. Our analyst spent days and days toiling over the content and to the best of our knowledge it is all correct. If it’s not then you have our humbug apologies!

Sources used include www.BBC.com, www.NHSdirect.com, Daily Mail, ABC News, CNN US, www.carbonfootprint.com, ISACA, Met Office, www.boeing.co.uk, The AA, UK Crime Stats, www.consumerist.com, www.angelfire.com, www.prnewswire.co.uk.

OK. So, last Christmas, Prezzybox embarked on the production and launch of our first ever TV advert.

It  evoked emotions from total excitement through to one which had us totally papping it.

At this point I have to point out .... We had ZERO experience in making a TV advert. None. nada. zip...

This apparent lack of knowledge was exacerbated by the fact that there is no independent body which gave noobies like us a guide to producing & launching an advert. Was this a conspiracy by TV companies to keep 'telly ad's' the play thing of a select few marketeers?

If this was the case then fear not people as we have therefore taken it upon ourselves to produce a super-dooper guide to making your  TV advert.

Why do a TV advert?

Having traded for 10 years online (read about Prezzybox through the ages here) we've pretty much exhausted all of the online avenues of promotion. From SEO, PPC, Affiliates and Partnership promotions - we've done the lot! We therefore wanted to chance our arm at something a little different, totally out of our comfort zone. "Let's do a TV advert" shouted one over-enthusiastic member of the team and before we had time to say "diddle" we'd embarked on the journey of getting our name out there in lights on the big screen.

If you're in the same boat and are looking to make an advert following these 5 simple steps will REALLY help!

Step One - The Budget (Can We Afford it???)

Pretty obvious question but it soon became apparent that we had no idea how much it was going to cost us. Good start! However we quickly found an organisation called Thinkbox who are the marketing body for commercial TV who became a great contact. In short, it was evident that you could spend anywhere from thousands to millions of pounds. Expenditure is split into 2:

• The production of the advert

Having worked with Company Grrrr! initially (see bottom of the page) we had a ball park figure for the production of an advert and having spoke to others were confident that we could produce an advert for around the £10K mark. This was cheaper than we expected. Smashing!

• The booking of the media space

Media space is not sold in adverts, it is sold in TVR's (Television Viewing Ratings). So - it's not as simple as saying "we want to have 200 adverts on Channel X".

TVR's measure the popularity of a programme or advert by comparing the number of target audience viewers who watched against the total available as a whole. One TVR is equivalent to 1% of a target audience. If an ad in Coronation Street gets a Housewives TVR of 20, that means that 20% of all Housewives viewed the ad. We calculated that we could afford 13 TVR's which would mean that over the 16 day period approximately 13 million people would see the advert for £20K.

The more popular the programme the more TVR's it has and vice versa. So - if you want your advert to appear lots of times you need to choose programmes/channels which are less popular.

Another point to consider is whether or not you can get contributions from suppliers. In return for you featuring their product they may be prepared to contribute financially or give stock for free.

Total Cost - Approximately £30K

With supplier contribution/a decent ROI we could afford it - just! On to step two...

Step Two - Producing the Advert

The production of the advert is determining everything from the concept, through to the script, the visuals and the key message you are trying to get across. As the advert was focussed on Christmas and alongside the fact that we sell gifts for everyone we wanted to ensure that this message was put across. Simples!

My first piece of advice when making an advert is to allow yourselves plenty of time. After the near disaster of working with company Grrrr!, we had less than a month to plan, execute and deliver the advert. Not good.

Luckily we found ourselves an awesome production company called PMA Digital, who held our hand through the whole process.  A company like PMA Digital are worth their weight in gold.

As we only had around 3 weeks to get the advert produced and over to the TV stations, PMA recommended that we made it completely CGI with no actors and made it completely product focussed. We agreed and thus it was go go go!

The Making of the Advert

PMA very quickly put together a story board which we loved. The concept was fairly simple - to show products being wrapped, and then transported by a crane to sit under a Christmas tree with loads of other Christmas gifts accompanied by the dulcet tones of a sexy voice over artist. We wanted to look classy al 'a John Lewis/Marks & Spencer as opposed to some cheap brand.

Here's one of the early perspectives (showing a product coming out the ground ready to be wrapped) which really whetted our appetite!

Whilst that was going on, we'd negotiated contributions from 10 lovely suppliers to help pay for the advert. BOOM! In return we agreed to feature their products on the advert which would go out to over 13 million people.

The advert was going to focus on the gifts that we sold, getting across the fact that we had a wide range of products. Something for everybody.

Our involvement in the production of the advert was minimal.  All we needed to do is send PMA the products for them to photograph and then give the thumbs up to various aspects of the ad - be it the voice over artist, the music and the script.

For example here's a version of the logo which PMA had made to look all snazzy and 3D. We really felt things were happening!

From here, PMA went about putting more "meat on the bones" and actually mocking up the ad in stills so we could see what it looked like visually. Here's a number of examples:

and...

and...

Woweee!!!

Advert Draft 1

Finally we had the advert first draft. Meggggaaaaa exciting - all we needed now was the voice over.

Selecting the Voice Over Artist

This once more was done in conjunction with PMA (there's a common thread here!). Finally we whittled it down to 2... Did we go for the sexy girl voice or the masculine fella.... Here's the 2 artists we had to choose between. You can click on each to have a listen (but please be aware they are nowhere near as devilishly handsome in real life).

We had to opt for the sexy chic didn't we???

Music

We'd opted not to have a jingle (maybe a bit too tacky) so the music was important. We'd whittled it down to a shortlist which you can hear clicking on the image below. Pretty snazzy eh!

Finally we had an advert

After what was literally no more than 3 weeks we had a Christmas advert. Wow! We'd grown from a company selling gifts from a bedroom in a house to a company that had a TV advert. A proud moment. We think you'll agree the advert is an absolute belter!!!!

Step Three - Media Planning

The 3rd step to consider is the Media Planning. Where and when you want to air the advert.

You obviously need to consider the demographic you are hoping reach as well as time you want the advert to go out. Adverts in the middle of the night are dirt cheap, but I'm guessing not that many people of your chosen demographic will see it. ITV 1 will have a lot more viewers than the Biography channel, but this will eat in to your TVR's.

Other useful points to consider are the fact that channels with a +1 actually count as showing another advert (it's one out of your allocation) and you may also want to avoid programmes which don't sit well with your brand - generally those about death!

We found another awesome company to work with called Village Green. Village Green handled all of our media buying and dealt with everything from which channels would work best for us, which times/programmes to avoid and generally where to air the advert.

Step Four - Legalities

Obviously there's a whole raft of legalities which need to be adhered to. Clearcast are the organisation who approve the advert and you need to liaise closely with them. They provide a 'Six Step guide to getting your ad on the air' which is really good to read and gives a good guide to all of the points you need to adhere to. Your script needs to be accurate (we had to say "sponsor" a meerkat as opposed to "adopting one" as technically one doesn't come to live with you, for example) and there are certain rules which need to be followed, such as putting the price on products over £30 and getting the brand owners permission to display licenced products.

Step Five - Analysis

Being a cyber-geek this (and having to answer to the rest of the Directors) this was the most important aspect of the advert - namely DID IT PAY?

Being an online retailer we can track EVERYTHING we do online. We can see where a visitor comes to the site from, how they navigate through the site, which pages they visit and how much they spend. We can therefore attribute sales to certain marketing channels and determine how succesfully they are performing and what the ROI is for each channel. This is perfect as it allows us to focus on the marketing areas which are proving to be most profitable.

This however is not the case with offline marketing. As it was our biggest ever marketing promotion we therefore needed to devise a plan of action which would enable us to analyse the ROI from the advert. We did this in 3 ways:

• Real Time Analytics

As we knew to the minute the time that each advert was aired, we could analyse real time tracking to see what impact the advert had on visitor figures. We used a software called Chartbeat which enabled us to watch people visiting the website.

Findings

Very often the visitor levels would rise between 33% and 50% as the advert was being aired. This increased customer level would then last for a period of approximately 30 minutes.

• Site-wide Sales uplift immediately after each advert

We knew the exact time each advert was aired. So, we devised a plan to examine sales 30 minutes before each advert, 30 minutes after each advert and then the 30 minutes after this (our analyst LOVED us for this!). From this information we could determine the uplift for 30 minutes after each ad was aired and plot it against the previous/subsequent 30 minutes. From this we compiled an average uplift, which we could pretty confidently attribute to the airing of the advert.

Findings

• Sales of the specific products on the advert

We couldn't differentiate sales of the products driven by the advert against those not generated by the advert. However, not to be defeated we monitored the sales of specific products on the ad, to see which ones proved the most popular. This would help to determine which products we used for future adverts.

Findings

It's apparent from the chart that the newer and more unique products proved to be the more popular with 3 of them accounting for 71% of product sales attributed to the advert.

This is confirmed when you look at the graph below detailing the top 20 sales on the site. 3 of the products featured in the advert appeared in our top 20 (highlighted in red) which is really pleasing. Please note we've removed the product titles/figures to stop our naughty competitors finding out what sells best

Conclusion

So, there you have it folks, our super-dooper guide to producing your first TV advert. If you're looking to produce your first TV advert and don't know where to start, then you really should have a look at our starter guide. It will help a lot.

Would we do it again? Well, that really is the $64m question... Answers on a postcard.

Toodle pip.

Zak.

* How it nearly went oh so wrong...

We started on this advertising merry-go-round as we'd been approached by a company who I'll refer to 'Company Grrrr!' about helping us produce and promote the advert. Their concept was simple. Because they have a 'relationship' with lots of Sky TV channels they would "make us an advert for  £14,000 and give us 50 free adverts tabutt. A match made in heaven we thought. Not so!

Company Grrrr! on the outset seemed like the perfect partners. They were going to make us a TV advert for the price of a small hatchback car and give us 50 adverts for free. They seemed unconcerned that there was little over a month till the advert was due to air (the start of December) as they "had done things on a quick turnaround many a time before".

Having signed the contract and booking more media space through another company we went to visit Company Grrrr! on the 4th November (advert was going live on 4th December so it was cutting it fine) full of excitement at the prospect of seeing concepts/story boards etc.

Alarm bells started ringing when we got to their offices and they were totally ill prepared. Not only did they keep calling us 'PRESENTbox', but their only concept was to have somebody infront of a green screen using our gadgets. Storyboards and other ideas were none existent!

After a 5 hour meeting we left feeling totally shaken and annoyed withourselves that we'd signed a contract with a company who quite clearly had no idea what they were doing. We had also booked some media space with another company so we had no option to call it off. Eeeeeek!

Adamant that we were not going to work with Company Grrrr! we either had to find somebody else to produce the advert or write off the deposit we had paid for the media space - not chuffin likely! Luckily we met PMA Digital and the rest is history...

Wow, where does the time go?  There are only 19 days left until Christmas and looking out of the windows at Prezzybox HQ is certainly looks very Christmassy outside.  While it all looks very pretty and magical, it's not that pleasant being out in it, with temperatures here struggling to get above freezing.

Many thought we'd seen the last of the sub-zero temperatures as things began to warm up at the weekend, but weathermen are warning that the freezing weather is back and could last for another two weeks.  Parts of Yorkshire experienced temperatures of -18c last night, with even the capital seeing a low of -3C.

While us adults are all bemoaning the situation, children are making the most of the snow, with many enjoying a few extra days off school by sledging, snowball fighting and building snowmen.

Many city centres now have traditional Christmas markets set up, where you can buy craft items and Christmas food stuffs as well as mulled wine.  With the snow on the roofs of the wooden huts, you really could think you're at a Christmas market in Germany or similar.  Some Christmas markets, for example Nottingham, also incorporate an outdoor ice rink which is proving very popular.

Many will have planned to do their Christmas shopping this weekend just gone, but will either have  been put off by the weather, or physically unble to reach the shops.  With only 2 weekends left until Christmas day, many will now find they're pushed for time to complete the buying of their Christmas gifts, unless of course they opt for doing it all online.

Until next time,

Amanda xx.

With frost on the ground this morning and hearing my first Christmas song of the year, it can mean only one thing Christmas is well and truly on the way.

The Christmas number one has become the most anticipated chart position of the year, but in recent years has become predictable.  Although a Facebook campaign last year to get Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name  to the top position broke the run of Christmas number one's spawned from TV talent shows like The X Factor.

The first ever Christmas number one was Al Martino with Here in My Heart when the chart started in 1952.  The Beatles hold the record for the most Christmas number ones with four; I Want to Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine, Daytripper/We Can Work It Out and Hello,Goodbye.  Paul McCartney also went on to achieve three further Xmas number ones with Wings, Band Aid and Band Aid 20.  In the 90's the Spice Girls came close to equalling the Beatle's record when they achieved three Christmas number ones, but never managed the fourth.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is the only single to hit the Christmas number one spot twice, once in 1975 and again in 1991.  Although Mary's Boy Child did achieve this feat, but with two unrelated artists, Harry Balafonte in 1957 and Boney M in 1978.

The Christmas number one spot has also seen its' share of novelty singles, who can forget Mr Blobby by Mr Blobby in 1993, which I'm sure made up many stocking fillers  and Bob the Builder's Can We Fix It in 2000.

Surprisingly many of our now classic Christmas songs only made it to the Christmas number two spot.  Wham's Last Christmas was piped to the number one spot by Band Aid's charity single in 1984, The Pogues Fairytale of New York lost out in 1987 to Always on My Mind by the Pet Shop Boys and East 17's Stay Another Day kept Mariah Carey's All I want For Christmas Is You off the top spot in 1994.

Undoubtably the most iconic Christmas song  and also the best selling single of all time is Bing Crosby's White Christmas, but since it was released in 1942 before the advent of the UK chart it was never Christmas number one here.  Although it did spend eleven weeks at the top of the US Billboard charts in 1942 and reappeared annually in the top 20 until Billboard Magazine created a separate Christmas chart.

Will things revert to form this year with The X Factor winner scooping the number one spot or will another anti-corporate compaign as seen on Facebook last year up-set Simon Cowell's bid for world domination?

I'm off to dig out my CD of Greatest Christmas songs ever to listen to while eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine,

Amanda xx

Why not take a December theatre break in London this winter?  Booking a London theatre break gives you the opportunity to enjoy London at its' festive best before or after you've taken in a West End show.  There's no better way to get in the party spirit than a visit to one of the city's big musicals.

London theatre breaks usually include tickets to the West End show of your choice and an overnight hotel stay, giving you plenty of time to explore the capital.  Best of all, you'll make a considerable saving on the cost of your hotel room and theatre tickets.

To help you plan your December theatre break, here are a few of the best events going on in London this year.

The great Christmas Pudding Race 2010

London's wackiest race has been held in Covent Garden every December since 1980.  Teams representing schools, companies, or organisations race around a 150-metre course balancing a traditional Christmas pudding on a paper plate, dodging foamy jets, flour bombs, and obstacles along the way.

To make things even more interesting, all contestants must run the course in full fancy dress.  Of course all this silliness is for a good cause, the race raises money for Cancer Research UK.

4th December 2010.

Christmas Spectacular at the O2

This year's Christmas Spectacular at the O2 is brought to you in association with the Daily Mail.  The evening of light displays, special effects, indoor fireworks, Christmas carols, and Christmas number ones would make a great night out for all the family.  Better still, live music will be provided by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with appearances from Rhydian Roberts and Ruthie Henshall.

Wynne Evans, Alison Jiear, The Royal Choral Society and Capital Voices will also be making apperances.  For a real bargin, try booking  tickets for the Christmas Spectacular at the O2 as part of a hotel and theatre break with Show and Stay.

23rd December 2010

Ice Skating at the Natural History Museum

There are plentyof places to ice skate in London in winter, but who wouldn't want to strap their skates on knowing that there are dinosaurs right behind them?  The main rink at the Natural History Museum is 1,000 square metres with a separate junior and baby rink with ice marshal on hand to keep an eye on things.

There is also a viewing platform and cafe bar so parents and non-skaters can watch their loved ones on the rink while enjoying a hot coffee.

5th November 2010-17th January 2011, 08:45-22:00

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park

The biggest and best Winter fair in London, Winter Wonderland is a must visit for anyone who has embraced the Christmas spirit.  It's a one stop shop for all your Christmas needs; pick up gifts at the German Christmas Market, grab a bite to eat and a soothing hot chocolate at one of the many food stalls, and let your inner child run wild at the festive fun fair.

This year's Winter Wonderland will also feature a special circus inside a heated big top, making it an unmissable Christmas event for couples, families and friends.

Santa's Grotto at Harrods

This Christmas take the kids to visit posh Santa at his famous grotto at the world famous Harrods department store.  Kids can come face-to-face with jolly old St. Nick, give him their Christmas lists, and they'll even get a special present to remember their meeting by.

After the kids have spent some time with Santa, be sure to explore Harrods thoroughly.  Their incredible range of luxury Chrismas gifts and hampers make very special festive treats for friends or loved ones.

I'm Chelsie.

I go to The Polesworth School and I am in year 10. For the past two weeks I have been doing my mandatory work experience and for my second week, I chose to come to PB HQ.

Today is my last day, so I decided to write a blog post telling everyone about how great my time here has been! I love it here. They've been getting me to do all sorts, such as writing press releases, editing bits 'n' bobs of their microsites, writing news articles and reviewing some of their brilliant products. I only had to make one cup of tea for Zak, the bossman. 

My favourite product that I have seen on their website has to be the Sneakskin trainer customisation art pack. It comes in all sorts of funky designs. They gave me a sample of this to review, you should check it out! Just click here.

I would highly recommend www.prezzybox.com HQ as a work experience placement because the team are a lovely bunch and have made me feel really welcome. I feel like I have been useful here too rather than just getting in the way like at some other placements.

We hope you are well and have been enjoying the sunshine! Here at Prezzybox we have a very exciting competition for you. How do you fancy winning a holiday to the USA for two lucky people?

This exciting  7 night prize takes in the sights of Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland and the lucky winners will also enjoy fully inclusive hire of a 4-door compact size car for the duration.

This sure is a once in a lifetime competition prize with the lucky winners visiting 3 of America's most historic destinations.

To win this amazing prize simply enter your details by visiting our competition page.

Good luck!!

The clocks go back on Sunday and with it comes the countdown to Christmas! I hope you're getting yourself ready.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet, there are a couple more celebrations to be had before the winter months. Halloween's coming up next week and if you haven't entered our competition already, go ahead and do it now!

There's also Divali coming up quite soon, and for those Jewish folk among us, there's Hanukah. We'd love to know what you're celebrating and how you're celebrating it!

Now, as a lot of you will know, there is a nationwide postal strike going on. Let us re-assure you now that the strike shouldn't affect most of the orders made at Prezzybox.

If you want to find out more information about what we're doing to make sure you get your gifts on time this year, and if you'll be affected, click on the button below.

We're committed to making your holidays fantastic, and we'd love to hear about your celebrations! Send us a comment and let us know what you're up to.

Lastly, as its Friday, here's a video to put a smile on your face. It's the latest offering from Improv Everywhere, enjoy...

Until Next Week...

Kat x