Just in time for Christmas Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick are back with a festive DVD from Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! will be released tomorrow December 14th, and we were lucky enough to be among the very first people to see it because we have been sent a copy for review...


Pip Ahoy! is created by the people who brought us Count Duckula, Chorlton & The Wheelies and Jamie & The Magic Torch, and a character that David Jason made famous, Dangermouse. Christmas Ahoy! also features the voice talent of Sir David Jason as a handful of the friendly animal characters living in Salty Cove, including Pip's Uncle, Skipper.

Oven Pride challenged me to cook a full Christmas dinner, then clean my oven using the Oven Pride Complete Cleaning System and cook another pretty much identical Christmas dinner and see if I could spot any difference. We ate our dinners two days apart so that we could really give an honest impression.

To take part in the challenge you had to have not cleaned your oven in 3 months....well...ahem....in my defence I had a hernia and a big operation, and lots of other stuff happened, so it may have been a smidgen longer than that...


The fact is that cleaning the oven is a job we all choose to put off. It seems dirty and stinky, and very hard work, and while it still works and there are a million other things to do, it doesn't seem top of the list.

Enterprising Child is written by Lorraine Allman with Mary Cummings. It is a book which aims to help parents develop their child's entrepreneurial potential.

Entrepreneurial potential is seen not only as a route to monetary wealth or business success, but also as a route to reach your full potential in other areas, by using the child's natural ability and interest to take them further in other aspects of life.

Numskull are a UK company who make officially licensed merchandise based on Games, Movies and TV. With partners including Capcom, SEGA, Playstation, Disney, BBC, Ubisoft and Bethesda, they really do have something for the geek in all of us.


I pretty much jumped at the chance to review one of the jumpers Numskull are selling this Christmas. If you follow me on Instagram you'll know that in my spare time (if that exists) I've been playing Fallout 4. My partner and I were both gamers when we met, and when the kids are in bed, if we aren't watching movies, we're usually on the Playstation...

We've reviewed quite a lot of games from Esdevium recently, and the latest two they've sent for us to review are Disney Rummy (£17.99) and Disney Charades (£12.99). Two family games which can be played with your younger children, and still enjoyed by their Grandparents.


Disney Rummy is suitable for 2-4 players aged around 4+. It's a simplified version of the ever-popular card game Rummy, but in this version there are 2 ways to play, and instead of cards we have plastic tiles. The tiles are easier for children to manage, and instead of a pile, you lay the cards face down on the table.

Smart Ass is an incredibly easy-to-learn trivia board game from University Games. Suitable for 2 to 8 players aged around 12+ because of the difficulty of some of the questions, my teenagers were delighted when they saw we had been sent this to review because they had all played Smart Ass before and already knew they liked it!


Each player has a counter which you move along a pathway on the board until someone reaches the final space.

When it's your turn you roll a coloured dice to decide which question you will ask the rest of the players. The question cards are either Orange: Who am I?, Blue: What am I? or Green: Where am I?

This Christmas The Works are offering a huge range of Christmas gifts to suit everyone - priced at the very reasonable £7 each, or 2 for £10. They've sent me a selection to review, to find out if they really can please all of my lot for a fiver each.

I honestly expected a small box, so the giant one which arrived was a complete surprise! The contents were also a very pleasant shock - instantly they looked much better quality than I'd anticipated, and so much more for your £5 than I'd have believed.

The Book Of Everyone make lovely light-hearted keepsake books personalised with your choice of name, gender and date of birth for recipient, and you even give your name and relationship to them, so that the book is especially from you. Your book design can be completed in practically the time it takes to type those details.


As soon as I started making my book I was really impressed. It had far more pages than I expected, and they were witty and humorous, and actually very interesting to read. It's not a collection of blah facts you've read in crackers, it's intelligent and very nicely put together.

The Imaginary by A. F. Harrold is probably best described as a fantasy book best suited to children aged around 8+. A tale of imagination, loss and friendship, it poses the question 'what happens to our fantasies when we don't remember them any more?'


The central characters are Amanda and Rudger. No-one except Amanda can see Rudger, and he lives in her wardrobe, so I think it's fair to say he is imaginary, and Amanda has an excellent imagination.

But then one day a man called Mr Bunting comes to the door and he can see Rudger. This is when the plot starts to get exciting...

I haven't been to Z-arts before, but I had heard of it. A huge building in Manchester which plays host to a range of arts groups for families and children, with an aim to be accessible for all. Tickets to the show are only £6 for children.

We were invited to the initial showing of their latest production - Snow Queen - an updated version of the Hans Christian Anderson classic tale about friendship and perseverance and hope. It is a bit scary, so suitable for children of school age around 7+.


Brought into the modern day by Philip Osment and Director Jonathan McGrath, the Snow Queen steals away the young boy through his computer game screen, and it is his adopted foster-sister who comes to find and rescue him, meeting a range of puppets and characters along the way.