What Makes Your House Your Home? Share with MORE TH>N for a chance to win £300 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

<a class="break-all" href="http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=154105&a=896869&g=22957440&url=www.morethan.com/home-insurance" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MORE TH>N home insurance have asked us to find out what makes your house your home at Christmas.

Here's what they say: "with home insurance available for as little as £99# per year (excludes optional extras), we are proud to provide cover at Christmas time as well as all year long for thousands of households across the UK. When the unthinkable happens, aMORE TH>N Personal Project Manager can be by your side for big claims, to help you rebuild your home and your life##".

For more info on home insurance from MORE TH>N, please visit: <a class="break-all" href="http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=154105&a=896869&g=22957440&url=www.morethan.com/home-insurance" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">morethan.com/home-insurance

So what is it that makes your house your home this Christmas? Is it that roaring fire you and your family gather around on those cold winter evenings? Perhaps it’s the Christmas tree standing proud in the living room that you all helped to decorate?

Whatever makes your house your home this Christmas, MORE TH>N want to know. Share your thoughts and we'll enter you into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply. NB Promoter is Mumsnet.com. Closing Date 7 December 12noon

Based on 16% of direct new customers who bought our standard cover. MORE TH>N data Dec 14 - May 15.

86% of home claims over £10,000 had a Personal Project Manager. Excludes extreme weather events. Policy conditions apply. MORE TH>N data Mar - Aug 15.

Fire on in the living room, Christmas lights twinkling on the tree, some plush velvety throws so we can snuggle up...home-made mince pies served warm with a dollop of cream, luxury hot chocolate, maybe a scented candle on the hearth.
I love that feeling of shutting the front door and closing the blinds, then getting cosy and relaxed. Makes all the running around of the previous few weeks worthwhile.

My 'home' at Christmas is always my elderly Grandma's house and being there with her and the extended family is all I need.

Personalised stockings about the fireplace! And a house filled with people, that always makes it feel like home

for me Christmas at home starts when I start putting Christmas music on in the kitchen and listening to carols on the radio in the car

Real Xmas tree and outdoor lights to welcome us home

Quite simply my 3 children and my husband plus the animals

Kids arts and crafts they have made, pictures in walls dictating treasure memories of loved one s that are no longer with us and that still are, tiny people's toya scattered around the floor making it feel homey, scented candles, the smell of home cooking. A nice cosy throw and sounds of laughter x

My partner, my kids and my cat and dog... everything else can be replaced :)

Our lovely tree and all the mismatched, sentimental decorations collected over the years

Personalised stockings and cooking smells!

We moved into our new flat on the 16th December nearly two years ago. It was an ex-buy-to-let with magnolia walls and brown laminate floors throughout - clean and fresh but completely impersonal and felt more like a hotel or somewhere we were passing through rather than our home.

What finally made it our home was unpacking the last box which contained the Christmas tree and decorations. Sitting that evening with just the fairy lights on, it finally felt like we belonged there.

This winter's the first one we'll've had the wood burning stove, and that makes everything feel very cosy. In the run up to Christmas it'll be all the random decorations we've acquired over the years - nothing matches, there's no theme, but they're all there for a reason and make it very much home.

My family. And being able to shut the rest of the world out while we relax

The house I live in now is my home and the first time I have ever felt like that is here. It was a shell when I walked in with no plastering down and minus some floors. Myself and my boys have poured love into every room and it reflects our tastes.
To put things in context I never felt safe growing up as father particularly was abusive and I longed to escape. I fell pregnant as a teenager and moved around a lot..... Everything about me was unsettled.
I have come together was a person here. I have a job I love, great kids and I truly get that 'home is where the heart is' saying.....

Fairy lights around the window - soft lighting everywhere and the fire. Perfect.

We have a certain set of lights that was the first and only Christmas decoration we could afford when my partner and I first lived together and had just found out I was pregnant. Also a set of candles my partner lights every year for his mum who died when he was 18.

Fairy lights and blankets on the sofa and the kids cuddled up watching a film.

A lovely Roaring fire in a festively decorated fireplace. And lots and lots of Xmas nibbles bought specially to eat in front of it, while watching the tv and listening to silly Xmas songs and beautiful carols.

The atmosphere. People (+ cats and dog) all welcoming and positive.

I grew up in a tense family, and I particularly appreciate a relatively stress-free home now. Christmas decorations and music are good, but it's the lack of tension that makes it feel good to me.

Feeling comfortable here. I remember the first night we spent in this run down, damp and slightly ghostly house. It felt like a horror story. Now, nearly 4 years on, I walk in here and I feel completely comfortable. My children, cats, husband, shabby furniture and random bits that my children leave everywhere are all just perfect.

It's a home because we did it all ourselves from laying floors, painting making curtains etc.

Every part of it feels like it reflects 'us'

Coming inside on a cold day and snuggling up with the DCs and hot chocolate under soft blankets to watch a DVD

Cooking in the kitchen, filling winter stews and casseroles, all of us sitting down to eat together. Baking cakes and biscuits to share.

Homemade decorations and laughter

Christmas carols, mulled wine, sparkly lights and fever pitch excitement from the children.

My lovely children have turned the house into a home! But especially at Christmas - the excitement of putting the tree up with them decorated with all their random decorations they have made. Their school Christmas Plays and Carol Services at church. The laughter that rings out when we've arrived back from the panto on Christmas Eve. A cheeky mulled wine for Mummy once she's got them in bed... They fill my home and more so, my heart!

At Christmas, home decoration gets handed over to my DS(5) - He is allowed to decorate the tree and rooms as he wants to (with a little help). It is nice to see pictures that he has drawn and crafts that he has made and each year our collection grows and I get to reminisce when we start unpacking the boxes from the loft