Christmas 09 Let's Get Organised!!

stokegal

Thanks for all your suggestions Lucy - you can do all my shopping from now on, lol. Thanks

Just to let everyone know - I did a chocolate fountain hamper a couple of years ago with a chocolate fountain, chocolate, fruit and marshmallows - it went down a treat. I have just been in Home Bargains and they have Morphy Richards Chocolate Fountains in there for £9.99 - that's the cheapest I've seen them any (aside from a Simpson one for £9.99 in B & M)

moosetastic

I'm loving these Xmas threads in the forum at the moment, getting some real inspiration for this xmas already.

Thought this might help everyone - article on Yahoo about Selfridges starting to sell their Xmas range from today!!!!
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090808/tuk-yule-what-selfridges-launches-xmas-r-45dbed5.html

stokegal

I'm loving the Christmas range being in Selfridges, hating it being in London only though, they really would be called to take me away in a white jacket if I travelled all the way down from Stoke to London for Christmas decorations :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ang2664

Hi
I am loving this thread, I have taken about a week to read it all. I love Christmas and do start thinking about it and buying things about now but I am nowhere near as organised as lots of you are on here. I have loved this and have got some great ideas. I was already thinking aobut doing hampers for some people so have got lots more inspiration now. Definately going to do some snowman soup and pots of gold for people - I have already ordered (and received) coned bags for the soup!

My DD is 6 now and we have already lots of family traditions - some from my family, some from DHs and some of our own making and I love it. We now have DS (born april) and I am looking forward to inculding him in them all. When DD is getting a bit too old for some things (and I will be heartbroken when that happens:sad:) I am hoping she will enjoy helping me keep it alive for her little brother and therefore she will enjoy it for longer that way too.

We do the reindeer food, milk, cookie etc and make it as special as possible. We have most presents delivered by santa (by key, no chimney) but I always want to make sure DD understands that people buy presents and they cost money... so... we say that people buy presents and send them to santa and he delivers them. Santa and his elves also make extra presents that he brings for her, the special ones that she asks for. Sometimes people bring presents to the house and that is fine because they have just decided they want to see her while she opens the present or haven't had time to post it to santa. She just seems to accept this as normal. I actually think she thinks that santa and the elves make the toys that are in the shops all year round anyway .

I am so excited about getting organised this year and plan to start really soon, but my days keep disappearing at the moment. DD goes back to school in a week so perhaps then when it just me and DS i will have a little more time.

Keep the ideas coming, I'm loving it.

:rudolf::xmastree::xmassign:

stokegal

Hey everyone :hello:

I hope everyone is enjoying the sun this weekend, It's funny to think I've been doing my Christmas shopping whilst the sun is shining in the middle of August.

I'm feeling super organised at the moment. I have finished 5 people now!!! I've set my to be done by date as of the 4th October, as that's when I go back to work after my maternity leave. Ideally I'd like to do have finished before I go away on the 10th September but I have a feeling that won't happen. (This doesn't include OH or DS as they are both nightmares to shop for and to make it worse - it's both of their birthdays in January too, DS was born on OH's birthday - he wasn't pleased - he doesn't like to share :rotfl::rotfl:)

Thanks to everyones great suggestions I almost know what I'm getting everyone now and it's just a case of trying to find it!!!

So I'm on the hunt for...

Opium Perfume
A bowl for Nuts
A Nut Cracker (Just to make my nan feel posh :rotfl::rotfl:)
A fruit bowl (I've seen this one but it's out of stock)
2 x Set of gold Studs (My nieces have just had their ears pierced aged 6 & 7)
A nice bottle of German White Wine
A Cheese Board & Cheese Knife
Dressing Gown - Woman (size 16/18)
Slippers - Woman
Bags for Snowman Soup
Mega Bloks for a 1 year old (Cheapest I've seen is £14 from Tesco Direct for 80)

Oh and this isn't anything to do with Christmas but it made me smile lots anyway.... My little boy crawled for the first time yesterday :j:j:j

Lucy_Lu_4

stokegal wrote: »

Hey everyone :hello:

I hope everyone is enjoying the sun this weekend, It's funny to think I've been doing my Christmas shopping whilst the sun is shining in the middle of August.

I'm feeling super organised at the moment. I have finished 5 people now!!! I've set my to be done by date as of the 4th October, as that's when I go back to work after my maternity leave. Ideally I'd like to do have finished before I go away on the 10th September but I have a feeling that won't happen. (This doesn't include OH or DS as they are both nightmares to shop for and to make it worse - it's both of their birthdays in January too, DS was born on OH's birthday - he wasn't pleased - he doesn't like to share :rotfl::rotfl:)

Thanks to everyones great suggestions I almost know what I'm getting everyone now and it's just a case of trying to find it!!!

So I'm on the hunt for...

Opium Perfume
A bowl for Nuts
A Nut Cracker (Just to make my nan feel posh :rotfl::rotfl:)
A fruit bowl (I've seen this one but it's out of stock)
2 x Set of gold Studs (My nieces have just had their ears pierced aged 6 & 7)
A nice bottle of German White Wine
A Cheese Board & Cheese Knife
Dressing Gown - Woman (size 16/18)
Slippers - Woman
Bags for Snowman Soup
Mega Bloks for a 1 year old (Cheapest I've seen is £14 from Tesco Direct for 80)

Oh and this isn't anything to do with Christmas but it made me smile lots anyway.... My little boy crawled for the first time yesterday :j:j:j

Stokegal,

I get my perfume from halfpriceperfumes.co.uk as everything is always cheaper than in the shops. Is this the one you are after? It is £30 reduced from £50. If it is, be quick as it's a collector's edition and there are only three left in stock: http://www.halfpriceperfumes.co.uk/fragrance-1/fragrance-for-her-17/yves-saint-laurent-opium-50ml-edt-legendes-de-chine-3000.html

Lidl's do German food and drink, might be worth looking there for the bottle of wine?

Primark do lovely soft fleecey dressing gowns, maybe worth looking there and also for the slippers?

Well done on finishing five people's presents and what a big milestone that your little boy started crawling!

Lucy_Lu_4

For girly/pamper hampers (few bits reduced for men)

£1 cosmetics - http://www.halfpriceperfumes.co.uk/cosmetics-142/1-cosmetics-164/

£2 cosmetics - http://www.halfpriceperfumes.co.uk/cosmetics-142/2-cosmetics-225/

£5 cosmetics - http://www.halfpriceperfumes.co.uk/cosmetics-142/5-cosmetics-235/

They are all named brands so people will think you've spent a fortune! Very good cutsomer service and quick delivery.

helyg

OK, this isn't strictly Christmas it's for a just-before-Christmas birthday... but I was thinking of making my friend a pair of lavender bags to hang in her wardrobe/on a door. I would make them out of red gingham fabric, sewn into little sacks with a white fabric panel with a cross stitched heart design on the front, then tied with some nice ribbon. Do you think this would make a nice pressie? I can't afford to spend a fortune, and tend to always fall back on the same bottle of wine/smellies gift, so I thought that this would be something nice and a bit more personal? She is having a homemade foodie basket for Christmas so I don't want to do her a basket for her birthday as well.

What do you think?

curlylou1986

Hey, hope you are all doing ok toady!
it has been nice sunny day but i have been in the christamssy mood like you all do too! )
i went in my local town and got some good bits in Wilko's and QD's.

they do their own make up wipes - two packs for 99p, which are good as fills two hampers.
they have lots of school bits too - folders note pads, etc all really cheap! got a a5 plastic envelope with butterflies on it which is going to come in very handy as my and my boyfriend are off to disney paris in november (whoop!) :jso good to fit in the suitcase for the letters etc.

they also had some nice canvas and water colour tubes of paints - def be good for some of your stocking fillers for the slightly older little ones, nearly everything had at least £1 off of it!

Wilkos also had a party pack of pirate bits - eye patches, pirate notes, flags, rolled up treasure map - was enough in there for 8 people and was £2.99....thought come in handy for the childrens pots of gold that some of you are making up )

Got some 'cheap' perfumne in QD's - its all cheap copies, but the bottles and smells are like the proper ones even the boxes have a simular style! only 99p so its a little stocking filler, but i got a cool water one (which was called cool wave) sexy 212 (which is called hot 4U) and a farenhite one (called centigrade) lol!
They are going to be good for my hampers/stockings!

Claire_Bear

Good to hear you're all cracking on with Christmas stuff, I've ground to a halt in the past few weeks due to being skint and too busy packing up our house. However, I did find this cross stitch pattern which I'm going to attempt to make for my boyfriend - http://www.spritestitch.com/?p=108 as he loves Mario games and retro consoles. I reckon if I start it soon I should have it finished in time as there's not really that many stitches, I just need to find some spare money to go and get the aida and threads now Thinking about it, there's really not that long to go! :j Going to buy a little notebook when I go into town tomorrow to write stuff down in, at the moment I have a word document which is a bit all over the place.

Lucy Lu - it's lovely to hear about your little boy, I bet you're so proud

Curlylou - I am totally jealous to hear you're going to Disneyland, I've been twice before and it's totally amazing! Can I hide away in your suitcase? :rotfl: