New Thrifty Gifty - Organised for Christmas and all ocassions 2010- Santas Challenges

mum2one

Thought I'd give u all a laugh, Miss Hoodie has got her own bedroom in the caravan, after sleeping in their the 1st ngt as decided my double bed is better! I'm lay on the end of the bed, as she likes to sleep in the middle and is a dead weight to move! At 3am this morning, I heard Mum....Mum..... so I woke up, incase something was wrong, - no she was talking in her sleep.....
" Mum mum, can I take the caravan for a walk, how do I get a lead around it.... then she carried on rambling turned over and fell asleep" . When I asked her this morning she had no idea about it!! xx

NickyBo_2

mary-op wrote: »

Nicky -gravy tub ideas...........here's a few
Mini pamper pot if you've got any free samples
Pot of snowballs -cover with white paper-stick snowman on and fill with white maltezers/bon bons
Fill with bon bons and pop childs face mitt (christmassy one) childs size fits a treat
Cover with any paper and pop some socks inside
Pic 'n mix'........fill with little quotes and sweets
Fill with sherbert lemons, cover with images of sunshine and its a 'pot of sunshine'
Similar with mixed colour sweets and images of rainbow for 'pot of rainbows'
Cover with gold paper,fill with gold covered sweets for 'pot of gold'
Use them for 'survival kits'.......the joke sort (losing marbles etc.)

Thanks Mary, lots of good ideas there! I think I'm going to go with the pamper pot filled with free samples. My Mum loves getting bargains and is always amazed at the free samples I can find, so I'll make it for her. I think I'll cover it in some pretty paper, then attach a label saying something like 'the best things in life are free'. I'll then fill it with as many free samples as I can get between now and Christmas. I know my Mum would find it really funny

upsy-daisy_3

Evening all

Only just stumbled across this thread and hoped someone may be able to help me! Im making various hampers this year for family members, but im looking for cheapish wicker baskets and empty glass jars (to put home made cookies/sweets etc in made by me and my daughter) But struggling to find them at a half decent price! Any help appreciated!

Was also wondering if other people are making some of their own gifts and what your planning on making? Looking for inspiration!

Thank you
Upsy X

elysia2003

I have used Wilkinsons for baskets and Store 21 (used to be called QS) for cardboard boxes for my hampers. They have some really pretty ones!

We make lots of things on here but the other Christmas thread may be of better use to you. Here. There is a big list of things people made last year on there.

HTH

elysia2003

Rufus - I've just had a brainwave, as to what else you could do with your new eyelet tool.

I've done this with mine, so I know it works. You could even make them for your stall.

Do you know those plant pots that are silver? Zinc I think it is. You can get them cheaply in wilkinsons and sometimes pound stores. Around the rim, divide it into equal sections, say between four and six (depends on size). Punch a hole, about an inch from the rim.

Cover the hole with an artificial flower, flattish like a daisy (probably best to punch a hole in that too, although I can't remember if I did). Then rivet the daisy to the plant pot. It looks really effective - Mum still has hers.

rufusdog52

elysia2003 wrote: »

Rufus - I've just had a brainwave, as to what else you could do with your new eyelet tool.

I've done this with mine, so I know it works. You could even make them for your stall.

Do you know those plant pots that are silver? Zinc I think it is. You can get them cheaply in wilkinsons and sometimes pound stores. Around the rim, divide it into equal sections, say between four and six (depends on size). Punch a hole, about an inch from the rim.

Cover the hole with an artificial flower, flattish like a daisy (probably best to punch a hole in that too, although I can't remember if I did). Then rivet the daisy to the plant pot. It looks really effective - Mum still has hers.

Sounds good Elysia, will keep an eye open. OH is off this week as its his birthday Friday so we will probs get out and about and see some different shops xx

cdsmiler

Morning all!

Welcome Mrs Gibbs and Rainbow!

Susan – your 3D boxes sound interesting! Can’t wait to see!
As for snowballs rhyme, the ones Mary has posted are great and short! Lol If you want a longer one, here’s one I made a note of last year but have NO idea who wrote it (I certainly can’t take the credit for it!)

Sometimes when the snow falls down
And all is white all over town
We haven’t time to stand and play
Too soon the snow has gone away
But when it fell I thoughts of you
And saved some snowballs - just a few!
So here they are saved in this jar
Just for you ‘cause you’re a star.

Rufus – I love the sound of your fabric tags!! Beautiful.

Mum2on – lol @ Miss Hoodie sleeptalking!

Upsy-daisy – Makro do nice jars with clip lids…might be worth a look. Not too expensive from what I remember.

Ok, my Christmas plans are getting somewhere. I buy for my family, hubby buys for his side (that’s generally how it works anyway). My side always do lists for Christmas – saves spending money on things that people don’t really want, but also means that we have to wait for the lists to appear. Now, whereas I already have a little one (just add the odd thing through the year when I think of it!) most people won’t have anything until November!! ARGH! Lol Not much I can really do about that except nag them to let me know if they think of anything early and save vouchers! However, when we’re at my parents exchanging pressies, in the morning we first have father christmas’ presents. Bear in mind until this year the youngest in the room was my brother at 24…..lol but it’s abit of fun. What we normally do is each buy the other people two presents, no more than £5 each, and stick them in their bag with no labels. As there’s normally 5 of us, we all end up with 10 presents (after buying ourselves 2 choccy things to add too!). So, after discussions this weekend, we’re cutting this down to one pressie each, and one choccy thing. We suddenly realised that while it sounds cheap, we’re actually spending £10 per person (£40!!) on just these bags, let alone the main pressies! So that’s a great start – I can start planning those. I’m thinking I might use the baby milk tins and stick a few little things in each for each person….

This Christmas we have Bethan’s 1st birthday a week before Christmas, and I wanted to ask all you Mummies (and Daddies?!) on here what toys you’d recommend? We’re only getting her one big pressie for her birthday, and one big one for Christmas (with a few bits in a stocking for Christmas morning) – mainly because she’s too young to know any different, will probably only be interested in the paper, and family will end up buying her SOOOOOOOO much!! Lol But what I’d love to know is what toys you’d recommend that will LAST. Not only quality wise, but also with regards to her age. With her birthday and Christmas so close to together, I don’t want everything to be ‘age-now’ specific otherwise she might get to 18 months next summer and half her stuff will be too young. For example, I was thinking of getting her a small rocking horse/animal that’s suitable from 12/18 months, but making sure it’s one of those ones without a contained seat so she can still play with it in years to come. (If that makes sense). So What would you recommend? What toys would you say to stay well clear of because they’re a waste of money?

Sorry for the long post!! Lol

Clare x

NickyBo_2

Cdsmiler - your Christmas sounds very like mine. My parents, brother and I all get each other main presents but then we also get each other 5 little presents. The little ones aren't allowed to cost more than £1 each which makes it more manageable. It started after my Granny died, she used to get me and my brother LOADS of presents at Christmas and my Mum didn't want us to have a lot less at Christmas (I was 18 though, not a child!) so she came up with this new tradition.

Presents for Bethan - Hmmm, I'm trying to remember what my boy liked best when he was 1 (he's only going to be 3 this year so it's not that long ago). The things he got most use out of were the activity toys that he could do lots of things with. He liked soft toys etc but didn't spend a huge amount of time playing with them.

Here are a few ideas for you:
http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Toys/Cars-and-Trains/Bruin-Tractor-and-Trailer-Set(0031427)
This is a tractor toy with animals and farmer. It moves and plays Old McDonald. The animals make noises when pressed down. My DS LOVES this and still plays with it regularly now. It's £14.99 and suitable from 12 months.

http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Toys/Activity-Toys/PeekaBlocks-2-in-1-Activity-Wagon(0026683)

A wagon with lots of peek-a-blocks. My son didn't have this, he had a train wiht the blocks but I can't find that anywhere. He loved the blocks and carried then around with him.

Also, what about getting Bethan a summer type present for either Christmas or birthday? My parents do that with DS as his birthday is only 4 weeks before Christmas. That way he gets big garden presents but without us having to buy it as a big extra in the summer. For his first birthday they got him a big wooden sandpit, it's great! It has a secure cover so we don't have to worry about cats getting in. We bought a few sand moulds, bucket and spade and he plays for ages in there. It's turned out not to be just a summer thing as he'll play in it with his coat and hat on when it's cold, he even wanted to play in it when we'd had snow! Other possibilities are a swing, slide, playhouse, seesaw or car. If Bethan likes playing outside then she would probably get a lot of use out of any of these and they will last a long time. With swings, you can buy a baby seat and then upgrade it to a normal seat when she gets bigger.

Hope that helps a bit

Gemmy_2

I've only been through a handful of pages so far (going from the end) but have already enjoyed it.
I got sidetracked by a link http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/search/label/tutorials and started reading that.

So many great ideas, i think i'll have to join the bandwagon - i was organised for christmas last year and it felt so good and everything was so easy.

cdsmiler

NickyBo wrote: »

Cdsmiler - your Christmas sounds very like mine. My parents, brother and I all get each other main presents but then we also get each other 5 little presents. The little ones aren't allowed to cost more than £1 each which makes it more manageable. It started after my Granny died, she used to get me and my brother LOADS of presents at Christmas and my Mum didn't want us to have a lot less at Christmas (I was 18 though, not a child!) so she came up with this new tradition.

I like that idea too! What we'll probably do in the coming years though is just do a secret santa type thing where we pull each other's name out of a hat so we just have one gift each. We're going to have every Christmas morning (we hope) at home so Bethan can have presents from father christmas, but then when we arrive at my parents (be in Chrsitmas day or a day or two later) we can say "Oooo look, father christmas has been here and left everyone an extra present!". She'll have pressies from family under the tree. I'm not in the camp of pretending that ALL presents are from father christmas....

Presents for Bethan - Hmmm, I'm trying to remember what my boy liked best when he was 1 (he's only going to be 3 this year so it's not that long ago). The things he got most use out of were the activity toys that he could do lots of things with. He liked soft toys etc but didn't spend a huge amount of time playing with them.

Here are a few ideas for you:
http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Toys/Cars-and-Trains/Bruin-Tractor-and-Trailer-Set(0031427)
This is a tractor toy with animals and farmer. It moves and plays Old McDonald. The animals make noises when pressed down. My DS LOVES this and still plays with it regularly now. It's £14.99 and suitable from 12 months.

http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Toys/Activity-Toys/PeekaBlocks-2-in-1-Activity-Wagon(0026683)

A wagon with lots of peek-a-blocks. My son didn't have this, he had a train wiht the blocks but I can't find that anywhere. He loved the blocks and carried then around with him.

Also, what about getting Bethan a summer type present for either Christmas or birthday? My parents do that with DS as his birthday is only 4 weeks before Christmas. That way he gets big garden presents but without us having to buy it as a big extra in the summer. For his first birthday they got him a big wooden sandpit, it's great! It has a secure cover so we don't have to worry about cats getting in. We bought a few sand moulds, bucket and spade and he plays for ages in there. It's turned out not to be just a summer thing as he'll play in it with his coat and hat on when it's cold, he even wanted to play in it when we'd had snow! Other possibilities are a swing, slide, playhouse, seesaw or car. If Bethan likes playing outside then she would probably get a lot of use out of any of these and they will last a long time. With swings, you can buy a baby seat and then upgrade it to a normal seat when she gets bigger.

Hope that helps a bit

Ah, you're a star. Yes, we've thought about summer type toys, but our main problem is that although she loves being outside, our garden is awful. It's 4 tiers which are really steep to get up and covered in weeds every year because we have a mountain up behind us which blows seeds down. It's so depressing, I hate it! My parents have a decent garden though.... hmmmm. lol Suppose it depends if they want to be lumbered with a sandpit/slide/swing perminantly in their lovely garden now THEIR children have grown up!! lol

Just going off to look at the links you've suggested. Thanks again!!

Anyone else?

Clare x