Recycled Christmas, could it work???

EagerLearner

My method of saving money this Christmas is... going to Thailand for 2 weeks ;o)

Rather than go on a long weekend in Autumn (£400 each inc spending) + Xmas (£300 each), we're going to Thailand and this will cost the same-ish - this means no buying of new gifts, no wasting of Xmas cards or wrapping paper...

However, now I've read this thread I want to start looking for Xmas things - must remind myself I can't - maybe a few small ones eh...

We;ve never gone away before and as soon as we booked this Xmas hol it was great - saves us money & our family too - it's a real treat and I recommend it!

EagerLearner

EagerLearner

Tiptoes - Oxfam did some great Xmas presents last year for the greener/more ethically minded - like sponsoring a donkey or a loo being built in poorer countries.

EagerLearner

arkonite_babe

Blimey :eek: I had no idea that this would prove so popular.

There was me panicking incase I got shot down in flames for mentioning Christmas

Keep the ideas coming you lot, this thread is providing more food for thought each day, well done :T

savvy

arkonite_babe wrote:

Blimey :eek: I had no idea that this would prove so popular.

There was me panicking incase I got shot down in flames for mentioning Christmas

Keep the ideas coming you lot, this thread is providing more food for thought each day, well done :T

On the contrary mate, the earlier the better for me! When I go back to work in September for the new academic year, it is utter mayhem leading all the way up to Xmas, so I NEVER get time to get organised. Added to that we went away last year to Serbia (AWESOME!) so had to be ultra organised 2 weeks before.........I didn't do too bad, but wished I'd started earlier. It's cheaper the earlier you start as you can spread the cost easier too. Oh and then added to all THAT...............I bl@@dy hate shopping, even more so at Xmas!

BungleGirl

EagerLearner wrote:

My method of saving money this Christmas is... going to Thailand for 2 weeks ;o)

Rather than go on a long weekend in Autumn (£400 each inc spending) + Xmas (£300 each), we're going to Thailand and this will cost the same-ish - this means no buying of new gifts, no wasting of Xmas cards or wrapping paper...


EagerLearner

We are hoping to go away too (should be trying to book it tonight or tomorrow). We have found a villa in France travelling by ferry for 11 people (my family of 4, SIL's family of four, MIL and SIL's MIL & FIL) - It works out at about £1400 total for 11 people!

SIL and I agreed that none of us would by presents, but that we would make the four kids a stocking each with 'token gifts' in. I told my daughter who is six that father christmas called me to say that instead of having presents this christmas he was going to arrange to all go on holiday together - she was a bit shocked but liked the idea of spending time with her cousins. My stepson said he would rather not have the holiday and have presents instead - but then he is 15 :rolleyes:

We have told the kids there will be NO presents and then the stockings will be a surprise - I hope to make things to go in the stockings or get things from charity shops, no more than £10 total per stocking.

The adults will get nothing but each others company.

I still have to think of presents for my sister and my three nephews - I think I will be brave and perhaps bake cookies or make something else for all of them.

Good luck to everyone with their green/ethical/recycled/moneysaving Christmases (can that word be a plural?!) I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for more ideas.

little_miss_thrifty

Hi, like many people, hate the consumerism of Christmas, so try and recycle from past Christmas's as much as possible

Last year, bought step daughter a pair of brand new Doc Martens from Ebay...99p! (Her mother would throw a fit if she knew!) Anyway, also make my cards every year, cutting the pictures off of last year's cards and putting them on new card and decorating them - also used for gift tags.

Reuse the same tree and decorations each year. I also make personalised presents, like picture frames for the children.

The thing i hate the most is throwing away all the paper, so unless you can by recycled wrapping paper (i think WWF sell it), my sister and i came up with a plan which will hopefully expand to the whole family.... We decided to reuse our wrapping 'paper' each year by wrapping gifts up in cloth...you can initially buy Christmassy material, or get plain and decorate yourself, cut to size and wrap with a pretty bow. Give to intended person, and they keep the material until the next year, then they wrap your gift in it and give it back to you! (You will obviously need various sizes of material depending on size of present). We have done it for a couple of years and have got parents in on it too now!

Boomdocker

Could someone give some more details about those grolsh/sol bottles that are recycled to glasses please. I like the sound of these and they might be suitable for my BIL.

Many thanks

needmoney

What a nice thread, thanks AKB.

We are only a very small family too but have decided this year - no gifts for adults and it's such a relief. It had got the point of silliness where we were basically swapping money. I also only have a small circle of 'friends' and they are the only ones who will get cards from me this year.

As most on this thread agree it's become too commercial,Ithink I fancy a real 'old fashioned' Christmas this year, stay at home with all the things I love.

sell something you dont need on ebay and use the money from that to buy them a shop bought present then its kind of recycled (does that make sense to anyone else??)

Yes it does jen_jen, good idea.

margaretclare

needmoney wrote:

As most on this thread agree it's become too commercial, I think I fancy a real 'old fashioned' Christmas this year, stay at home with all the things I love.

I would love a 'real old-fashioned Christmas'. But it's impossible now. My idea of Christmas from my childhood was the preparation beforehand, which was NOT the frenetic shop till you drop as now - it involved making Christmas puddings, cakes and spice-loaves in October then putting them away until Christmas. Christmas Eve - complete house-clean, all finished by early afternoon, bring in the tree from the back yard and decorate it, this was usually finished by the time darkness fell. No lights, decorations at all before Christmas Eve - this is also one of my pet hates nowadays, plastic snowmen garishly lit up everywhere.

The local church choir coming around carol-singing in the evening. Log fires, cosy, comfortable. Going to bed after hanging a pillow-case from the end of your bed.

One year I got a (second-hand) dolls pram. Another year, when I was 10, I got my first bike, also second-hand, and learned to ride it. Otherwise, it was jumpers etc that had been lovingly knitted. Or a doll, with clothes that had been made for it. Very little that was 'bought in' - we lived 12 miles from York which was the nearest town of any size, and from memory, we went there about once in 6 months.

Being at home with all the things you love would be the ideal. I have a friend who's very involved with his young grandchildren and he says they couldn't possibly go away at Christmas, it 'wouldn't be the same without the grandchildren'. Well, that's fine. It's different for us. Over the last few years, certainly since Liz died, Christmas is no different from any other Sunday, except for the weeks of hype leading up to it, and the feeling of anticlimax on the day itself. We do go to the church carol-service which is the last Sunday in Advent, and that's usually a lovely occasion. In fact, this feeling about Christmas as an anticlimax has been growing on me for many years now, since we stopped going to carol services once the girls were out of the kind of schools where they had them. The last one (possibly) was 1972 - as far back as that!

There is just so much 'buy this for Christmas, buy that for Christmas' and most of it - new carpets, new sofas, new TV etc - has nothing at all to do with Christmas.

So for us, going away for Christmas will be the ideal solution. Some people have 'tinsel and turkey' weekends before Christmas - that's not for us. Christmas is not about 'tinsel and turkey'! Staying at home would be just so 'ordinary' because of all the hype, and as last year, we invited someone we felt sorry for but it just did not work. Neither would we dream of imposing ourselves on any of the younger people of the family 'just because it's Christmas'. There was a thread on here before last Christmas, or maybe the Christmas before, all about older people and 'what to do with them' at Christmas. I hope the day never dawns when any of our young people feel obligated to 'do something' about us at Christmas.

Best wishes to all

Margaret Clare

arkonite_babe

Boomdocker wrote:

Could someone give some more details about those grolsh/sol bottles that are recycled to glasses please. I like the sound of these and they might be suitable for my BIL.

Many thanks

Recycled Grolsch Goblets

Sol Goblets are also available in the range.


HTH!!