Preparing for Christmas 2011

jemtom

got quite a few presents today, for my sons space hamper an interactive planetarium for £4.99 which i thought was half price got home realised it was meant to have been £14.99 well chuffed, but its the only thing i have for his space hamper so far really got to get cracking on that any ideas much appreciated. also from works got him 2 books a cars one and one about paper planes and from a cs got him a games console which plugs into the tv. and in b&m then had some pj's and nighties knocked down to a £1 so got some snoopy pjs for my firned (rrp £6.99) and a nightie for my mum (rrp £3.49) feel like im slowly making progress, tried out my glass paint for my auntie and uncles wine hamper and its gone on quite well so going to put some alcohol truffles or just chocolate eclairs in the glass then get a couple of bottles of wine and hopefully i will get some more inspiration before long! only 5 months to go yay, i love christmas.

carlamarie_2

jemtom-i dont know your sons age, but for the space hamper how about;

naming a star for him (certificates can be printed off for free)
elc had the air rocket laucher things half price at £3 the other day in my local store
them spaceship sweets
them glow in the dark stars and moons that you can stick on his bedroom ceiling
a space hopper
tescos usually sell the cushions in the shape of the aliens from toy story - my son loves his

hope this has given you a few ideas

Spendless

Linzoid698 wrote: »

hi,
does anyone have any present ideas for a 12 year old boy and a 15 year old boy please ?

it would be really helpful as i am stuck for this year !

thanks

I'm interested in ideas too. My eldest will be a few weeks off his 12th birthday at Christmas, and since he turned 8 I've found it harder and harder to buy for him, especially in the stocking filler range. They just don't seem to cater to older boys, unlike girls (I have a daughter too). Some ideas though, mine was very taken with a cheats game for his xbox he saw in hmv cost £3, he put it back in favour of something else, but I'm going to go back and get it. :shhh: a wallet? chess board? Mine likes collecting coins, so anything along those lines. Can't help you with the older one though, we have given DH's 16yo godson money for the past few years.

Spendless

jemtom wrote: »

got quite a few presents today, for my sons space hamper an interactive planetarium for £4.99 which i thought was half price got home realised it was meant to have been £14.99 well chuffed, but its the only thing i have for his space hamper so far really got to get cracking on that any ideas much appreciated. also from works got him 2 books a cars one and one about paper planes and from a cs got him a games console which plugs into the tv. and in b&m then had some pj's and nighties knocked down to a £1 so got some snoopy pjs for my firned (rrp £6.99) and a nightie for my mum (rrp £3.49) feel like im slowly making progress, tried out my glass paint for my auntie and uncles wine hamper and its gone on quite well so going to put some alcohol truffles or just chocolate eclairs in the glass then get a couple of bottles of wine and hopefully i will get some more inspiration before long! only 5 months to go yay, i love christmas.

What about a trip to here

http://www.spacecentre.co.uk/Page.aspx/1/HOME/

candie_gill

You can also buy samples of moon rock, put in some flying saucer sweets, use some white kali and rename it moon dust and package it nicely.. maybe in a cellophane cone.

mcjordi

glad ive found this thread again.. gonna have to start as xmas isnt too far away now..

carlamarie_2

for the 12year old boys

for my nephews 12th birthday i made up a art hamper - most of it come from the works, which has a good range of arts supplies.

i used 'grown up' items such as watercolours and oil paints as opposed to poster paints, charcoals instead of crayons etc
also i bought 'proper' sketch books rather then those thin childrens drawing pads.
to top it all off i added one of the wooden people that you can bend about (cant rememebr the name!) and 2 'how to draw' books, 1 was about creating a comic and the other was cars and things (this book was aimed at older teens)

my nephew happened to be ill on his birthday and his new PS3 sat upopened while he sketched away my sister wasnt happy lol!

i find that boys at this age are still wanting to do the things 11yr olds do - but dont want to admit it as they think theyre more mature! its that awful inbetween stage!

hope that helps

Linzoid698

thanx for the suggestions

Spendless

20 year old neices are great aren't they? Stroppier than toddler ones!! Mine asked for help buying her mum a sat-nav last year, fair enough she's a Uni student, but she also works and her Dad sends her money monthly, whereas we have 2 kids and I was only just in my p-time temp job. We sourced it, bought it and told her she either owed us 1/2 the money or she could babysit for us twice. She went back to Uni having done neither! :mad: For this reason we didn't buy her a birthday present in Jan, and she was told to write off some of the money she owed. I fetched the balance up today with DH but he just seemed to think we had considered it all written off! In your case I would go down the practical solution line, smellies, socks etc and then buy her something for when she's 21 and hand it over with a smile saying we thought we'd get you x as it's the last present from us with you now being 21.

sammy_kaye18

Well

I sat down last night and budgetted ready for christmas whilst the boys (my step son and son) wrote their Xmas lists and told them to write 10 presents each that they'd like and anythign else is a bonus.

My sons was 8 gifts as he couldnt think of 10 things and came to £129.90 :money:
My step sons was 10 gifts and came to....................£349.98! :eek::eek::eek::eek: that included a £130 ipod nano and a phone!

Me thinks not - and I told his father about my son Bens and he said 'ah bless she doesnt ask for much' - in fairness it is all things he'd love or things he can play with people with if that makes sense.....and we only really treat him on his birthday and Christmas.

Told him about his other sons J's and he said if his current mobile is trashed then hes not getting the phone (its £49.99 but why does a 10 year old need a mobile in the first place! :mad:) and he said no point blank to the ipod nano! so at least we are on the same wave length! :T

Apart form that have been looking at things for Holly.
have opened an e-ISA so I can online save and shop as I think it will be cheaper.
have discovered Ive lost my christmas tree and decorations in the move so need to buy new.
will be starting to look for stocking stuffers soon.

will be making my list of things to do/get with regards to Xmas as soon as Ben is back in school in september I think.

Oh forgot to add I have got Bens main present sorted.
I had a bonus in work in July of £160 so with that I booked tow tickets to go to the WWE in Cardiff for him and we are staying in a hotel the night as trying to come home at midnight on a sunday by train is not going to be fun! So he has that but he doesnt know he has it yet!

Santa will be delivering it early to him.