Christmas?

Minimoo24

Dont hate me, but im thinking of it already.

I know there are other threads for this sort of thing, but i wanted to know what brides are doing this year, if they are getting married next year - and are trying to save abit of money.

I have 26 people to buy for.

I want to cut people off and say please dont get us anything, last year we ended up with 8 tins of sweets so i was thinking some sort of saying in the card to say please dont, due to wedding whatever. I dont want to be rude but we had so many sweets, i would rather people didnt bother with them if you know what i mean? (i dont mean to sound mean)

Ive done the one present each for 10 - 15 pound but it doesnt really save us money we still end up doing approx £300 i dont really want to make things, and i learnt from last year not to spend so much on my Son (as fun as it is)

ideas please?

xxxx

Sammy85_2

A couple of years ago we made a rule that noone could spend more than a fiver on presents per person. Went down well although it was difficult to think of something meaningful for £5.

MrsDrink

Sorry I can't be much help because I really am a big kid at Christmas and I would be totally devastated if Christmas was cancelled just because I'm getting married!! (If we weren't getting married on the date we met I'd want a Christmas wedding - it's my fave time of the year!)

Could you begin thinking about what home made crafty things you could make everyone for Christmas presents instead of buying something?

White_Sapphire

I've started thinking about it too!! H2B and I have decided to have a homemade Christmas this year, so we're making bottles of apple liqueur and other fruit-infused boozy things, and possibly flavoured vinegars and oils as well. Another idea is to make up a kind of a gift certificate promising to for instance redecorate a room in someone's house if they're unable, or too busy, to do it themselves. For my dad's birthday one year when I was utterly skint I offered to spend a weekend doing jobs in the garden which he hadn't had the time to do. It went down really well and cost me nothing! Obviously you will have to bear in mind the amount of time you could spare, and of course you couldn't do that for everyone if you have 26 people to buy for!!

Or perhaps you could do a Secret Santa, where you and your immediate family or group of friends put your names in a hat, and then only buy for the person who's name you draw out.

Spencer_Li

A few years ago (not due to a wedding), we decided to do Secret Santa for the adults.

This was mainly due to people not really getting anything they wanted and the problem in choosing presents for people.

Apart from Secret Santa, only the children can get "proper" presents.

LEJC

You could always do just presents for children ....thats what we have done for a few years with our friends ... we just buy for eachothers kids and set a budget of £10-£15 each family.

Hollie84

we to are undecided christmas has been a huge thing in our family since i was little but u also have to think about it like this,what is it really all about,its not about presents and i think alot of people forget the true meaning,im guilty of it to.i have 3 sisters,each have partners and have 3 kids i have one brother.OH has his mum,dad,nan and 2 sisters so not as many.we have said kids only.as im a crafter i did homemade gifts last yr which everybody loved and was looking forward to this year.i did hampers for about £10 each but its alot of money when u add it up.i got alot in jan sales so some of that will be used and the younger kiddies will have a dvd,pj's something like that and the boys will have smelly sets.i just cant do it this yr,my ohter thing is birthdays as we have so many i may have to say that after xmas i will have to stop the birthday money.its only for 12months well 8 but not going to start it after the wedding as that wouldnt be fair on the ones i didnt give money to.

its so difficult when u have been used to doing something.even my own kids will be having less this yr but there 5 and 2 nearly so dont want for much and the grandparents usually give a sack full of gifts

Minimoo24

Thing is, we can afford it but i dont want to afford it if you get my drift. I always spend so much money, then last year i was abit disapointed with it all, not ungreatful, so please dont think that!

I love Christmas, and i dont really want to make things and give second hands things ( there is nothing wrong with it) im just not so good at making my own wine etc. Im better at handmade things - and i would really like to give the plaques ago, you know like the ones on ebay, last year i did a calender of our Son which went down wel and cheap as i got them from Vista print free just pay P & P, so migth do those for my Nans this year -

I usaully do baskets and hamper sort of things but that ends up costing - and I feel cheap spending £5 each i was thinking not to do my brother and his partner and not to do our friends just there Daughter & they do our Son.

Plus the list is now, 32!! I forgot some people! lol. I was thinking about some sort of poemy thing saying somthing nice (but i havent really worked on it yet) to give out with the cards.

I just feel like its a mission each year to think of somthing diffrent! anyone else feel like that? x

Birdie85

We got married in February this year so had to have a cheap Christmas, we decided on no unnecessary token presents (which I hate anyway) for friends and extended family, with OH's family we did Secret Santa with a £15 budget which was good fun and with my family we had a budget of £30 which is loads less than we usually spend on each other. It was really good as it meant that we had to actually put a lot of thought into the gifts rather than just buying stuff for the sake of it.

My brother's getting married in December this year so we'll be doing the 'cheap' Christmas again and I'm hoping to be more prepared this year, I've been checking out the homemade threads on the Special Occasions board and taking notes; I'm planning on making flavoured vodkas, fudge, biscuits and preserves and I'll be making up hampers. I hope it'll work out quite cheap!

With regards to the 'mission' problem, I have that! A few years ago I decided to make hampers for my family and spent ages picking out the perfect gifts to fit the theme, hunting out bargains, displaying it all beautifully, they went down a treat but now I feel like I always have to top last year's and I've completely run out of ideas now, TBH I was scraping the barrel last year! Hence the aim to go homemade this year!

Minimoo24

I compleatly agree with you, thats why i was slightly disapointed last year, but i didnt want to be rude and say no token presents lol, 8 tins of sweets between us 2 and then we had like a whole tin left of all the ones we didnt like ! lol * going to look more into making plaques! xxxx

Hollie84

I did stuff like snowman soups for everyone to go in there hamper and magic reindeer dust aswell for the kids,i even did a little bag of stuff for xmas eve for the younger kids in the family.u can get bottles of wine miniatures like stowells etc from home bargains for 99p so each female had one of them then the males had a bottle of beer again from home bargains like becks i then added smellies,socks cupcakes made by me and a bar of choccy each will upload a pic shortly