Christmas is coming! 2007 - merged thread

SueMaggie

I'm doing a gardening hamper for a friend who is due to move house shortly. Just came across this on the Woolworths site - a Wilkinson Sword garden multi-tool reduced to £1.98.

http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/product/index.jsp?pid=50844072



If you order to collect in store you don't have to pay postage (and Quidco reduces the price further).

Thought this was great for the price and would be useful for anyone else thinking of doing a gardening hamper.

dollydaydream07

christmas is gonna be cheap for us this year, for the first time ever we have set ourselves a budget and we have been buying things already and im attempting to make a few things for people!!
we recieved a £25 gift voucher for M&S from the company boss of the place where DH works, just cos he emailled the guy and told him he thought they were wasting money by holding a certain meeting(meeting was scrapped and we got vouchers for DH suggesting it), the company gives all staff a £50 gift voucher at xmas time to spend in the shop(might not get this tho if company are trying to save money) and i sold some jewelry for £80 and i still have a few more bits to sell

stuff we have so far

our daughter - clothes £12(6 items) 2 teddies £12, a bike £30, a small bouncy castle £12, cleaning set(loves to help me clean) £5, doodle art £10

sister - bag £3.50(avon sale - reduced from 8 or 10£) thinking of making her a desk tidy for her desk at work - any ideas on how to do this??? also making her a calender from DD

sister - haircare gift bag(avon - free when purchased something else(which i needed anyway)) - not much in this so im gonna get a few more papmering bits for it

best friend - pamper hamper so far - warming stones gift set(avon £8, reduced)perfume gift set(recycled from last years pressies, i love the perfume but not opened it yet) and im thinking of getting her a gift voucher for a massage at the beauty salon and im not sure what else to put in it???
also making a calender with a pic of our DD's on it
best friends DD - learn to spell, learn colours , jigsaw things (£1 each £shop) - not sure what esle to get her??

my parents - got £20 in piggy points so i might use them and get them a £10 gift voucher each - would get them something for the house as well but they have everything(last year got them a sandwhich toaster and we ended up with it back as someone else bought them one as well and they couldnt remember which we got them) they are also getting a homemade calender

things to buy
my grandparents(3 in total) grandma1 - loads of nighties and underwear(from where i work with a 40% discount)(lives in a care home and never goes anywhere so has no need for anything else so something practical suits her)and some maltesers and a calender(see a theme there lol)
grandma2 - had her ears peirced for the first time ever(aged 75) so some earrings for her and a calender again lol
grandad - hes always happy whatever we get him but most probably some maltesers and a small botle of whisky and i might do him some homemade shortbread - oh and a calender!!

neice(aged 1) not got a clue what to get her at all????? possibly a toy or 2 and some clothes

we arent giving each other any presies this year apart from a little something from DD for each other but saving our money and having £100 each for new clothes in the sales!!

strawbsuk76

bestpud wrote: »

Well, you all have me inspired to get off my bum and avoid the usual last minute panic buys this year!

The days out hampers sound great and I'd like to do one for my niece and nephew (and ds and bil) using Tesco vouchers. I was thinking of the Space Centre in Leicester as not too far away from us and it has good reviews. I know my nephew is into space at the moment too!

Does anyone have any ideas what I can put in with the vouchers with a space theme? Nephew will be 9 just after xmas and niece is 8.

Tia

How about some posters of the solar system or maybe a book about space.

also what about build your own space rockets kits etc. they have these in woolies i think.

what about a space film/dvd maybe space odyssey its about £5 on amazon atm.

thats all i can think of atm

strawbs x

shelovestobuystuff

SueMaggie wrote: »

I'm doing a gardening hamper for a friend who is due to move house shortly. Just came across this on the Woolworths site - a Wilkinson Sword garden multi-tool reduced to £1.98.

http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/product/index.jsp?pid=50844072



If you order to collect in store you don't have to pay postage (and Quidco reduces the price further).

Thought this was great for the price and would be useful for anyone else thinking of doing a gardening hamper.

I was looking at this and other WS stuff in my local store today.It wasn,t marked down as low as that though,maybe it will come up at under £2 at the tills.They had planters for 50p-£1 which would be great to fill with gardening bits to make a hamper.If you save up your tesco clubcard vouchers you can get a gardening mag subscription to put in the hamper too.

shelovestobuystuff

In my local WHSmiths store they have got loads of art stuff and other bits on sale,mainly half price but up to 75% off.Faber Castell tins of colouring pencils are half price,great luxury gift for little artists.
Looks like they are clearing out last years christmas stuff from their stock room before they get inundated with new seasonal stock.I got some great big xmas teddies,last years,were £19.99 each and bought them today at just £4.99 each.

Rachie_B

can someone please point me in the right direction ,of the flavoured vodkas etcfor xmas ,thread from last yr

TIA

TerminallyShortOfCash

OH MY GOD!! I'm so far behind it's unreal!! I'm having a massive panic now because I'm usually much more organised than I am at the moment! DS was born four weeks ago and I'm just beginning to get into a routine now where I can sit and make Christmas things. So far I have knitted a bag, a scarf and a pair of fingerless gloves. I've found a pack of 50 blank ivory cards and envelopes for £5 which I'm going to get and decorate for xmas cards and I've seen some lovely bottles in Selfridges for oils and vodkas which I'll flavour. Was planning on making some soaps, bath bombs and bath salts too as well as chocolate truffles and calendars with piccys of DS on. So much to do, so little time left.... *worry worry*

bestpud

Speaking of vodka, where do you get it from and roughly how much does a bottle cost? That's probably a very dim question but I really have no idea as I don't drink!

Plus, would someone have to like vodka to like the toffee one? I guess I'm wondering what type/brand of drink it most closely resembles?

TerminallyShortOfCash

Hello Bestpud.


I get vodka from Tesco. I'm not precious about it so I get the Value stuff which works out about £7 a bottle. Personally, I don't like vodka (nasty experience when I was 18 ) but I do like toffee vodka. I add werthers originals to a bottle of vodka and leave to dissolve. Voila!

hth
Tsoc

piglet6

bestpud wrote: »

Well, you all have me inspired to get off my bum and avoid the usual last minute panic buys this year!

The days out hampers sound great and I'd like to do one for my niece and nephew (and ds and bil) using Tesco vouchers. I was thinking of the Space Centre in Leicester as not too far away from us and it has good reviews. I know my nephew is into space at the moment too!

Does anyone have any ideas what I can put in with the vouchers with a space theme? Nephew will be 9 just after xmas and niece is 8.

Tia

How about something like these...?

http://www.theglowcompany.co.uk/acatalog/3D-GLOW-PLANETS.html

Piglet