Would you move around christmas time?

lessonlearned

Realistically Friday 20th would be your absolute deadline - re bank transfers, solicitors etc. I think we are aiming for Wednesday 18th - hopefully sooner.

Don't worry - as another poster said just stick tinsel on the boxes. As long as you have a tree and a few gifts, lots of nice food etc it will be fine.

Forget all the magazine hype about "the perfect Christmas".

Relax, have fun, take loads of photos of the chaos so you can look back and have a good chuckle in years to come.

PS Edited to add just make sure that you know that the heating is ok, where the stopcock is, have some emergency rations.

verulamium

A few years ago we completed on our then flat purchase on the 19th. Moved in on the 20th. New furnitures delivered on the 21st. Unpacked everything on the 22nd. Christmas tree up on the 23rd. It was worth it to have our first Christmas at a new place.

It can be done.

pcgtron

Last year we exchanged on the 20th, completed on the 21st and moved on the 22nd December. All this with a 6 week old baby. We also had a lovely Christma. The best tthing was unpacking in January rather than moving in Jan. I'd say go for it!

totallybored

I think moving just before Christmas is a great time as it's a time of year most people already have time off work and it gives you time to sort a new house out. I bought my first flat a few years back just before Xmas. The sale had dragged on and then the vendor decided she 'didn't want to move on top of Christmas'. I have no idea why, the annoying bag had already got two weeks off work at Xmas. Luckily her estate agent was amazing and managed to get her out. I spent Christmas Day painting my living room and not stressing about making 50 things for one meal that I don't even like.

As long as you take the advice of other posters about checking when all solicitors are closed and don't aim for completion on their final afternoon then I think just move and kill 2 stressful times in one go.

becominganobsessivesaver

We moved on the 20th last year (which was my son's first birthday). We set the tree up as our first priority. I also arranged a tea party for the saturday, and somehow got unpacked in time for that! I was dreading it not happening until after christmas as the kids wouldn't have been able to unpack their presents went we got back from my parents. This year I'm hoping for a less manic 20th december!!!!

Kynthia

I would and loads of other people have. Christmas day is just one day and why put life on hold for weeks because of it? At least it's all done and dusted without any more worries about the whole thing collapsing, you have time off work to unpack and sort things and you get to start the new year in your new home. Also as a bonus you get to shop in the January sales for things you need. I would check when all the solicitors were closing for Christmas and make sure completion was at least 2-3 days before then.

phoebe1989seb

If it's a *straightforward* move to a house that's in habitable condition, I'd definitely rather go for it before Christmas than leaving it till the New Year. I wouldn't have wanted to move into our current house that close to Christmas (especially if kids were involved) as it was akin to moving onto a building site, with no kitchen (had to cook on a BBQ or the woodburner initially) and only rudimentary facilities Thirty-one months on we're still living out of boxes.......

The closest to Christmas we've ever moved was 30th November in 2007 - so not really close, lol - and we still had what DH calls an *M&S Christmas* as that was also a project house, just not on the scale of this one!

If it's just a case of moving in, getting furniture into place and unpacking, I would treat it as an adventure for the kids and I'm sure they'll have just as good a Christmas as they would have in your old home

Looby_Lou

As FTB we moved into our house just before Xmas, it took until March before we realised that our mortgage payments weren't being taken. We discovered that the building society had had their Xmas party so had transferred our morgage to our solicitors but nobody had set up our repayments!

Goldiegirl

Having worked for a major lender, the general feeling that I got from customers was 'We MUST move by Christmas, otherwise Christmas will be spoilt / ruined / whatever.


It used to be a complete frenzy - people would apply for mortgages at the start of December, and have unrealistic expectations of being in the new home before Christmas.


Christmas is not the be all and end all - if it's stressing you out about moving before Christmas ( and there's now only two full working weeks before Christmas), then set a date for the new year.


The other people in the chain may have the mindset that I described in the first paragraph, but they'll survive and get over it.

Hermoine

I moved just before Christmas the first time I bought and it was fine, and I really appreciated having a bit of time off work to sort things out. It had the additional benefit that the January sales kicked at exactly the right time - so I got some great deals on furniture!