OS Christmas 2014 thread!!!!

Minty123

Having read all 19 pages for Christmassy ideas, I felt I should join so I could comment!!

There are so many good ideas on here! Looking forward to trying the chilli and Apple cheese, and the onion marmalade!

My HM Christmas gifts this year are:
HM Biscotti - made them for my mums birthday, and she LOVED them!
HM Gluten free Christmas Cake for a Christmas cake mad sister who has this week been diagnosed coeliac - if anyone has a tried and tested recipe I would be ever so grateful!
Chocolate truffles - never made them, but they look easy enough so going to make a few different flavours I think!
Flavoured gins - at the moment mulled gin and chilli and lime are winning I think!!

I'm not very prepared for Christmas this year - I have only bough one present so far.. But I have been putting money aside for the last few months (which is a first for me!) so hopefully it won't feel quite so tight this year!

Minty

SheWantsToMove_2

Hi Minty123

Do you have the biscotti recipe to hand? always interested in recipes that have gone down a treat!!

xxx

MandM90

Yesterday I removed everything from my sagging Xmas decs box, put all baubles into plastic egg boxes, all bigger decs into pretty saved gift boxes, and stacked everything inside a big plastic storage box. I'm so excited!

I have cards and crackers from last years sale but no gifts yet! I have £100 amazon voucher to use for dd, and I think about £30 in nectar points. If I'm careful I think the nectar points could cover my extra Xmas grocery treats, and the £100 most of DDs (7) gifts.

Who here has a plastic tree? I usually buy fresh but wondering if it's more MSE to buy a good quality reusable one.

Brambleberry

There's some good debate about trees in the Christmas and other Yuletide festivals forum: still newbie, so no linkie:o

I'm planning on making puddini bonbons again this year, by the time I'm done, I can't contemplate eating them as I've had brandy and spice overload, but they do look pretty and are well received by a couple of special people in my life so I make generous boxes!

...trots off to seek green glace cherries....

Minty123

SheWantsToMove, I made two different recipes (nightmare situation where the recipe I used didn't fill the jar I'd bought.. And then I didn't have enough ingredients to make another batch etc..!).

I made the Hairy Dieters ones and some plain almond ones. I can't post a link being a new user, but if you google Hairy Dieters biscotti, they do come up. I didn't save the recipe for the plain almond ones. But the recipe was picked based on what I had in the cupboards!!

They were very easy though, just take a while in the oven!

We've always had a real christmas tree at home, but since I've moved out (and got a puppy who would love to play with a tree..!), we've only had one. It's always a debate because I love a real tree, but we go away for the full 2 week Christmas period visiting family etc so it's a bit of a waste!

Minty

Caterina

MandM90 wrote: »

I was thinking of sending out a cheeky email saying I'm not really doing Xmas this year. I was going to give out a few jams etc but ask thy no one buys me anything as I'm only buying for DD.

Can't think how to word it without sounding totally horrible!!

Just make it sound like you are not buying gifts. Instead, you could tell them something on the line that, due to the terrible poverty caused by the current economy, you would prefer if everybody could donate some food to the foodbank.

They can't fault you for this.

recovering_spendaholic

I feel very nervous about Christmas this year as my money situation is the worst it has been for ages. I usually buy a "big" present for my two DD's and then do a stocking with little gifts. This year I will struggle to do this and know that there will be a fuss.

I am looking forward to making bags of hm cookies and sweets for colleagues, but my best friend is really difficult to get a gift for - I made her a Christmas cake and she said it was horrible because it had cherries in it!

candlelight_2013

Recovering, how very rude of her are you sure she is your best friend

With regard to your daughters, you don't say how old they are, but could you explain that this year things are difficult, but hopefully they will have improved next year.

This is added stress for you, and I do feel for you.

Take care

Candlelightx

Uniscots97

Recovering, how old are your DD's? Check places like freecycle/gumtree/face book for people clearing out games etc. We in the past wrapped up games we got from freecycle to give extra for OH's kids at Christmas.

mrsdwhite

I found out this week that my parents will be coming to stay this xmas. Which is fine and I can deal with that, except we run a pub and will be at work until around 4:30/5pm.
My parents will look after dd until we finish, then we'll do dinner.
So, I need to come up with a hassle free way of doing a nice xmas dinner that can go on the table quickly and without too much doing on the day as I'll have been at work.
This will be the first time I'll have done it as normally MIL takes dd to her house in the morning, we then drive over and have dinner with them before heading home.
Any suggestions welcome. The meat doesn't need to be Turkey, in fact I don't really like turkey!