Renovations and Repayments.

littlegreenparrot

I'm glad you like the suggestions

There is a big age gap between myself and my youngest sibling. For several years when he was a child I didn't buy him gifts. We would sit down a week or two before, I'd give him a few options and we would plan a day out together. He had enough accumulated stuff from the rest of us already, as well as gifts from others. He got to be in charge and have his big sis, we always had a wonderful time. (although it has to be said it never worked out as a cheaper option!)

A suggestion for the film night - you may know already that the Royal opera house does live feed cinema screenings. There is one for the Nutcracker on 8th Dec. and its always brilliant. It would be worth looking to see if your local one is showing it. I appreciate it might be a bit late for a school night though. The Muppet Christmas Carol is always a winner, and if you can track it down the Box of delights (80's children's BBC adaptation) is magical.

AlexLK

littlegreenparrot wrote: »

I'm glad you like the suggestions

There is a big age gap between myself and my youngest sibling. For several years when he was a child I didn't buy him gifts. We would sit down a week or two before, I'd give him a few options and we would plan a day out together. He had enough accumulated stuff from the rest of us already, as well as gifts from others. He got to be in charge and have his big sis, we always had a wonderful time. (although it has to be said it never worked out as a cheaper option!)

A suggestion for the film night - you may know already that the Royal opera house does live feed cinema screenings. There is one for the Nutcracker on 8th Dec. and its always brilliant. It would be worth looking to see if your local one is showing it. I appreciate it might be a bit late for a school night though. The Muppet Christmas Carol is always a winner, and if you can track it down the Box of delights (80's children's BBC adaptation) is magical.

Thank you.

I did know about the ROH but the nearest one showing is about 15 miles away and would end too late for my son. Will certainly go when he is older, though.

Will have a look. We're going to have a film evening next week.

maman

AlexLK wrote: »

Thank you.

I did know about the ROH but the nearest one showing is about 15 miles away and would end too late for my son. Will certainly go when he is older, though.

Will have a look. We're going to have a film evening next week.

There are encore screenings available. I'm not sure exactly where you are in the county but there's a showing in Chesterfield in the school holidays and (I think) the ballet in Buxton in early January.

newgirly

Hi Alex, I find the encore's are also on at the same times during weekday evenings unfortunately. We watched Christopher wheeldon's Alice in wonderland last year which was amazing (and probably one of the more accessible ones for a small child) also a ROH production, but I managed to record it on the sky arts channel the other day and watch it again at the weekend, I know you don't watch a lot of tv, but if it's a regular thing it may be worth considering? I pay £10 a month for basic package.

AlexLK

maman wrote: »

There are encore screenings available. I'm not sure exactly where you are in the county but there's a showing in Chesterfield in the school holidays and (I think) the ballet in Buxton in early January.

Thanks, maman.

We're between Matlock and Bakewell, so not far from Chesterfield or Buxton. Not sure a 7pm start would be ideal as it would be a late night for my son. Will certainly have a think about it this year but may leave it until next year / the year after.

newgirly wrote: »

Hi Alex, I find the encore's are also on at the same times during weekday evenings unfortunately. We watched Christopher wheeldon's Alice in wonderland last year which was amazing (and probably one of the more accessible ones for a small child) also a ROH production, but I managed to record it on the sky arts channel the other day and watch it again at the weekend, I know you don't watch a lot of tv, but if it's a regular thing it may be worth considering? I pay £10 a month for basic package.

Thanks, NG.

I don't want to get into subscription channels for the TV. To be honest, I find the licence fee quite enough to be paying out.

AlexLK

Financially December is going well so far, we've not been spending obscene amounts of money or been going out much. We have decided that our son is getting a few small gifts and some days out as a family over the Christmas holiday. So far I've bought him some sheet music and a book.

The other day my son came home from school upset about Christmas after they'd been talking about Father Christmas and another child had told him that he was wrong that Santa only gives children a few small treats. The other child told my son that Santa gets him everything he wants. :mad: Not sure why parents imply this to their children as it can only lead to completely unrealistic expectations and puts pressure on the parents to spend more than they perhaps would otherwise. My son and I have not long sent our Christmas shoebox and we talked about some children have very little and are very happy to receive the most basic of things. He wanted to know why Santa could not give those children everything they wanted.

Watty1

Oh dear, that is such a hard one to explain to a little one. And how kind of your son to think that. I guess the only way is to explain that Santa has limited resources and needs nice people like you and your son to top things up for some. The wicked part of me wants to suggest that the little one who gets everything he wants must have parents who are blackmailing santa but I suppose that greats more problems rather than less

AlexLK

Thanks, Watty.

My son is very kind, much more so than I was as a child. I'm very proud to say he does think about others. I told him that Santa tries his best to give a little something to every child but cannot give children everything they desire, so parents and other relatives may wish to buy gifts if they can afford to do so and Santa often delivers those gifts if the child has been good (because the Elves are always watching ). To be honest, I didn't really know how to answer so just tried my best and hoped it was convincing.

Perhaps it is a little mean-spirited of me but I don't want Christmas to be all about throwing money around and I do find the rampant commercialism somewhat vulgar.

maman

AlexLK wrote: »

Thanks, Watty.

My son is very kind, much more so than I was as a child. I'm very proud to say he does think about others. I told him that Santa tries his best to give a little something to every child but cannot give children everything they desire, so parents and other relatives may wish to buy gifts if they can afford to do so and Santa often delivers those gifts if the child has been good (because the Elves are always watching ). To be honest, I didn't really know how to answer so just tried my best and hoped it was convincing.

Perhaps it is a little mean-spirited of me but I don't want Christmas to be all about throwing money around and I do find the rampant commercialism somewhat vulgar.

That's a good explanation Alex . We always said much the same as we wanted our children to say thank you (and write letters) to family and friends that had been kind enough to give gifts.
I couldn't agree more that LittleK doesn't need 'stuff' for Christmas. What he'll enjoy most is time with family and friends, playing games and a happy dad!

AlexLK

Think I'm getting the idea of weekly shopping, planning meals and a food budget ... £38 spent today on food for the week (including lunches). Everything is nice, fresh and there are a few treats. I do feel unduly proud of myself... :rotfl:

I also seem to have signed up to make Christmas lunch, will have to tell Mrs K when she gets back from work that she's my deputy. :eek: She wanted to go to her parents' as her brother is paying for them all to go to a restaurant for lunch ... instead she's helping me make lunch for my parents.

maman wrote: »

That's a good explanation Alex . We always said much the same as we wanted our children to say thank you (and write letters) to family and friends that had been kind enough to give gifts.
I couldn't agree more that LittleK doesn't need 'stuff' for Christmas. What he'll enjoy most is time with family and friends, playing games and a happy dad!

Thanks, maman.

We made Christmas biscuits for school and he took them in today. Apparently, they were quite impressed ... glad about that as we had a production line in our kitchen yesterday in order to decorate them!