* It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year * - It's the 2016 Christmas Chatter Thread

vulpix

Just had to say,bloomin well done to Clumsy.No mean feat there girl.Congratulations.

Murie,I feel your pain,decorating with husband,lol.

I was full of great intentions to jump out of bed and get on with building this stone wall in the garden.Its blimmin rained so the ground is too wet for a few hours.

Vx

vulpix

Pk,I am sure you will soon like the bathroom tiles.Just takes a while sometimes for things to grow on us.x

elliew8

Morning everyone
It rained on my way to and from the station last night so I treated myself with a nice hot bath when I got in...made me feel all cosy and wintery but it's miserable and clammy here today - summer isn't over yet!
Clumsy well done on your OU degree and welcome back to the thread!
Sammy I think it's fair to say we're all very jealous of the Matalan discount! For everyone else Matalan usually do a 20/25% off code in the run up to xmas, personally I can't wait that long lol
Murie, happy anniversary and good luck with the decorating

PrincessKitty it really is a good list, although I've had to substitute putting out food for the birds, it would be like bait for the cat lol oh also I think I remember with Matalan if you sign in and leave stuff in your basket they sometimes send you a discount code :j
Peppa I wish my DH could bake, or even cook for that matter! Enjoy the cake also reminds me I need to get some cake to eat during GBBO tomorrow...

Cherry24

Hi Everyone,

I've set a little challenge for myself. Since I work from home and on the computer, I buy almost everything online and my house is always full of cardboard boxes. The village we are moving to has alot of independent shops, delis and markets in close proximity so I'm going to try and buy 90% of my Christmas presents locally and offline.

The weather has turned to sunny again today so no wood burner on (we actually had it on yesterday and day before).

Clumsy - Well done, that's great

Princess - We are looking forward to it, just waiting to exchange. I hate waiting though

MoneyMission2015

princesskitty29 wrote: »

I have finalised my advent activities list, I just need to get a wooden advent calendar with the little drawers and I will put an activity each day for us to do. I just thought i'd share my list of activities with you:

1. Fairylight Express (driving round with hot choc & Christmas music to see houses lit up with fairy lights)
2. Ice skating
3. Make a Christmas decoration
4. Donate food to food bank
5. Decorate the tree & house
6. Have a festive Starbucks/Costa
7. Put some food out for the birds
8. Visit local garden centre/shopping centre to see the Christmas display. I live near Milton Keynes and they do an amazing one!
9. Sing Christmas carols
10. Have a hot chocolate with whipped cream & the works!
11. Watch a Christmas film.
12. Have a North Pole breakfast
13. Light a Christmas candle and give thanks
14. Make gingerbread men
15. Carry out a random act of kindness
16. Donate some money to charity
17. Make cookies for Father Christmas
18. Go to town's switching on of the lights (although after typing this I just realised that will probably be before December so need to change this one!)
19. Play a Christmas game
20. Visit a Christmas market
21. Make dried oranges to hang around the house
22. Write a letter to Father Christmas
23. Go for a festive walk (take hot choc etc)
24. Have a festive indoor picnic

They're not in order yet, I need to sit down with the calendar and figure out what day i'm doing what. I'll keep the list on my spreadsheet and look at the next day's activity, if I feel we won't be able to manage them that day i'll swap them around a bit! I'm hoping we can manage all of them, i've tried to put lots of little things in there so it's easy to do in a day. Obviously Wiggle can't do them all but it's as much for DH and I as for him! And as he gets older he'll be able to do everything. I'm looking forward to trying it out!

This is cute PK. I've seen similar things on pinterest and was going to come up with my own list so I'll probably take some inspiration from your list. We go on holiday soon & then when we are back I will be in full on Christmas mode (even though Halloween is soon).


I had a nose on Matalan the other night and earmarked lots of things I want to buy. I didn't order them just yet because I knew I wouldn't be in the house much to take the delivery but I'll probably order them this week and maybe be cheeky getting them delivered to work :rotfl:


I've also been checking other shops websites for their Christmas ranges. Not many have anything yet, some have stuff listed but not available. I'll just keep looking and I'll update here if I find anything that I think any of you will like.


I was looking the other day at Christmas markets and came across the Bath Christmas Show. It looks pretty good so I think I might go this year. Its at the end of November. Bath isn't too far away from where I live, probably just under 2 hour drive so I might just make a day of it. I was looking at hotels nearby but I think I'll actually just drive there & back. It's reasonable too, £4 a ticket for adults and £2 for kids.

mandco

Bargain_Bunny wrote: »

Evening all

I'm making a big deal of xmas this year, I went onto the Matalan website and I have been adding stuff into my basket - I do want a lot of it lol. I signed up to their reward card and it says they will send you a voucher in the post, when I get this I will defo go instore, I want the melamine bowl/plate/beaker/t towels the lot

I just got my email welcome vouchers 20% off £20+ instore & £10 off £25+ online - no xmas stock instore yet so I'll be putting the online one to use just waiting for some bits I want to come back in stock.
They have some lovely stuff but quite a few bits I liked were oos so only thing I've ordered yet is the cute little plush elf he was oos but they emailed to say they had it back in so thought I'd get it while I could just in case.

Princesskitty mUst be exciting to see it all coming together at last. Hopefully it won't be much longer and you'll be in a reasonably settled in time for xmas shame about the tiles its frustrating when things don't end up being how you imagined.

Busy day today the older one are finally back to school, chewy has the groomers for the 1st time :eek: its only the puppy package as they don't do a full groom till 6 months but he really needs it so hopefully he'll behave.To top it all off I have job interview work placement tonight and I'm so nervous. Its nothing exciting just some shop work but its really really local fits in perfectly with school so no child care issues and would be some extra cash coming in till which is always a good thing.

actually I'd better shoot and get chewy ready will try and pop back later and catch up properly.
tc all

sammy_kaye18

MoneyMission2015 wrote: »

I was looking the other day at Christmas markets and came across the Bath Christmas Show. It looks pretty good so I think I might go this year. Its at the end of November. Bath isn't too far away from where I live, probably just under 2 hour drive so I might just make a day of it. I was looking at hotels nearby but I think I'll actually just drive there & back. It's reasonable too, £4 a ticket for adults and £2 for kids.

Really???? I never knew they did this! :eek:
I meet my grandmother every year in Bath (she lives in Southampton and Im near enough Swansea) and we spend the day together Christmas shopping but I never knew they did a Christmas Show! Sounds fab. I will look into it!

04624181

Sorry I have not been on in days, life kind of took over. We had a busy weekend for our 15th wedding anniversary and I just have not stopped. I will try and catch up properly but have been skim reading.

Welcome and big christmas sprinkles to newbies joining us and people rejoining from last year, its beginning to feel alot like christmas lol xxx
Peppa- your chair is amazing and I agree, every home should have one xx How are you doing? Your dolls house for your DGD sounds amazing, please could you share pics when it is done?
pinksteps- that picture about already completing this months snow challenge was hilarious, love it ! xx Teddy is gorgeous!
PK29- exciting times for you now, It must be hard work but will all be worth it in the end. I love your advent list and have printed it off to use for ideas for our list thank you xxx
elliew8-4 hours of ironing was like chinese water torture for me lol
cherry24-Your country cottage sounds amazing.
msgigglewick- thank you for the heads up about matalan, I purchased some gift tag initialshttp://www.matalan.co.uk/events/christmas/christmas-cards-andwrap/s2631744/alphabet-christmas-gift-tags-11cm-x-9cm
i really wanted them last year but they sold out so quick. Im going to put the each persons initial tag on their pile of presents. A way of them knowing whose is whose.
ChrissyG- The duvet set is lovely x
vulpix- 4 trees and 8 banana boxes of decorations is quite a collection. It must be fab when you get everything up.
sammy_kaye18- I totally agree, its not excessive, its festive!! I love putting the decorations up. I may need a kitchen tree now lol
murie- i agree with you on YC, it seems like they have lost their smell. I was really gifted a bayliss and harding candle and it smells divine!
Free- I am definately an autumn girl too, I love us all snuggled up on the couch with our pjs on xx
nic2075- welcome back, I see the others have filled you in about the craft challenge. Everybody is welcome to join in xx
Clumsy42- well done on your excellent results xx
bargain bunny- thats a good stash for your LO christmas stocking
cherry24- what a lovely idea to buy locally and support your local community
moneymission2015- thanks for the info on bath christmas market, Im going to have a look now online xx
mandco-good luck for the interview tonight xx

MoneyMission2015

Quick edit to my previous post about the Christmas market. It's actually in Shepton Mallett! The grounds are called Bath and West Showground, which is why I thought it was in Bath.:rotfl:


Here is the link: http://www.bathandwestshowground.com/events/the-christmas-shopping-show-2016


Shepton Mallett is about 40 minutes from Bath, lucky I checked before everybody started booking! There is a Bath Christmas Market too though, which comes up when you Google it, so you could go to both if you had the time

princesskitty29

Hi all, it’s very overcast here but blimey it’s muggy! I picked up a Christmas present for Wiggle that I ordered from Tesco, it’s a push along Thomas the Tank Engine that blows bubbles! He doesn’t need it but he’ll love it! I know I sound crazy but I’ve been on my ‘occasions’ spreadsheet and have started to have a think about Halloween. I just like to have a bit of fun at Halloween so I’ll probably have a little tea party for Wiggle and his friends. I’m thinking bat/ghost/pumpkin shaped sandwiches using some cookie cutters I’ve got and ghost bananas etc. I’ve got loads of ideas on Pinterest. His friends are all different ages and wouldn’t really understand how to play a proper game yet so I’m thinking of having glow sticks and glow sticks in balloons and glow in the dark things etc in a darkened living room for them to play around with. I’m only planning so early because I know myself, I always have ideas to do things then leave it too late and don’t end up doing them. The only way around it is to plan early!

vulpix yes I’m sure once we have been in there a while and moved our stuff in the tiles will grow on me.

ellie ooh thanks I might try that on the Matalan site!

Cherry I feel your pain! Our completion date feels so near yet so far! I love your idea of buying 90% of pressies offline and locally. I used to do a lot of shopping online but i've become a bit disillusioned and this year I feel like I want to go to the shops and actually see the things in real life, rather than trying to visualise how big things really are etc.

MoneyMission please do take some inspiration from my list, I got inspiration from all over the place! I’ve always wanted to go to the Bath Christmas market, I’m thinking of trying it out too this year.

mandco hopefully the tiles will grow on me! Yes I can’t wait to be in and decorate for Christmas! Good luck for your job interview, sending you lots of positive vibes!

04624181 glad you can use some ideas off my list. Congrats on your 15th wedding anniversary! I hope you had a lovely time.