Christmas 16 mega index/christmas chat!!!

candlelight_2013

Me too, what a wonderful attitude. I love Christmas as well, I love the preparation, the buying of presents and all the planning. I hope you all have a wonderful time and hopefully a second one in December.

I am sure many photos will be taken too. You sound like a lovely family and how lucky you are to have each other

Much love

Candlelightx

emiai

I saw this thread.. paused for a second. and then jumped right in!!

I hear jingle bells now :beer:

pinkmami

Hope you have a nice early Christmas Mhagster xx

I've started buying bits too. 3 kids age 14, 12, 8. But I've noticed the bits ive bought are things the like to give their friends. Like a face mask & small body lotion etc. Just a token gesture.

Older 2 (girls) are into football so is DS. Limited as to how many balls i buy! 2nd DD is into hair/ basic make up but just for days out. Older one shows no interest at all!

But its easy to give JD/Sports Direct/Primark vouchers. PS3 games for DS, new shin pads and socks etc, shower gels.

They have laptops, older 2 have phones so no need to buy any big thing plus i am cutting down BIG time this year.

I have £650 of Love 2 Shop vouchers coming so they will come in handy for some wine/food in Iceland as i will have guests between Christmas and New Year. Plus my Tesco Saving stamps of £50 and £20 on my clubcard.

Thinking cap on!

VfM4meplse

I'm going to buy for our little princess but other than that it's going to be a non-event for me this year, mainly because it's so food focused and I hope to still be sugar-free. So I guess it's going to mean lots of satsumas for me....unless I can get away in December.

In a way Christmas hasn't really ended here, as I bought the LO a musical biscuit tin from M&S so we get Jingle Bells all year round

MMF007

My name is M and I love Christmas! There, I've said it.

i love the planning and prep and then giving presents and making the food for the big day. This year we are planning a family get together. Doesn't happen every year due to long distances and work commitments, so it will be a big event, fingers crossed (serious illnesses abound with the eldest generation). One year we did an early Christmas, just like you mhagster, and the rsst of us still talk about what a lovely time we had, even though the underlying reason was very sad.

I am inclined to make foodie presents because my other craft skills are very limited (looks like a child made whatever I atttempt ). I love the flavoured vodka and also made damson gin last year. It was a big hit, just bought fancy bottles and decorated them with some beautiful ribbon glued round and made gift labels in a matching colour. As the big manufacturers know, beautiful presentation counts for a lot!!

I also bought some 'designer' T- towels (each one with something meaningful to intended recipient), found colour coordinated tea cups in CS, placed white candles in them, scattered table confetti in a pretty box, and added the teabag poem, and a tea bag! that I saw on an earlier MSE thread. They looked very pretty and were practical too. Oh, btw, I only used half an pretty box, putting one gift set in the top and one in the bottom, covering each with florists cellophone and adding a ribbon, so the recipient got the full benefit of the pretty effects! A sort of mini tea hamper? Obvs you could add mini jams, packs of bickies, etc.

That's it, I am i the mood for making a list of ideas now, thanks Zippy! :j

PasturesNew

Mine's easy:

Stick up the tree at the beginning of December.
1-2 days before Xmas pop out to buy a turkey portion, some frozen yorkshires and make sure I've got frozen veg and instant gravy.
Buy about 200 grams of choccies, probably a box of Celebrations.

On the day cook the dinner using the nuker and grill in about 15-20 minutes ... scoff it.

Lounge on the sofa all afternoon scoffing chocolates.

Job done

lilian1977

Can anyone suggest cheap but big presents for a 6 year old boy? His birthday is in January so I have to think about two lots of impressive looking piles and I have NO idea what to get him!

He already has a bike, a scooter (and the related paraphenalia), a Hudl, a football, a football kit, a CD player with a few CDs, plenty of clothes, plenty of craft materials, boxes of Lego... in fact he's got too much and we're trying to sift a lot of it out of the house in advance of the big day. So I'm trying to think of things that won't cost the earth, but will be big enough to make an impressive looking pile once wrapped up, yet are consumable - we got him lots of craft stuff last year in the knowledge that it will be used up and discarded!

The only thing he wants at the moment is Kinetic Sand - he has to wait until Christmas for it, but I can't just give him that! We try and avoid too much chocolate/sweets as well so can't really fall back on that.

Any suggestions?!

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

If you are quick, I has released my recipe for Xmas Pud! See my posts!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/70980568#Comment_70980568

MMF007

Hi Lilian, have you got any outside space? You might consider buying DS an outside toy so it doesn't take up space in the home. When we were little my mum actually wrapped, in sheets and sheets of xmas paper, a large SLIDE! That certainly looked like an impressive present :rotfl:

A sandpit and some cheap plastic toys to go in it might also work? Not expensive but lots of play value.

Will he be 7 on his birthday (sorry, not sure if your reference to a six y.o relates to current age, or age on birthday, iyswim). My 7 y.o nephew absolutely loved his birthday present of a trip to a pantomine - his parents got a cake with related theme as decoration, put the ticket in a jazzy 'wallet', also suitably decorated, and made sure there were some 'actual' presents to unwrap as well. His birthday is Boxing Day so it's always tricky!

HTH,

M

lilian1977

Hi MMF - we do have outside space but it's all concrete so might not be safe to have a slide. We're making an effort to make it look a bit nicer though so I might have a think about what we could get him that could live outside, thanks.

He'll be 6 on his birthday - I wondered about tickets for something but there's not really anything he would want to go to I don't think - he would love to see Man Utd but not sure he would sit through the whole thing and it's a big expense if we leave at half time! I will have a look at local listings though, thanks for the idea. xx