* Step into Christmas * & 2020 - It's the 2020 Christmas Chatter Thread

vulpix

Where will you hide it Beshski? lol. Who was it one year who had to hide a pizza oven?
I got the 75p Chocolate oranges too today and vegan galaxy.I also bought stuff for the christmas cupboard like sponge fingers etc.I need to start on lists as I am sure i will be ok after my operation at the end of the month but just in case...

Peppapig

VULPIX it was MURIE with the pizza oven 🤣

Beshki

Lol! Well it does say that the box is quite small & actually I’m hoping that my Mums partner might put it together for me & that they’ll perhaps keep it until nearer the time - our house is tiny so it isn’t something I could easily hide ha ha.

mandco

Well had a bit of a mixed bag shopping wise this weekend - on the cons side I had a list of things I was after and roughly 1/2 were oos or not available in the sizes I needed but I did make it to home bargains and found some stuff not on my list elsewhere so guess it evened out. 
I was pretty surprised at how little xmas stock is in the shops yet - nothing in primark or boots (though lots of empty shelves)
Homebargains had loads of xmas stock in and I brought far too much but they has some really good prices. worth mentioning I got the large gingerbread candle  in a jar and they also had a candycane one which smells great. Picked up a load of xmas activity books for taz 59p each, a tango selection box £1.49 for ds, Parcel the penguin game £3, some matchbox puzzles for the boys stockings 39p each and some toasted marshmellow & gingerbread toffee popcorn.
Poundland have some 2021 annuals in - I got taz a minecraft one they also had a football /lol doll /baby shark & paw patrol
Tesco had a small xmas selection - I got some of the choc penguin shaped biscuits as while they are normal stock they are dairyfree also picked up a couple of choc oranges.
popped in to sains to pick up an argos order and they had a small selection of free from xmas stock in - picked up a mini xmas pudding.
Also picked up some random bits like extra light bulbs for the stash box - I'm trying to go out as little as possible so want to make sure all the unexpected basics are covered.

Was having a sort out of the xmas stuff and taz saw the xmas tree box - cue lot of when can we put it up so we've decided it can go up at the weekend and be decorated for halloween 


 

chanie

mandco I bought the tango selection boxes from Home Bargains too.  How much was the popcorn?  

mandco

chanie said:

mandco I bought the tango selection boxes from Home Bargains too.  How much was the popcorn?  

The popcorn was 99p - 170g bags haven't tried it though so not sure if its any good- should have picked up a couple of bags 

rachsecret  I've been trying to put together a plan for the run up to xmas too and its tough as so many of the usual activities/events we'd include have be cancelled.  Princesskitty had the great idea of doing a grinch themed evening so I'm borrowing that. I think I'm going to aim for 1 xmassy themed dinner a week though no idea what to do for the others yet.
The big thing for me is to try and find activities that get us all together  - I find day to day while we might be in the same place we often hardly actually see one another as after school/work the older ones want to do their own thing/stay in their rooms ect 
we do the xmas movie night - I aim to do once a week so that's 3/4 days taken care of 
I assume your son has a gaming console? could you get a family friendly game set the console up downstairs for a few hours and/or get a new board/card game and have a games night - there are quite a few more adult themed games around now 
One of our usual pre xmas activities is to donate to the local foodbank / toy drive - I usually take the kids to chose things but might have to donate online this year depending on how things go.

Princesskitty  sorry you didn't get to see your parents fingers crossed you'll be able to do so soon - glad dh is ok though. I know our kids need to be in school but you can't help but worry about them contracting it there as so many schools seem to have cases. Ds school has had 4 unrelated cases in the last couple of weeks so quite a few kids/staff off isolating 

finally managed to get a white choc orange 

Treasurequeen

Bought two chocolate oranges from Tesco for parents stockings. I just need to get a book for my dads stocking and then he is finished just his main present to get. Dog treats ordered for the dog and are now stashed under the bed so all animal presents are now finished. Just got my parents to buy for and my mums stocking and a few cards then i am done.  Going to do some lists tomorrow of what i need to get food wise. 
My Christmas planner finishes this year but my mum bought me a new one as a surprise I Can't wait to fill it out. 

A friend gave me an idea of something to do Christmas related at home- a Christmas themed afternoon tea. So am stealing that idea. 
Hope everyone is ok xx 

chanie

mandco thanks for getting back to me on the popcorn.  I’m going to Home Bargains in a couple of weeks time, so I’ll look out for it.  I’m making a couple of hampers to give to family members as surprise presents and popcorn is a nice big item to fill up the box.

Beshki

Was hoping to find some Bournville Old Jamaica in Morrisons, as it is online. Wasn’t in my nearest store which is a pain as I’ve always bought from the website before and you have to buy quite a bit to make it worth the postage cost. 

Just about to order a few pairs of slippers from shoe zone for elderly family, decent quality and super cheap at £6.99 free p&p

freebird09

Hello, hope you don't mind me joining in a bit late! I'm Christmas mad, but this year's felt a bit gloomy (redundancies thanks to the big C!). I'm really enthusiastic now, though; it feels like Christmas bits are popping up in the shops even earlier this year. 

Bought my first Christmas present last week: a print of past Tour de France winners off Etsy for my Dad, who's mad on it. I'm trying to buy more second-hand and from independent businesses this year - if nothing else, avoiding Amazon - so I was pretty chuffed to find this one!