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

Gettingtherequickly

I have more or less resigned myself to the fact that I will not be going home for Christmas, but need to consider that I may be on my own that day, so starting to shop for stuff that I would like to eat on the day, if I can have someone, great, but if not, I plan to be self indulgent for the day, eat when I want etc    To this end, when I was in Costco, I was looking at the sweets, only had Quality Street, which I don't like so would have been a waste, so I picked up a KG bag of Lindor chocolates, will last for months, but once the bag is opened, there won't be the issue of toffee going messy etc.

My brother is in the final stages of buying a property, so will probably get something that he wants for it. Got a pile of Christmas cakes which will need homes, but they will be ok for next year, so not going to panic about them. Will try & get my cards written at the weekend, so that will be a job out of the way.

mandco

princesskitty29 

mandco oooh you’re going to be the first with the tree up! Are you decorating it with Halloween decs? I also do a ‘North Pole Breakfast’ on the day that we put the decorations up. I printed out some stuff from Pinterest, decorate the table and we have pancakes shaped like snowmen and strawberry milkshake in mini milk-style bottles! I also usually put out a little table present for the boys, always a craft or activity book. I think some people do this to mark the arrival of the elf on the shelf but we don’t have that in our house so it’s just a festive breakfast!

   so far we've made some air dry clay halloween shapes to hang on it and got some halloween tinsel. I've spent so much of this year saying we can't do xyz because of covid and this was something we can do so figured why not. I might secretly be a little excited about the tree going up too.

 Welcome Freebird

GTQ - It must be tough not being able to go home when its always such a big part of your xmas.  Sounds like you have the start of a good back up plan brewing will you be able to facetime family on the day?

Tesco have the medium selection packs 1/2 price this week now £1.50. I know most are still not all that great value even at 1'2 price but I did get a few of the galaxy ones as those do work out better value on offer. 

chanie

mandco said:

Tesco have the medium selection packs 1/2 price this week now £1.50. I know most are still not all that great value even at 1'2 price but I did get a few of the galaxy ones as those do work out better value on offer. 

I make up my own selection boxes.  I  bought small buckets from IKEA which I decorated with Xmas stickers and I fill them up with sweets and chocolates.  I put them under the tree for the children to find on Xmas morning.  

nic2075

I went into the Range the other day and bought loads of craft stuff all around the £1-£3  to make during December. I know my DS won’t be interested, but I always buy some for him just incase. I got plaster of Paris tree decs to paint, a gingerbread house to paint, little wooden trees and some fake lights. A small cross stitch kit and little wooden Christmas scene to paint too.  I’ve also stocked up on baking stuff, loads of icing sugar and gel colourings. So no matter how rubbish Christmas might be this year, I will distract us with food and crafts 😂

I got sent home from work yesterday to self isolate for 14 days. I was in close contact with someone who tested positive for 50 minutes (unavoidable in my job)  😞 I wear a mask at all times at work, but it’s not medical grade. So I’m hoping all my hand washing etc has protected me. But will need to wait and see. Not great timing as the kids finish up for October holidays today, but our area is on a local lockdown, so we wouldn’t be going anywhere anyway.  I’ve sat and did an online Asda shop. So will have plenty of snacks and food. Plan to gut my house and garden and watch movies for 2 weeks. 

StokieBecks

Nic I do hope you all stay safe and well during your isolation.  Lots of people at work have had to isolate recently. No idea how we got through the lockdown period all ok but now more rules about masks and stuff in place at work it's got worse!  New signs going up every day about what we aren't allowed  to do 

Hope everyone else is well too
Not really done much more Christmas shopping. Have had to buy something else for my Aunty as I ordered some prints from an ad I saw on Facebook in July but the page and website disappeared last week leaving lots of people without orders. Trying to claim back on Paypal but as she isn't responding no idea how that will go. Luckily I didnt  spend much but some people were waiting for big orders

Treasurequeen

A warm Welcome to the newbies. Nic I hope everything goes ok in your isolation. 
Bought my selection box of biscuits from M&S on offer at £3.00 usually £4.00 a box, now stored in Christmas cupboard. Went to local shopping centre but was very disappointed I didn’t pick up anything except the biscuits. 

has anyone had your home Christmas made easy magazine or simply Christmas magazine are they any good? 

C_J

I hope your isolation goes smoothly nic (and anyone else who’s isolation or having a tough time right now).

I scarcely venture out any more, just one quick weekly supermarket shop. I managed to pick up a couple more items for a gin hamper I’m making - a little pack of three gin flavouring syrups, and a couple of tins of pre-mixed G&Ts with interesting flavours (a valentia orange one, and a pink hibiscus one). Both from Aldi, both inexpensive.

There were a few items I wanted to get from Hobbycraft, then realised they do free delivery if you spend £20 so I shall be browsing their website this evening. I need some more red, black, green and silver stamp pads and some Christmassy clear stamps so I can decorate some brown paper gift bags. They do packs of little jingly bells too, which will be fun tied onto gift ribbon on parcels for the grandchildren.

Beshki

CJ, I have been really impressed with hobbycraft’s offerings this year. All such good value. 

The slippers arrived from shoe zone (via eBay), I’ve ordered many pairs over the past few years and they’re always really good quality for the price. Ordered four pairs this time and really pleased with all. 

I have a couple to buy for who ‘have everything’ and have plenty of money - I always find this sort of people difficult to buy for x

C_J

I always find that a simple but more personal/thoughtful gift works well for people like that, Beshki. One idea I saw recently was to think of a place which has meaning for them (the place they first met, where they married, or even where they live now) and look it up on google earth to get the exact longitude and latitude coordinates. It’s quite a long string of numbers. You then print these numbers out and frame them to make a very personal gift which will hopefully mean a lot to them.  Look up “art print longitude latitude” on Etsy for examples. I thought it was a cute idea, and plan to do that this year for someone I know.

nic2075

CJ I like that idea. I’ve seen something similar on not on the high street.   Isn’t be something nice to get my sister and brother in law. 

Thanks for the well wishes. I went for a test yesterday and waiting the results. I was surprised when I got to the testing centre that I had to do it myself 😱 so I just hope I did it right! 

Today has a nice cosy feeling about it. I did all my housework yesterday, so the house is lovely and clean. I plan to light some candles and twinkle lights and cosy up with the kids watching Hocus Pocus and Nightmare before Christmas.  I can’t decide if that’s a Halloween or Christmas film, so we always watch it in October and December again lol. 

Have a good Saturday everyone.