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

princesskitty29

Well the good news here is I finally finished my cross stitch!!! I finished it Thursday night with 2 weeks to spare, so it is now at the framers and I have two weeks to concentrate on everything else. I feel like I suddenly have so much more time on my hands as I was doing it every night for so long. I’m glad I persevered though as it is a lovely piece and I really hope my MiL will like it. Despite what I said about wanting everything to be finished by 1st December I’m actually really happy I’ve still got presents to wrap as it’s lovely doing it with all of the decorations up and in the festive atmosphere.

 

We had our Grinch themed evening last night and it went really well. I decorated the dining room with things I’d found online and printed, we had Who Hash and Beastly Beans (ham hash with baked beans), Who pudding (a plain sponge pudding decorated with red and green M&M’s) and Grinch juice (green smoothie). Then afterwards we watched the animated Grinch and the boys had some popcorn in some self made Grinch popcorn holders that I’d printed and some green M&M’s in a little cellophane bag with a Merry Grinchmas tag on it. We actually watched the whole film which is a miracle, my two (especially the youngest) rarely sits through a whole film! So all in all a success.

 

I’m really disappointed in my Christmas book for this year, it’s ‘Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery’, the story is ok but as with a lot of books it’s not at all about Christmas, it’s just set at Christmas time. Very frustrated that they just whack ‘Christmas’ into titles for a sale! Any recommendations for books where the story is actually about Christmas would be very appreciated.

 

Spendless Oooh how exciting your DD was in a Christmas film even as an extra!

 

Treasurequeen your quilted advent calendar sounds lovely.

 

Mrs Ryan sorry to hear you’ve been struggling, it’s a very hard time of year at the best of times not to mention your OH not getting the overtime he usually gets. I’ve noticed a lot of young people not in a uniform turning up to deliver the post who I assume are temps, we’ve had a few problems though with post being delivered to wrong houses and the other day they left a parcel outside the front of our house in full sight (we were actually in) and didn't put a note through the door so we didn’t know it was there. Fingers crossed tiers change for you and you can go out for Christmas lunch.

 

Redrobin sorry to hear about your DH, I do hope he gets well soon and that the rest of you are ok and stay well.

 

mandco yes expectations and reality don’t always match up when it comes to children! Thankfully the Grinch night went well. Oh no sorry to hear about your cooker and that you couldn’t choose exactly what you’ like, what a pain! Hopefully having delicious food over Christmas will make up for it.

 

noodles it is hard at the moment isn’t it, it’s cold and dark and unfortunately there’s not a lot we can do. I know it’s going to take a long time to get back to normal but I really am hoping that by next Christmas there might be a little bit more freedom.

rachsecret

I have spent yesterday with the DS on our Festive baking day. Made a lots of things and the kitchen is currently a bomb site! vega mince pies, vegan tiffin, vegan flapjacks, vegan jazzies, mince pies with frangipane, jam tarts, rocky road, Christmas cupcakes. Today we have a festive afternoon tea whilst sampling some of our creations. It was one of our Christmas events on our calendar and went down well. Will definitely do the event calendar again next year.

@princesskitty29 your Grinch day sounds amazing! so creative and lovely that the boys enjoyed it too. Please you completed your cross stitch; I was wondering if you had managed to finish it in time. I totally agree re Festive books needing to have the emphasis upon FESTIVE. I've been reading some Trisha Ashley ones this year which have been good-very easy read, feel good and definitely festive. 

StokieBecks

Hope everyone is doing ok

Today is my last late shift before Christmas - rest of my shifts  up to Christmas have fallen quite favourably for a change. Keeping my fingers crossed nothing changes with them. Although I am getting a bit stressed about running the food order collection point on 23rd and 24th as that will be an awful lot of interactions that I would have preferred to avoid.

Some presents have been offloaded. There is a few doorstep drop and go to do this week as well. Trying to space it all out.

It doesn't really feel like the run up to Christmas right now. I will try my best to enjoy the Christmas period but think this will be my worst Christmas since 2013 for not feeling it

Redredrobin

Thanks for all the good wishes . He seems to have turned a corner and after 10 days of not eating had managed something today . I can’t see him back at work anytime soon though he’s very frail . 

  Tomorrow is mine and dds last day of house hail can’t wait to get back to my walking . 

mandco

Princesskitty - glad to hear you finally finished the cross stitch I'm sure it was well worth the effort but I bet its great to have some  me time again.  The grinch evening sounds likes a success - we're doing ours this weekend

Redrobin - wow sounds like your dh has had a really tough time with it - Fingers crossed he's over the worst and continues to improve 

Rachsecret your bakes look great - I had to put our baking day off as no cooker at the moment but got big plans for the weekend as long as it turns up Friday 

Storkie - this christmas is def feeling different - I think the lack of xmassy activities is not helping as there is no real xmas atmosphere around if it wasn't for a few house with lights up you wouldn't think its xmas in just over a week.

SDD nearly had to isolate till xmas eve - dgd class were sent home as they were deemed a contact - they got a follow up a few days later to say the school had been given the wrong info and they didn't actually need to isolate and could return to school s it was not the child in her class who tested positive it was a family member - she's decided to keep dgd home now anyway just in case as she does have medical issues and she's only 4 so its not likes she's really going to miss much anyway but the school aren't happy.

Finally made a small dent in the wrapping - I was hoping to have it done by now but seriously short on storage space as not been able off load presents to other people yet and most of it is currently jenga'd into boxes which I can't do once things are wrapped.
We've always done presents under the tree xmas eve  after the kids are in bed but loads of people seem to do it far earlier and I was wondering now they are older if maybe I could start putting some under the tree early( as they know) as it would be so much easier. What do you do? 

still waiting on a couple of parcels - I even went with click & collect as it said 1-2 days and I was going there at the weekend anyway- a week later I'm still waiting for it to turn up in store which is a bit annoying as I didn't really want to have to go out again before xmas and I would have done home delivery if I'd known it would take so long.  On the plus side ds hoodie turned up.

kerri_gt

Mandco I'd put the presents under the tree, growing up I remember presents always going under the tree as they came into the house,  i would look at the labels but rarely guess what was in any. Spent a lot of Christmas' with my cousins and the family presents always went under the tree then too. 
Santa bought our stockings separately and left them in our rooms to open in the morning.
Most of our cards are now written and posted, last few to do but had to order some more of the ones i specifically wanted, hopefully they'll turn up in time and if not 🤷‍♀️ i tried. 
Decorations still not up, prob won't be until this weekend, if we bother at all this year.

lazysheep

mandco said:

We've always done presents under the tree xmas eve  after the kids are in bed but loads of people seem to do it far earlier and I was wondering now they are older if maybe I could start putting some under the tree early( as they know) as it would be so much easier. What do you do? 

I guess it depends on how much space you have and how many presents! When I was younger it was always part of the Christmas Eve ritual - just before bed hang the stocking in the lounge, put out the snacks/nibbles etc and then bring down the presents for under the tree (all except presents from parents). Parent presents were opened in their room on Christmas morning along with santa presents and stockings retrieved from downstairs while they opened their presents to each other.  There would be wrapping paper flying everywhere but it was hilarious! We even did this when I was coming home from University for Christmas Anyone else we were seeing on the day would usually bring their presents round with them at that point so it spread everything out a bit when we were younger.

Peppapig

MANDCO We’ve always put pressies for family and friends under the tree from the time they’re wrapped but pressies for us children were always brought by Santa on Christmas Eve night so were there when we woke up on Christmas morning so this is what I always did with my own children. I think it really  depends on whether Father Christmas brings all the pressies (in which case they can’t possibly be under the tree til Christmas morning) or whether parents give some and Santa does the rest. If the children no longer think Santa brings the pressies then I’d say it depends on whether or not they’ll resist the temptation to open them early. Also, how much of the pleasure you get is in them seeing their wrapped pressies for the first time?

PRINCESSKITTY I forgot to say your Grinch evening sounds amazing. I’ve never seen the Grinch film (or is it films?) but your ideas sound great. Well done on the cross stitch too, I hope she loves it.

REDREDROBIN glad DH is on the mend, that must have been very scary.

I’m all wrapped and ready to go. Cards have been sent, pressies for family far away have been delivered, food is ordered and crackers almost finished. I don’t have anything ‘special’ or even festive to wear this year so I’m debating whether it’s worth ordering anything or just wearing my ‘normal’ clothes. In the great scheme of things that’s not such a big dilemma to have.

Treasurequeen

mandco said:

Finally made a small dent in the wrapping - I was hoping to have it done by now but seriously short on storage space as not been able off load presents to other people yet and most of it is currently jenga'd into boxes which I can't do once things are wrapped.
We've always done presents under the tree xmas eve  after the kids are in bed but loads of people seem to do it far earlier and I was wondering now they are older if maybe I could start putting some under the tree early( as they know) as it would be so much easier. What do you do? 

Presents usually go under the tree on Christmas Eve at my parents. I deliver my grandparents gifts on Christmas Eve usually and they go under their tree too. Since I moved out- each year I unwrap my presents at my parents and bring them home with me in evening on Christmas Day. 

Still got a bit of wrapping to do but Christmas crackers were done yesterday. Me and my mum watched last Christmas  film with a box of chocolates yesterday whilst we made up the Christmas crackers. 

Spendless

Well this was a different week to the one I anticipated. I said in an earlier post that we had tickets for a West end musical as DD knew someone in it. That was for next week. As the weekend approached it started looking likely that by then we wouldn't be seeing it, we looked to change the tickets. Then came Monday's news about London. Fortunately the parents of the cast member were able to get a message to DD saying they'd sorted us free tickets for the final performance and so we last minute had to book train tickets and an overnight stay. DD ended up skipping college to attend and I never got any of the last minute jobs I'd planned done BUT it was worth it. It's quite possible that the show will not be put on again or even if the same  person would get the role, so was a case of see now or not at all.
So now I've still got Xmas card to write and post, a handful of items to wrap and some to try and off-load as I'm also starting to struggle for space.
mandco - We always put the presents out Xmas Eve after the kids went to bed. But by then most if not all presents to people outside our household had been given out and I have a'present cupboard' to store stuff in. It's quite large as the water tank used to sit in it prior to having a combi boiler. As the kids grew up (and the presents become smaller in size - though more expensive!) they would help put them out under the tree before going to bed. They were allowed to open a small (in value) present at this time. Then last year we got a puppy. He isn't crated and he has an obsession with presents and likes chewing. Our house is very open plan, so can't shut the dog off elsewhere.  For the first time the presents only cane down Christmas Day morning. It's possibly going to be similar this year too, dependng on what dog's sleeping arrangements are. Would I put them under the tree earlier in your position? Possibly, depending on certain circs. If your kids are well past the age of believing, if they aren't going to rattle, shake, try to peek etc into everything (I couldn't trust DD not to do this now and she's 17...!) if you've got no pets who are going to have fun with wrapped items when you've gone to bed and also dare I say it, how secure your house is and how 'on view' the presents will be from the road outside. We've been burgled as we've slept before (thankfully not on Xmas eve, but the night after DD's 11th birthday) and it's awful, not an experience you'd want to do on Christmas Day.