* Driving Home for Christmas * - It's the 2021 Christmas Chatter Thread!

nic2075

Nice to see you Pixtotfs 👋  it has been a very weird year. I’ve spent far too much money online this year. It’s hard when there’s not much else to do 🤷🏼‍♀️

That’s us back in full March style lockdown here in mainland Scotland. Boris doing an announcement at 8pm for England.  I’m gutted that it’s came to this again, but understand it needs to happen. I just wish people would stick to the rules 😞   I was all set to go back to work on Wed. I work in a high school, so we have been told we aren’t back until at least the 1st of Feb 😞 it’s going to be hard. But I’m trying to stay positive. Planning to hunker down with the kids,  enjoy simple things, light some candles and create a cosy atmosphere. 

Please take care everyone 

mandco

Thanks for the new thread 3forholidays
Not been on few a few days as my laptop charger died so had to wait for a new one  but My new years resolution is to try and post more often hopefully most days even if its just to say Hi.  Jan isn't the best month for me so I may miss a few days but I will def try harder to post more this year.

We spent new years eve partying via zoom with lots of karaoke as it was also dgd birthday 
I popped out on the 2nd to get some shopping - 1st time I've been out since xmas eve and you wouldn't have thought it was xmas a week earlier - no xmas stock to be seen and no real sale stuff either normally manage to pick up quite a bit reduced to put away but nothing left this year.  Have had a browse of the sales online and did order a couple of the superdry toiletry sets ds likes and a couple of hoodies from hollister for his birthday but other than that haven't seen anything worth getting. 

Not the best start to the new year with another lockdown but it is needed and hopefully it will give enough time for the numbers to get back to manageable levels and allow the vaccine roll out to cover those most in need.  The main concern I have is that the lockdown isn't really going to be a lockdown again - its basically seems to be just novembers lockdown/ tier 4 rules with schools closed and I don't think that is going to be enough when its really what has been happening the last few weeks anyway in most areas. In the 1st lockdown all of us were furloughed now they are all still working under the click & collect exception - which means people are still going out and mixing far more than needed ds said they have had people queuing up to 2 hrs outside to collect orders

Need to take the rest of the decs down later - we've been doing it slowly over the last few days so its not such a stark contrast 
much as I would love to leave them up longer as I'm a little superstitious I def don't need to risk any bad luck .  That said we may end up doing celebration trees this year - so have it up and decorated for any occasions  which I think might be fun though I may see if I can find a smaller one for that rather than use our 7ft one as it does take up quite a bit of space. They have already come up with quite a list of suggestions

Keep safe everyone 

pixtotts

Hi @nic2075 that's it isn't it not much else to do might as well online shop haha.

I finally gave in and ordered a new card  - want to pay Christmas money in... for my sister to come give it to me an hour later after swearing she had given it back to me after doing some posting for me before Christmas >.< always the way isn't it! 

@mandco a celebration tree sounds lovely! Maybe one of those twiggy type trees? I know a few people who use them for their stands at craft fairs and keep them up all year round with different colours / themes on them

My trees are down, but their trail of needles (from the fake and real!) are still there, we had lost the wedges for the stand for the little real one so wedged it with oasis so just waiting for that to dry before I hoover it. Does anyone else have a selection of all year round decorations? I have a couple of owls that live on my bookcase when the tree isn't up and bought a glass moon and star this year that are definitely being kept out, not sure whether to put them in my studio or keep them for the bedroom once it's decorated... only bought the paint last July! lol x

Kit1

Hi everyone just found your forum and would love to join in.  I have sort of lost my love for Christmas but that doesn't stop me from making sure everyone gets a gift and we celebrate (mainly OH's birthday which is on Christmas Day). 

Peppapig

Welcome Kit1. 

I used to have an ‘occasion’ tree MANDCO. I changed the decs for the season, added pretty decorative eggs for Easter, birds for spring, flowers for summer, pumpkins for Autumn etc. Sadly the arrival of the kittens put paid to anything hanging anywhere other than from the ceiling lol. Having said that, they’re older now and were pretty restrained with the Christmas tree this year so maybe I’ll give it another go.

C_J

Thanks for the new thread 3forholidays, and Happy New Year to everyone!

I have made a very good head start by snapping up some excellent bargains from Rex London - they have a sale section on their website and also a separate clearance bit. Every year I do handmade advent calendars and Christmas stockings for both my grownup daughters and their other halves, so I have bought lots of little fun items for those (and they were very inexpensive). Really pleased.

StokieBecks

Thank you C_J for the reminder about RexLondon - i think they used to be dotcomgiftshop (or something similar) just went on and bought a few little gifts for my friends birthday - all inexpensive but useful.  Will bookmark it as a potential for Christmas ideas too.

C_J

Yes, they used to be dotcomgiftshop. I think a lot of their full price stuff is quite expensive, but I always get some good sale and bargain clearance things from them. They have another clearance in the summer which is always worth a look.

mandco

Peppa - our current cat has never been bothered by the tree even when she was little though she did knick a few of the lowest baubles off the tree this time. Have to be careful with ribbons/bows though as she tries to eat them - dd has a 20 min video of her laid on the floor licking the cellophane on a hamper 
I must stop looking at sale stuff as everything I like ends up being oos locally/for delivery to my area which is getting really frustrating 
Anyone else back to home schooling?  taz is easy as we're not tied to the school curiculum but ds is really struggling. and is been tough to get him motivated and put in the effort so this week has been pretty stressful so far

Kseniya

happy New Year! all happiness and of course health! we had a real family holiday! I even managed to make conscious desires for the first time.