A Jolly Holly Christmas - It's the 2022 Christmas Chatter Thread!

Coxy11

Oooh Clarks Village @C-J - haven't been there for a few years. Did go to Bicester Village a month ago but it was wall to wall designer and a bit pricey.  I got some Clarins and Benefit bits for Christmas though.

DH had a bit of a strop this afternoon about the gift buying for FIL and SIL. Wanted me to go with him to local retail park which has Next, Boots, Waterstones, M&S and TKMaxx. He picked a book and some chocs for FIL, a candle for SIL to go with an M&S voucher, and other BIL (his DSis husband) got some chocs and an M&S voucher (his birthday is 10th). We will see them all tomorrow so everything is wrapped and ready to go. Bit boring but now he can see how stressful it is and how awkward folk are to buy for. 

Next birthdays are MIL, and BIL (DH's brother) in early September. I will tell him to start earlier next time!
 

princesskitty29

Hi all, hope you’re all ok? I’m just here trying to keep two little boys entertained! It’s not been too bad so far and it’s nice to spend some time with them. My husband and I actually got 24 hours to ourselves on Friday as we went to the track cycling at the Commonwealth Games, it was an amazing experience. I’ve never been in a velodrome before, it’s quite an atmosphere! Very hot though. As the games are in Birmingham we assumed the cycling was there too, it was only a few days before we realised it was actually in London! They are using the velodrome they used in the Olympics. Luckily it was a very straightforward journey for us, I wonder how many people in Birmingham got tickets to the cycling and then realised it was in London!

I popped to the new Home Bargains near me last week, I spotted a few things that would be great stocking fillers but the boys were with me so I’ll have to try and get there without them sometime.

Coxy sorry to hear you’ve been suffering since you came back from your holiday, I hope things have improved for you since. It’s good for your husband to see how difficult it can be buying for people, it’s funny how we take over the mantle, I buy for my husband’s family too!

Treasurequeen those votive candles sound like a good buy.

CJ oh I do love St Ives, I haven’t been there for years.

ILChristmas1982

Hi All, I used to chat on the Christmas threads all the time but haven't been here for a few years but I miss discussing Christmas all year round So I'm back! My previous username was LMG1305.

Anyway, hello everyone. I'm going to go back to the beginning of this thread to catch up with everyone. I still follow a few of you on Instagram, so I hope to see you still posting on here. 

I'll be back to comment again when I've caught up with everything.

Have a great day all x

mandco

welcome back Hotcocoahotflushes 

Coxy sorry to hear the holiday didn't go too well it must have been very disappointing to not able to spend as much time with ddad as you would have liked. fair play for sicking to your guns and making dh step up to sort the presents himself - I think sometimes they take us for granted and just assume its easy for us because we get on with it not realising how stressful it can be 

CJ st ives is beautiful though its been forever since I last visited - I've found a lot of the outlets seem to be more expensive than elsewhere lately I think they hope your just assume its a good deal as its the outlets.

Princesskitty - good job you realised in time the games were actually in London like you say I bet a lot of people got caught out. 

treasure queen - I've found a lot of food products seem to have really short shelf lives this year makes it much harder to buy in advance. I might start adding a couple of non food items to my weekly shop though

not much xmas planning happening at the moment as the kids birthdays are coming up - dgd birthday this weekend they're having a little tea party/bbq depending on the weather Sunday for family & a few close friends as after doing a big party last year where they invited everyone and hired a venue ect they've realised its not worth the cost esp with the current situation. 
kicking myself today as dd asked for a new fitbit for her birthday - looked around and most places it was £109.99 not advertised as on offer or anything so thought I'd wait and see if any offers came up anywhere today its gone up to £129.99.

The range & TKmaxx have some lovely halloween stock in already so probably won't be long before the xmas stuff starts appearing.

princesskitty29

I haven't caught up yet but just popping in to say when I was in Tesco yesterday I saw a stack of Heroes and Celebrations tubs 2 for £7. It would seem the supermarkets are starting to get prepared!

Beshki

Despite not having much in the way of money to spare at the moment, I’ve managed to squirrel away a few bits and bobs. Really what I need to do is pull everything out and make a good list of what I have and what I need. Don’t want to end up over spending because I’ve bought more for people than I realise. 

mandco

anyone else see the article about the garden centre in essex that has a huge christmas display out already? 

Beshki - I really need to start tracking my buys better too I'm a nightmare for stashing things somewhere safe then forgetting about them or moving them then not being able to find them come dec. 

asda(george) & H&M both have small collections of christmas themed clothes online already if you search for it argos have some xmas decs/lights/trees ect all very limited but stock is slowly & quietly appearing there are probably more but those are the ones I've looked at so far - I think that they don't want to advertise it yet incase they get slated but at the same time have realised some of us do like to plan/shop early
Tesco got hammered over their clubcard for xmas advertisement recently yet Iceland are currently running an offer too - save £100 by end aug and get £15 credit for your xmas shop at the end of Nov yet no ones complain about that one 

Spendless

I'm another one buying slowly and steadily. This week got my mum a multi pack of sheet masks. Reminds me of when I first bought Christmas presents for family I was maybe 10 or 11. I worked out how many and how many weeks till Xmas and bought one a week from pocket money. 

Yes amazing how husbands think it happens by magic. I remember several years of Mr S asking why was I doing this or that and me replying cos there's not really a man in a red suit!!!! Nowadays though it's my side that has 4 relatives to buy for, he only has 1 and together we have 5 (inc each other). Wonder if Mr Coxy will decide it's too much hassle and cull the present list.  

princesskitty29

It was DS1’s 8th birthday on Friday so we went as a family to a giant soft play centre, then yesterday we took him and a couple of friends to an inflatables centre and then on to McDonald’s. Needless to say it was a busy couple of days so I’m hoping for a more relaxed day at home today! And now his birthday is done I feel like I can really focus more on Christmas now.

I’m excited to hear that a few things are creeping into the shops now, I always love the slow and steady build up. I’d like to really focus on getting bits here and there so that we don’t have a huge bill come Christmas. The only tricky thing is the boys, we can’t buy too far in advance for them as they are liable to change their mind at any moment!

ILChristmas good to see you back! It’s lovely to have some old faces return. And I mean that you were on here a long time ago, not that your faces are old! I hope you’ve been keeping well and look forward to chatting again.

mandco we did one big party with hall hire etc for our boys when they both turned 5, other years are a lot more low key! Such a shame about the Fitbit, I do that all the time, think I’ll take a look around and go back but then it’s gone or gone up in price. Thanks for the heads up about the Christmas stock, I’ll have a little browse.

Beshki a list is a good idea, I constantly have a list on the go as you can easily forget what you’ve bought.

Spendless

Would you believe that after buying the multi pack of sheet masks in Savers I found the cheaper pack in a different poundland! Yes it was only a £1 or so cheaper but not the point. They were a brand I'd had Mum try and knew she got on with, they also came with a headband!