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

Peppa537

I've finished work for the week so decided to get some of the presents wrapped. I remembered to use the ironing board on lowest height for the first time, meant I could wrap them while sitting on the sofa. I managed to get most of them done, just a few little bits left and bottles of drink will go into gift bags anyway. Not too much left to buy either. 

Peppa537

Also forgot to say I put the tree up Tuesday evening, lights are on it and will probably do the baubles later, if not tomorrow. For some reason I feel as though I'm behind this year despite it only being 24th November. 

Spendless

mandco said:

Spendless said:

Has anyone got any ideas for a gift for DD, £10 budget. It's from DS and dil2b. They haven't got a great deal of money as just moved into their own place and gf isn't working yet. I've told Dil2b I will take her shopping in the city centre on Monday, in case there's still any Black Friday deals on. We have Home Bargains, B & M. Primark, Savers, Superdrug , TK Maxx, Boots & M & S. We also have outlet stores for House of Fraser, Bodyshop & Next.  

I did so well with the tip about the £10 1 ltr Baileys for DH from them, but I'm stumped when it comes to DD. She's 19 and at drama school about a 3.5 hour train/car ride away from home.    

will she be home for xmas or does it need posting/transporting?
as she's away for school how about a gift card for costa/starbucks or some other food option ect students generally appreciate those extras when they're on a budget.

I've seen a lot of posts from parents with kids away for college and requests for basics like fluffy sock/fleece lined tights/scarfs/hats/gloves, hot water bottles, fleece blankets ect seem to be very popular as a lot of them are trying to keep their living costs down. 

She'll be home for Christmas, whether that's a full week before or DH having to do a round trip on Xmas Eve is dependant on whether she gets a last minute Christmas job she's applying for.

I had thought of gift cards and DD has mentioned them. I'll throw it in as an idea to dil2b. I know some people don't like to make it transparent how much they spent.

Fortunately all bills are included in her halls and  due to spending  last year living in Scotland she already has a lot of the scarf, fleece blankets, hot water bottles. 

I went to the nearest big shopping mall today hoping to catch some early Black Friday deals and I have to say I've come back seriously underwhelmed!  I'd offered to look for something for DD from Mum. who still isn't able to get about much following her op plus visiting my Nan in hospital daily. Other than picking some bits for DD's stocking/xmas eve Hamper inc a tub of chocolate drops £2.25 Hotel Chocolat, I only bought at TK Maxx. This shows what stores are doing with the prices. On the shelf were 4 Nivea mask kits (sheet mask, plus roller) 2 were priced at £4.99, the other 2 at £8.99! Exactly the same product!. I bought the cheaper priced one and it went through at that at the tills! The only other thing I bought was behalf of Mum and a travel brush set from the brand Wet. DD had requested one and I'd already bought her a separate one few weeks ago thought I had a bargain at £10 in Boots cos it had £2-3 off the price! They had the same thing in TK Maxx in a different colour for £4.99! 

Other than that I didn't find the offers that great. In Victoria's Secret I was quite excited to see Sleep shirts advertised only £19. Went and looked a them. They were an oversized T shirt with the initials VS on them. I'm sure you'd find similar in  the men's t shirt range in Primark for a lot less.

A shop I was convinced I'd find something in, as I found plenty last year, ,  their Black Friday offer was spend £500 and receive a £100 gift card, as if -lol

Beshki

Spendless said:

Has anyone got any ideas for a gift for DD, £10 budget. It's from DS and dil2b. They haven't got a great deal of money as just moved into their own place and gf isn't working yet. I've told Dil2b I will take her shopping in the city centre on Monday, in case there's still any Black Friday deals on. We have Home Bargains, B & M. Primark, Savers, Superdrug , TK Maxx, Boots & M & S. We also have outlet stores for House of Fraser, Bodyshop & Next.  

I did so well with the tip about the £10 1 ltr Baileys for DH from them, but I'm stumped when it comes to DD. She's 19 and at drama school about a 3.5 hour train/car ride away from home.    

Yep, I would go with pjs (primark?), snuggly socks and chocs or a giftcard.

Spendless

Beshki said:

Spendless said:

Has anyone got any ideas for a gift for DD, £10 budget. It's from DS and dil2b. They haven't got a great deal of money as just moved into their own place and gf isn't working yet. I've told Dil2b I will take her shopping in the city centre on Monday, in case there's still any Black Friday deals on. We have Home Bargains, B & M. Primark, Savers, Superdrug , TK Maxx, Boots & M & S. We also have outlet stores for House of Fraser, Bodyshop & Next.  

I did so well with the tip about the £10 1 ltr Baileys for DH from them, but I'm stumped when it comes to DD. She's 19 and at drama school about a 3.5 hour train/car ride away from home.    

Yep, I would go with pjs (primark?), snuggly socks and chocs or a giftcard.

Thank you. I looked at Pjs in Primark yesterday, they did have a few that come under £10. so that's somewhere where we will head. 

It's brought home to me when you're on a strict budget how much easier it is if you shop throughout the year and buy accordingly when you see something. It's only a few weeks ago for example that I bought French Connection sunglasses for a fiver and back in the summer I bought a few single boxed  Betty Boop wine glasses for £1 each.. 

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Peppa537

I’ve always found the Primark PJs and dressing gowns good quality as well as a good price. I’ve bought my daughters from there for years and still do (they’re now 18 & 19). 

Spendless

DD home for the weekend. We returned to the shopping mall. She liked the  £19 oversized VS nightshirts and bought one. Also got a sports bra top and joggers for the gym off the sale rail.

Currently in Boots on a BF deal is this from Mark Hill 5 for £50. You pick a choice of one of  two wands and then 4 of the various attachments that come with it. DD chose a straighter, waver, curler and a brush, but there was quite a lot to choose from.
I suppose if you already own a wand you can pick any 5 of the attachments in the offer. Though she's seen it  as she chose which attachments this will be her Xmas present from my parents.

 https://www.boots.com/mark-hill/mark-hill-pick-and-mix-range

I wouldn't have understood it if I'd just read on-line, but if you've got someone it'd suit and a £50 budget, then I think this is a really good deal. 

DD was also tempted by some other electrical  hair deals they had on, but decided to stick with the above. I told her how disappointed I'd been the other day at the same mall and she said she'd looked it up on SM and Boots was coming out tops for their deals this weekend.

Before she cam home, I nipped to HB for bits. They had  Cussons 'dacshund through the snow' 500 ml bodysoak for 99p, and the same in s/gel  250ml for 95p. Described on the bottle as 'Cinnamon sugar and winter sparkles' with pics of dachshunds in Santa hats on the bottle. The bath soak I bought makes lovely bubbles and it smells of cinnamon but not too overpowering. It's been popular here only bought Friday night and there's about 1/5th left!  It'd be fab for Xmas Eve Boxes, stockings, adding to toiletry hampers etc. I'm guessing it's old stock as I'm struggling to find online other than ebay! 

princesskitty29

Hi all! Well I’ve finally made serious progress on my Christmas shopping, I went shopping two days last week in different places and managed to pick up lots of bits. I just need to get a couple more things online then maybe one more shopping trip and I should be done. DS1 has asked Father Christmas for a Mario Kart steering wheel, the cheapest I found it was £54.99, I’ve been scouring everywhere for deals but there are absolutely none. I’ve bought it this morning as I want to make sure I’ve got it – I always get paranoid about the Father Christmas presents!

I’ve got lots to do this week, I’ve got to wrap a lot of presents and get everything together that I already have (gifts and Christmas food) to take to my mums on Sunday. We’re popping over for the day as it’s my dads birthday so I’m taking the opportunity to take everything we have so far so that we’ve got space in the car when we go over at Christmas. We’ve also got people coming in to put in a fireplace and paint our living room walls so we’re going to be in a bit of disarray this week.

Spendless your friend is very wise!

Beshki I think the hampers sound lovely, I’d be very happy to receive one!

mandco gosh that’s so awful to hear what happened outside your DS’s college, what a worry for you. I hope the boy is ok. It’s just so awful there seems to be one in the news every week.

GTQ M&S have some lovely tins of biscuits/teabags/hot choc and some of them aren’t very big either. The M&S festive range is always lovely and Percy Pig/Colin Caterpillar are an M&S staple!

Bakey I have that feeling of being behind every year! In my mind it’s almost as if I’ve set December 1st as my deadline rather than the 25th! I’m trying very hard to readjust my brain this year and remind myself that lots of people don’t do anything until December.

C_J

@Spendless That Mark Hill pick and mix styler us really good value, and something which my younger daughter would like. I hadn’t seen it on the Boots website (does anyone else find it a difficult place to navigate?) so thank for the heads up.

I had a nice surprise from Boots yesterday when my mail order parcel was delivered. I’d bought several things to use up my points which I’ve been collecting all year, including some treats for myself. I’d added the No7 skincare discovery set which was only £20 worth of points and which contains really handy smaller sizes which are great when travelling - however they must have been out of stock by the time they packed my parcel because instead of that one they sent me the larger Protect & Perfect set which sells for £32 PLUS they included five items of the No7 radiance range, some of which would have been in my original skincare discovery set. If I had wanted the set to give as a gift I might have been miffed (though I could have unpacked it and presented it all in a small hamper I guess) but as it was just for me I was delighted!

They also had No7 makeup palettes reduced to £5 each, so I snapped up three of those : a treat  for me and an extra stocking filler for each of my two daughters.