Not dropping Santa down the chimney!: 2025 Santa, Shoebox & Life Chit,Chat,Chunter! ALL welcome....

Katiehound

I have put hankies in the boxes in the past as well as the little packs of paper tissues.  neither this year! 
I shall ask for ties on 'Nextdoor' later next year- very few folk wear a tie to work these days so I guess there may be some languishing in wardrobes.

I was lucky & found 3 x lip salves for £1
Bought hand creams from Aldi
It was also suggested that Aldi's (men's) 3 in 1 would be useful for the elderly boxes. (body & face wash & shampoo) Think they were 59 pence?
Cutlery from charity shops- usually 10 pence per item
Bought candles from Aldi- Christmas clearance- do NOT need more!!

haven't bought any but Staples online have some great deals (free delivery over £15) including solar calculators at around £2.50. Also bulk buy erasers, metal sharpeners & lead pencils.

Why would we be so kind?  Because  their circumstances are pretty dire with almost nothing so I feel the least I can do is make someone's day with some very basic items which don't cost a fortune!

next year I want to try to persuade the local vicar (lives 4 doors away) to see if they can contribute.  (In the parish but not a parishioner)

Happy_Kitties

@Katiehound the shoebox hub organiser was telling me some real horror stories aswell from Eastern Europe,  like the huge divide between rich and poor and in areas if their houses are not up to a certain standard it’s always the poor that get fined and they are already massively struggling.

The shoebox hub have learnt how to sniff out boxes of concern and have had some disrespectful and strange items donated within shoeboxes before now, no dead canary but one shoebox hub has. I like that my hub likes to work on Bags of Education to go out at the same time.
I've also had 3 lip balms for a £1, I found some flannels massively reduced in Dun elm that doubled up as a wash mitt and you could pop things inside. I don’t think some people appreciate how much a shoebox can change lives and I’m so glad you started me off doing them. I’ve still got a box of stuff ready for next year, but I love I can dip into it and like to think I have most items to make a shoebox up. 

Katiehound

I don’t think some people appreciate how much a shoe box can change lives and I’m so glad you started me off doing them. 

My pleasure! wish I could get more folk interested... but I  do try!

Link to Hope has been going out to Romania ever since the Ceaușescu orphanages horror story broke. My friend's husband was a BBC cameraman there, he said we didn't see the half of it- but he never speaks about that experience. They filmed about Christmas time and she said it was the worst Christmas ever as he was just so shell shocked at what he had witnessed.

yes things  have moved on but Ij really don't think folk understand just how poor the poor are there.

Happy_Kitties

@Katiehound I cannot even begin to imagine the full extent of what your friend’s husband witnessed with the orphanages. 

I dropped off shoebox number 7 yesterday after it had been tweaked, I had missed out the chocolate. Never got to finish number 8 but still have time, just a couple of bits needed. I also tend to focus on shoeboxes for the elderly. If I get another shoebox given to me I might push to do number 9, I’ve got a stash of items left over tucked in a big box. 

I also dropped off more items to the shoebox hub for local causes they support every year, including a dementia care home. I don’t know if I have said previously but I went to a care home pre covid just before Christmas to see a friend and drop presents off for them. A member of staff let me in, as I turned to the left I could see a big pile of presents wrapped for the residents all stacked up on the desk in an office. The staff member could see I had spotted them and said I would be surprised at how many residents had no visitors at all. Having started voluntary work at the age of 16 while still at school, on an elderly ward it didn’t surprise me at all. 

I have also been doing the Dun elm Bags of Joy. It has really taken off with my local store with them having to use 3 trees to display all of the tags and them having to write even more because it has been hugely popular this year. Last year it struggled to take off at the beginning. 

Christmas present wise I have been using up the spare space now created to pop the wrapped presents in, currently sorting out birthday presents to send. October is a busy month for birthdays!

Brie

Just popping in to say that Lidl has lovely little wooden puzzles - appropriate for very very young children - for about £1.49 each.  Lots of other wooden toys that are more expensive.  I liked the wooden trucks and cars that were about £3.49.  It's a 10% off deal but I don't know how long that will last.

I did consider buying some but am in the midst of setting up a reverse advent calendar challenge for food banks and will be concentrating my mind (& money) on that.  Best of luck!!!

Happy_Kitties

@Brie many thanks Brie.Now my local Works has closed down, hunting about for things in the small town I live in is virtually impossible, we haven’t many shops, so many have closed down. I normally pop to the next town to get things, more shops on the outskirts including Lidl which makes life much easier for me.

Still  just the 7 shoeboxes completed so far……I will get number 8 finished!

Dun elm Bags of Joy completed and dropped off- 50 bags so far, hoping to complete 65 as I’ve still got a fair bit of stash and oodies that can be used.

I’m full steam ahead as I’m away next weekend. I also have quite a few activities planned in December including a night away and concert with bestie.
I’ve had so many October birthdays, I have done quite well for me but still two presents behind. Hoping to pop the Christmas presents in so that I save on postage.

Picked up a couple of extra foody bits today that have been tucked away ready for Christmas

Anglea

Hi everyone, I couldn't get into the account until now but managed to bypass the pswd so hope to catch up this week with all the posts and give my own update

Katiehound

Well back from another Irish trip and as per usual,  not all plain sailing! No, that would be far toooooo boring!

On the outward journey all motorways etc open.... until.......I got to almost the end of the A 55 North Wales expressway when junction 11  was closed. No diversion (Don't be silly) so I have the option to go to Betws-y-Coed or Bangor. Decide on Bangor but of course it's 20 mph & really no signs. Yes, I did it, even deciding to miss Menai bridge & cross via Britannia but of course got slowed down considerably by very slow diversion.

I get checked in, it's a reasonable time, go through customs/ border control but they MUST stop me, inspect the car, look at dog (more flipping delay) drive round to the waiting area, I dash to toilet & rush into duty free saying what cheap red have you got?  Take the case of 6 Spanish red (bargain £19) get outside...what?    . the cars have all moved off and I have lost my priority boarding!! Luckily there were only a few cars that night but.....I allow 3.5 hours to do 125 miles and still I am the last car on! (Not the last vehicle: the high sided vehicles loaded after me.)

Return journey tyre pressure light came on about midnight on the motorway. I can't do anything then. I phone someone, the tyres look fine , so I decide to drive home at a moderate speed. All fine. Turns out all the tyres are slightly down but I can barely read the sign on the strut by front door - any lower & it would be in the road! and I don't understand it anyway!
 Technician is rather aghast: why wouldn't I check my tyres? because I am exhausted, have looked at pressures in book (6 options!) and am not that bendy/mobile any more. Once the car has been serviced  & MOTed by dealer early next month  I will be back at my woman-driver friendly garage. (He was even more aghast when I said that I didn't clean my car!)

Got some goodies for my boxes in Tesco Ireland: work gloves, hairbrush, set of 3 x nailbrushes all 84 pence per item. In Ireland the parents have to buy all the books- text books, exercise books etc. The term had long started so I found packs of thick exercise books- 10 for £2: bargain compared with price of reporter's notebooks.
Not for boxes, bought my friend's GD a pair of plimsolls- cute with bow for about £1.60- were £6.
and for me , and some friends, T finest cranberry & lingonberry sauce dated until Nov 25 at a quarter price for about 55 pence per jar. Yes, I came home with a fair few of those!! (ah, I see superseded by C & port @ £1.80)

Hope everyone is fit and well. It's a miserable grey,. cold day here.........

Happy_Kitties

@Katiehound, one day you might have a smooth, easy journey, wishful thinking I think but  you never know, it might happen!

The journey to Ireland and return, just reading it sounds utterly stressful and why am I not surprised about the A55. Do you know there is a massive Tes co Extra in Bangor and you still cannot get any of the items you picked up in Ireland. I’m yet to find a Tes co that does. The exercise books were a definite bargain, in fact you picked up quite a few bargains.

Have had one trip away, a few disasters but nothing like you have had with your trips to Ireland. I have another one coming up soon, keeping my fingers crossed it is not a Katiehound journey😭😵‍💫🤯

Hoping to drop my last shoebox off at the hub next week, I’ve a few other bits for them aswell and will volunteer my services for the evening if they need a hand. I’ve been busy focusing on Dun elm Bags of Joy. Have done 63 so far, aim is now 70. It has been a bumper year for my local store, nothing like last year where it was slow to take off, this year they have exceeded their target of a 1000 bags already and it is only the middle of November. Lovely to see the bags going out to local causes, I always have a look to see if I can spot any of my bags🙂

Christmas wise I seem to have done lot without really having done anything if that makes sense. I have an empty box spare so will start packing up cousin’s  presents ready to send the beginning of December. The way this month is flying by it won’t be long before it is here. Hoping to have a stress free December with time as i have lots of days out and activities planned. I’ve never been so popular!!!

I only have  a couple of presents left to get and as much as I loathe Black Friday I know I will get the items much cheaper then, so I am holding out. I hope everyone else is doing okay.

Dare i ask when the next trip is Katiehound?

Katiehound

I think you mean foreign trips but something that I planned to do this month looks like it will deferred to December as this month is galloping past & I have sewing jobs to do!!! 
 I am hoping to meet a brand new 2nd cousin once removed. I was given his contact details late September. It is quite exciting as his Gt Grandfather was my Grandfather's younger brother. I have very little family, only had 3 cousins and sadly the last died last year so this was totally unexpected news and he lives only about 80 miles away. I sent him an email explaining who I was and about 5 minutes later he phoned me!! I suggested we meet at a garden centre which is just over an hour away- closer to him. I will happily hand over a few artefacts that were carved /made by my Gt Grandfather (elderly when he died 1918)

Other than that probably will go to Ireland late Feb/early March. Something nice, ferry company have upgraded me to Gold loyalty which gives a few perks- I won't have it after Oct 25 as I don't spend enough! so better make the most of it.

I have 2 cruises booked for...   June (Adriatic/ Croatia) and another in September (Iceland.) the second is fully paid as it was a very special offer

I have to collect about 8 / 9 duvets as the groomers want some to sell. Someone is also selling and hopefully taking orders this weekend at a craft fair that she runs in the local area. First of all need the osteopath visit on Tuesday- have injured my L shoulder, I think when making cards because one of the punches really really didn't want to cut through card.

Hope you manage everything that is planned!!