Jingle All The Way - It's the 2023 Christmas Chatter Thread!

lazysheep

Abbafan1972 said:

Can anyone help with what to get my parents for Christmas please? I asked my Mom a couple of nights ago and she shrugged and said “I don’t know”. Not really helpful Mother! They are both mid 70’s, don’t have hobbies or read books. Any electronic items just wouldn’t get used.  Just for context we don’t get a choice on what they buy us, it’s usually some money, chocs and a bottle of drink. 

I like to get my mum nicer versions of the things that she uses so they don't clutter but are useful and not what she would normally buy herself through the year and still a treat eg posher biscuits, branded coffee rather than supermarkets own etc. Having seen how much 'stuff' there was to clear out when her parents passed away I'm trying to limit that situation for myself in the future

Spendless

Yesterday I picked up a sunglasses case for my Mum. It's really lovely and  different with a pic of sunglasses on the front and a small zipped section on the back to keep money in. It does make the pre-loved MT case I bought for this purpose 'redundant' but I will roll it over till next year and find it another purpose. In a CS I find a metal wheel which has all the cocktails on it and you then turn it round and it gives you the list of ingredients to make it. It cost £2. I am going to put it in the hamper of alcohol, and cocktail stuff we got DS and Dil. I'm calling this their joint CS find and calling it a day with looking for anything else. There was only Dad to go and he's difficult to buy for anyway. I also need to be not spending as much as possible until I find another job. 

Most things were wrapped last night. Still to wrap is DH kettle, stocking presents for DD, which I'll probably do  when DH goes to collect her from digs, the 2 hampers, might turn to my more creative Mum for best way to wrap these without being able to see contents and also DD's 2 main presents. This is because it's unlikely I can fit them into the present cupboard so are elsewhere in the house and the distinctive paper I use means DD will work out they're hers whereas she'll take no notice of 2 cardboard boxes. 

I spent time yesterday using up oddments of wrapping paper from years past to wrap DD's presents, everyone I can still tell it's hers but there's Disney Princess ones and Hello Kitty and Elf papers. I usually save all the oddments for the stockings but since we are down to just DD having one and I don't know how long that will continue for decided now was the time to use it up.    I put together DD's Xmas Eve hamper. It has new PJs (bought in America beginning of year because they do more 'soft feel' clothing there). Pringles in a flavour we don't get here (also bought in States)  - though I may move this to her stocking unsure yet. A  bath fizzer with her name on and a chocolate block on a stick for her to stir into warm milk to make a hot choc (an allude to when I first did these for kids and would always inc hot chcoc for them to have as they watched a DVD and left me to get jobs done on Xmas Eve - the reason I started the box) Both these were bought at The Range. A ready to drink cocktail in a sort of bauble shape, bought at an Independent wine shop and a bar of choc that looks like it's a £50  note (Poundland) which is a joke on how much of a spendaholic DD is! Thinking whilst typing this she would probably like a face pack so might get one and switch it for the Pringles. Only thing is she tends to like the sheet masks which are more expensive and I don't even really want to use a chunk of Boots loyalty points getting one - I will have a think. I also bought her a mini candle with a pic of the nutcracker on to put in again from an Independent shop  (florist) at the weekend. It came in a pack of 3 so my intention is to give one each year  - if I'm continuing with XE hampers and stocking that is! 

Spendless

DH ordered some pen refills from Amazon and they fit the Radley pen perfectly. Looks a really lovely present now is boxed and the pen has it's own separate case. Can wrap this now over next few days.

Mum has asked for ideas for DH as one of the gifts she had for him she sold on to my Nan who was struggling with what to get him. £20 budget.  Arrgghhhh I can't think. Said we'll possibly go look tomorrow for some ideas. 

Coxy11

Hi all 
We went to see Elf last night - we had the movie theatre to ourselves bar one woman who was belly laughing ! 

What about a decent insulated travel mug @Spendless? DH received one from DS1 for his birthday. 

Did you see the thread made the MSE advent 😀

Spendless

Hadn't seen the MSE advent threads till you said.

Mum bought DH a top today from same place I was going to. Really easy to go and find. I got DD a sheet mask for her XE hamper for under £2 (Simple brand) my Boots loyalty points are down to £3ish so though I had them I declined paying with points as wish to build them up again. Also bought DS and DD a card from my Nan. When I inherited some money from her I allocated a portion for both DS and DD they both have £100-ish left which I will put inside the cards as their last Xmas present from her.

Spendless

I have a use for the pre-loved MT case I originally bought for Mum's Sunglasses before finding a better one. DD yesterday asked me if we had a spare make up bag (we do) and said it was because she wished to create her own abracadabra case to keep in her bag at drama school. She says her friend has one that she's constantly borrowing from and thought it a good idea to get her own instead. Seeing this as a Christmas miracle  hahahaha.

I will now put the MT case into DD's stocking, but in the event she's after a larger/different shape - by chance her Godmother had messaged me and said she had a spare make up bag part of a giftset she'd bought of her fav perfume and didn't want it, would DD like it, so that is in the post to her and I'll stick that in a gift bag and explain who it's from.

See how motivated I get with other jobs today but might do some more wrapping.  

Spendless

As I know we get more lurkers than contributors on here, I thought I'd post my DD's stocking filer ideas I asked her about last night. She's not expecting everything and  I already have some of these, for her others I won't be getting because they will be in the house anyway and I'll just buy her her own stock when she returns to Uni. These have give me some ideas I'd not considered though.    DD is 20 nearly 21, I'd say these are probably from teens onwards.

 Socks, blemish cream, face packs & lip masks, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, eyebrow dye, coffee shop voucher, pens, body spray, body lotion, small candle, fashion hoop earrings. , headbands, false eyelashes, eyelash glue, pencil case, mini skincare, make up wipes, necklace extenders. 

princesskitty29

I’ve been a member of the school PTA for 5 years and in the summer I really felt like I needed to take a break from it so I sent a message to say I was going to step back for a while, but as there are literally only a few people doing it I ended up saying I’d help out a bit but now I’ve found myself doing more than anybody! We have the disco and Christmas shop coming up this week and I will be there for all of both of them as well as all of the prep before! I’m feeling quite stressed as I know I have all of my own stuff to do aswell. It’s my own fault, I hate feeling like I’m leaving people in the lurch but after this I really will have to take a step back. It’s difficult as the PTA has dwindled down to 3 people and the school suffer as they don’t get the extra funds, but I have to keep remembering that there are 250 children in the school with parents who could also get involved so it doesn’t rest on my shoulders, it’s just difficult when you’ve been part of it for so long. It probably won’t be forever either but I’ve just been finding it’s been stressing me out a bit in the last year and affecting my sleep when we have big events on. I’ve been finding things a bit more overwhelming in the past year that I was ok with before, I’m not sure if it’s now an age thing.

Well I did get my MiL an air fryer cookbook but it turns out my BiL bought her two! So she’ll now be getting three cookbooks! The good thing is they’re all different but I’m not sure she needs three. I’m going to go ahead and give her ours as she’s not easy to buy for, she might enjoy flicking through them all and finding recipes in different ones. Another headache she’s given me is I bought her the RHS 2024 calendar, only when I went round there last weekend I noticed she has already bought a 2024 calendar and has filled it in! So now I can’t give her that and I’m not sure of the returns policy, will have to check it out and think of something else for her.

I was holding out on the TKMaxx treasures as nothing was taking my fancy then finally a couple of days ago they had a dinosaur fossil dig kit on there, DS2 has been getting into dinosaurs lately and has enjoyed stuff like that in the past so I ordered it and will wrap it up for Christmas, I was pleased with that.

I’m off to the cinema tonight with a friend to see Santa Claus the Movie, it just transports me back to being little at Christmas! I was given it on video when I was young and absolutely loved it so it will be good to see it on the big screen. It does make me slightly emotional though, when I watch it I yearn to go back to Christmas when I was young just for a little while.

Spendless I’m so sorry to hear you lost your job, but it really is impossible to work with toxic people, I have been there and it brings you down. It’s frustrating though how everyone around these people end up leaving rather than them! It just shows how being organised throughout the year really does help! Try to enjoy a bit of downtime and fingers crossed another job turns up for you soon. Great stocking filler list, I think i'm going to be looking at lists as my boys get holder as i'm sure they'll be increasingly difficult to buy for!

Coxy I’m glad I’m not the only one who hadn’t done anything, I really am cursing myself! I’ve just dug out Trisha Ashley’s Twelve Days of Christmas, I don’t often re-read books but I wanted to read a book that actually talked about Christmas in the run up to it as so many times I’ve picked up a book with Christmas in the title but then it has barely mentioned it in the book!

princesskitty29

Abbafan a North Pole Breakfast is just a Christmas themed breakfast, people all have their own way of doing it. I think people also use it to say the Elf on the Shelf has arrived – although I don’t have one of those! I just put our Christmas tablecloth on and made fluffy pancakes which I then made to look like Father Christmas on the plate (above) and we had strawberry milkshake in some mini glass milk bottles that I have.

Sorry for such a big pic everyone!

Abbafan1972

Hello everyone.  I must admit I am a bit of a lurker rather than a poster!

@Spendless So sorry to hear about the loss of your job.  I was made redundant from a company after 6 months just when the pandemic started and the 1st lockdown happened.  One girl I worked with in the office was vile to me and I was scared to do anything.  She was having coaching from someone that the company's MD arranged to improve her attitude, but they still ended up getting rid of me and she is still there as far as I know, despite many complaints about her.  For some reason the management won't be rid of her. It was a blessing they let me go, as I am in a much better job now and that awful person is no more. 

@Coxy11 I will look for that Trisha Ashley book you mentioned - I have read one by her before, it was "The Christmas Invitation".  I read it a couple of years ago.  A nice one I read last year was "Snowed in for Christmas" by Sarah Morgan. 

@princesskitty29 Thanks for explaining what a North Pole Breakfast is!  To be honest I've never heard of it. 

I am struggling with presents this year.  I think I have said in a previous post about the difficulties of choosing presents.  I have another day off work on Friday, so I am going into Birmingham City Centre and there's a better choice of shops.  We have just bought our Daughter a dash cam from her car, but she will pay for the kit and the fitting. I know I am going to order a new phone cover for my Dad, as his current one is really dog-eared!  Trouble is he has a really old iphone model and the choice of covers for it are limited now. Hopefully I will find a few things on Friday. 

xx