Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - it's the 2024 Christmas chatter thread!

~FlowerPot~

hi, always surprises me when i find a board I didnt know existed!

Anyway I have just completed my xmas money savings challenge and I can now start buying pressies!!

I also want to get a nice advent calender. I got the Mand S beauty one last year, might get it again, but wondered what others were thinking baout getting?? or got in the past and was good. Doesnt have to be beauty, but not looking to pay the price that some of them are! at £200+!!

Thanks 

Flowers x

mandco

Coxy sorry to hear your holiday didn’t live up to expectations hope you still manage to enjoy some of it despite the disappointment.
Fingers crossed the house survey goes well

treasure queen thanks for the links 

welcome flowerpot.   I think with advent calendars what you like & would use should be the deciding factor there are some done great looking ones out there but if the content doesn’t suit it’s wasted money, dd has had the look fantastic one before as she used to have the beauty box subscription but it started getting repetitive so didn’t bother last year.shes tried a few different beauty type ones but ends up with stuff she doesnt end up using so She’s thinking about The boots macmillan advent calendar which is currently 1/2 price this year as it’s all stuff she’d use.

princesskitty go for it you’ll never know unless you give it a shot and the hamper market is still growing as people are looking towards more unique thoughtful gifts rather than the generic gift sets.  the boys Xmas School fete might be a good place to try selling them too 

We had a lovely time aside from some issues with the accommodation for which I made a complaint and am waiting to hear back about. the new play experience was meant to be open while we were there but they’re running behind schedule so it’s been pushed till next month hence us going back then. They were offering to let you swap to the October instead but as they couldn’t move our booking to a like for like accommodation the options they gave me were keep the current one or cancel and lose the money as it was a last minute decision. I wasn’t prepared to lose the money so we kept the September break but as it was for his birthday we booked a cheap room for the oct break too so he gets to do all the new stuff. 

Sainsbury’s had the new twisted chocolate bourbons with Black Forest cream and twisted custard creams with gingerbread crème filling. I also picked up some of the 1/2 price choc fingers 90p for the Xmas stash

Found gingerbread Oreo’s in Iceland /food warehouse so picked some of those up for taz 

Saw in passing m&s had various Xmas themed tins in though didn’t get a chance to look at what they were. 

Popped into boots to drop off another lot of recycling and they were putting the Xmas gift sets out 

Crazycatlady2

I can't start to even think about Christmas....due to FIL suddenly passing away we inherited his house so are renovating and moving next month 😱 maybe then I can think about it depending on how fast our house sells 

Abbafan1972

Hello everyone.

I am a lurker on this thread really.

We go away to Benidorm in 3 weeks, can't wait lol!

Not sure where this year is going and Tesco's have got Christmas chocolates in already.

@~FlowerPot~  Welcome to the forum.  On the subject of Advent calendars, this will be the 2nd year I will be having a Crystal advent calendar, if you know anyone that likes that kind of thing.  Look on https://thecitrinecircle.com/collections/advent-calendars/products/advent-calendar-25-days-bronze in the link it says 25 days, but I think there is actually 24 days.  You get a tumble stone every day with the name of what the stone is.  This company has a free app as well to look up what the stones mean.  You can pre-order the calendar now and they despatch November time.   There is a more expensive one for £250, but the one for £29.99 + delivery is fine for me lol!

Have a good day all! xx

~FlowerPot~

Thanks. Abbafan
I have seen the crystal advent calenders and they look fun, but we already have a lot of crystals in this house! 
I did see a cheese one, but it was very pricey! 

mandco

Crazycatlady sorry for your loss.  
Good luck with the renovations & move/house sale 

popped into b&m at the weekend with dd and picked up a couple of small bits like charger cables & lipbalm sets for the kids stockings. They have the full Xmas stock out now - saw lots of possible gift ideas. There’s a Lidl next door so popped in there and they had some nice wooden cutting boards sets (4 small or 2 medium) & a wooden tea caddy for £5.99 each which could make nice gifts/hamper fillers if you know anyone that likes herbal teas or charcuterie ect.

Nearly finished my charity donation baby hampers need to do a full inventory as every thing is stashed in boxes but pretty sure I just need to add nappies/wipes - do still need to get large/extra large gift bags for them -I’ll go generic if needed but if anyone sees any large 1st Xmas ones please let me know.

Spendless

We went to Nan's 99th birthday meal and all enjoyed it. Had to rejig some of ehr presents around, partly because her birthday became more of an 'occassion' but also because the fridge I put the Belgian chocs in (I know - but at the time we were having random hot days and I was worried about them melting) developed leaking water and ruined a little bit of the packaging. It dried out pretty much unnoticeable but I'd already decided to get some other stuff. Nan is the only person I know that drinks out of a teacup and saucer, so I bought her a new boxed set. https://londonboutique.uk/products/london-boutique-tea-cup-and-saucer-set-1-afternoon-tea-set-new-bone-china-vintage-flora-gift-box-200m-pink?_pos=13&_sid=273ffc04f&_ss=r

Added the coasters I got from TK Maxx treasures and the  ready gift wrapped Belgian chocs. All in a oink theme - her fav colour.. Cellophaned them in  a basket I wasn't bothered about as Mum says Nan chucks them. I'll save the better containers for anyone who will re-use/re-purpose 


In a few days I set off for the States, Texas this time. Expecting the stores to be full of Halloween stuff, unsure if Christmas stock may be too soon, unfortunately.  

mandco

Spendless Walmart have already started putting out xmax stock - checkout youtube there are a few videos up already. Been quite a few years but when we went to Florida sept-Oct time there was xmas stock around in various places - full stock generally hits closer to/ after Halloween but hopefully you should find some stuff to browse.
hope you enjoy your trip 

princesskitty29

I’ve only managed to get one present since last posting, I got DH a large bag of Twirl Bites (Twirl’s are his favourite choc) as they are currently on offer in Tesco. I have to go and pick up some new glasses at the retail park tomorrow morning so I will have a little mooch whilst I’m there.

Coxy I’m the same, I always try to get useful/edible gifts.

Hello and welcome Flowerpot! It’s good to have you here, pull up a chair and grab a hot chocolate! I’m afraid I can’t really advise on advent calendars as I only ever get the chocolate ones. I have heard of gin, cheese, jewellery and wine advent calendars, I imagine there must be all sorts out there these days! But as you say, some of them are very pricey.

mandco thanks for your support, I don’t know why I get so worried about trying these things! I’m sorry to hear all was not well for your Butlins trip, I can see why you’re heading back so fingers crossed everything will be ok for that trip.

Crazycatlady I’m so sorry to hear about your FiL, it sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate currently, I hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Abbafan good to hear from you, I hope you have a wonderful time away in Benidorm!

Spendless that’s a lovely tea cup set. Have a great time in Texas, fingers crossed they’ve got Christmas stuff out too.

mandco

Aldi have the frozen turkey joints in £5.49 stuffed Or basted so picked up a couple -tried them last year as taz wanted turkey but the others don’t really like it and was pleasantly surprised. Ideal for a budget turkey Xmas dinner or an extra meat option plenty for 2 people as a roast but if you were really savvy and added lots of veg you could probably stretch it to 2 ad/2 ch