Santa Baby - it's the 2026 Christmas Chatter Thread!!

Spendless

That's a good win PIP and nice find coxy for MD.

Today I went with parents to Nan's house as they had a skip arriving to throw in the remaining items, that family haven't wanted and charity shops wouldn't take. In one of the bin bags ready to be thrown were 9 rolls of Xmas paper, 4 of them still in their plastic wrapping and a fair chunk left on the other 5. Said to Mum 'you weren't going to throw these away surely?' Yup, that had been the original plan until Mum recently thought I might like them instead. Some are very 'kiddie' designs so have offerred them to my friend who has young grandchildren.

. My Dad has now received his inheritance from Nan (not the house as my parents already own it). It's his bday this weekend and my idea of just putting cash in his card sort of pales into insignificance now he's just inherited a chunk of money. Have decided to put together a hamper of fav foodie gifts, the sugar free chocs that I bought in the States, saw some Kitkats in shape of racing cars and he likes F1, some beer that he said he enjoyed at an Indian restaurant last week and then add a Nandos giftcard. After my work shift tomorrow I'll go shopping for what I can find of this in the city centre and buy out of town later if I can't pick everything up. DH and DS are helping skip things whilst I'm working.

PennysIntoPounds

That's a sad but important job getting done @Spendless and well done rescuing the wrapping paper, what a waste that would have been!

Bah to your dad getting an inheritance just before his birthday, that does make gifts a bit trickier 😂 Your ideas sound lovely, I'm sure he'll appreciate them

Spendless

That's very Nan pip, managing to overshadow any other gift - haha

Called last night to give Dad his present.

I used a sturdy lidded square box and into it stood up 3 bottles of cobra beer, liquorice all-sorts (his fav), a 4 pack of zero san pellegrino flavoured water, a packet of the F1 kit kats in the shape of racing cars and the bag of sugar free chocs from the US. Then I put some money on a Nandos gift card and attached it to one of the beers. Cellophane, a ribbon and a gift tag and it looked really nice. Apparantly he'd been looking all week for the beers (obviously in the wrong aisle!).

Total cost excluding birthday cards and the US chocs cos we bought with a load of other items, so unsure of exact price was £50.10.

Box, cellophane, ribbon, gift tag all items I had in.

I used £50 from.the occcassion pot to pay for it leaving £100 in there.

Next celebrations are bdays for DS, present obsessed dog, DD & FIL with MD and Easter mixed within them.

Coxy11

That's a great gift for your Dad @Spendless. Gosh a lot of events coming up that will test your purse strings.

I have been looking for Easter Eggs - we buy for two youngest nephews and our three adult kids plus DDIL. Aldi had decent sized Cadbury and Nestle ones for £3.25 yesterday but I didn't get them as hoping Home Bargains might have cheaper today. I'm taking the car for an MOT, seeing DSis for a quick coffee, then popping to HB and Food Warehouse. Food Warehouse has some reduced items listed on Olio, so what I get depends on what's left. HB is next door so would be rude not to take a look.

Spendless

@Coxy11 - Its coming up on my SM that the 'large' eggs at Asda have gone down to £2.32.

Yes this is an expensive time coming up. March the worst of the 'cluster' occassions, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be, when we still bought for extended family/younger generation. We'd have had 3 birthdays by now, neice only a day different to my Mum. Then in March both my kids, my neice and nephew (twins), maternal Nan and then 3 lots of MD gifts, mum, MIL and something for me on behalf of kids. As well as Easter eggs for children. Then the following month FIL and Godson bdays.

Nowadays we sadly lost Nan and MIL a few years ago, niblings/godchildren are all adults so no longer buy for, and my kids have a little spare cash of their own to buy for me for MD. I just buy my kids a couple of eggs and dog just likes presents and doesnt care for value - hahaha. He was interested in my Dad's hamper despite there being nothing in it suitable for him!

DS bday is next. We tend to buy him a mix of practical and personal use items. Made a start last night with what to get him.

princesskitty29

Ah I don’t mean to keep going missing on here but it just feels like one thing after another here, I’ve been wiped out by covid for two weeks and in that time DS1 refused to go to school for a week and a half. We were always worried that one day he might refuse and it finally happened. It’s half term this week so we’re hoping that with some adjustments he will return to school next Monday after having a break. It is a worry though! He is also a child that doesn’t want to do any learning at home, this has been a major cause of stress over the years and the reason he doesn’t get homework, otherwise I would be open to homeschooling if it helped him. I’m praying for a positive result on Monday. In that time my dad was also taken into hospital after having a funny turn but after lots of tests he was sent home and has thankfully been ok since, just very tired. What a rollercoaster this last year has been!

I’m still suffering some effects of covid so having a fairly quiet week. DS2 wanted to go to the charity shop to look at toys and whilst we were in there I found a beautiful Cath Kidston travel trio set for £3.50 which was in mint condition, I suspect it was an unwanted Christmas gift and is perfect to go in my friends Cath Kidston hamper. I also found a thick fleece for DH for £6 that looked unworn, I think the same fleece is currently in Tesco at the moment, maybe another unwanted Christmas present! DH’s office is on the top floor (we have a three storey house) and it can often get quite cold up there so it’s perfect for him. I’m going to save it for Christmas as he’ll probably need an upgrade on clothes by then.

It sounds like you’ve all been doing well too!

Coxy I also used to get hugely frustrated with the Boots website showing out of stock items until I realised that in the filter section you can change it to only show items in stock.

mandco wow Florida amazing!

Spendless

Oh gosh princesskitty - That's a lot to contend with considering we're only a few weeks into the New Year. We went thru the same re school and our youngest, not helped that it hadn't been realised that she was ND despite school flagging an issue and her being under CAMHS. She only realised herself when she became an adult and moved away and started doing her own 'digging'. To date we haven't even got an official diagnosis and had to go down the private route for any help at all. Her school issues only surfaced later on, initially towards the end of yr9, worse in yr 10 and went pear shaped yr11 - the worst possible time! I believe your son may be younger than this, early Secondary school age? I would try and get the support he needs now whilst younger as it's quite possible that without it, he will struggle more in the older GCSE years. Join some online support groups. I found them an absolute goldmine of both help and knowledge.

Great bargains btw.

fionaandphil

Hope you're feeling better soon @princesskitty29 I would echo what @spendless says too. Get booked into see the school and ask if DS can be reviewed by their senco. They may be able to put something in place fairly quickly. Schools are fairly keen to keep their absences down as it reflects in their Ofsted and overall outcomes.

princesskitty29

Thanks Spendless and fionaandphil, good advice. He is 11 and started Y7 in September, but didn’t have a big school move as we have a three school system here so he is in middle school from Y5-Y8. He has actually said he likes his school, I think it’s just all the schoolwork demand and constant noise/transitions etc. Plus he is a complete masker so no one at school would know. They have made some adjustments for him, he now has a laptop as he struggles with writing and he doesn’t do his French lesson now instead he goes to a quiet room to practice touch-typing or catching up on work. He also has a recharge pass which means he can leave the classroom whenever he wants but he doesn’t use it as I don’t think he likes to stand out! Last year he had a period of time of leaving at lunchtime. When he refused to go on Monday last week we agreed with the school that he could leave at lunchtime for the rest of the week, he was ok with this on Monday but the following morning he refused to go again. Then on Tuesday he agreed that he would go in for the first two lessons on Wednesday, but then in the morning he refused to go again. I don’t know what he’s going to do on Monday! DH has mooted the idea with the school of him going in Mon-Thurs and having a long weekend to rest and recuperate but I don’t know if that’ll work either. We are in constant contact with the school but as with everywhere they have a lot of ND children and not enough resources.

Anyway we are going to my parents today for a few days so it’ll be really nice to see them and get away for a bit. I’m trying to take each day as it comes and enjoy the here and now and not get too stressed about something that hasn’t happened yet.

Sorry I know this is a Christmas thread but thank you for your support on here, it always helps to get things out and hear from people who have had experience of these things as we are relative newbies to all of this! x

Coxy11

Please do share on here @princesskitty29 as we are happy to listen and those who have experience of ND children or family members will be able to impart advice. I don't have much to offer except a listening ear. Hope you have a fun time with your parents and that come Monday your DS will be able to return to school x

Thank you @Spendless - I will ask DH to pop to Asda tomorrow to hopefully buy some Easter Eggs. He has to take our car back for an MOT retest as it failed on a tyre. They couldn't get the tyre until tomorrow and said if we bought one elsewhere we'd have to pay £27.50 for a retest - which is actually not true. DH had a discussion with them and lo and behold they have matched the price of our usual tyre place and will do a free retest. Not sure why everything is such a battle these days.

Mum has no smoke alarms so I've arranged for the Fire Brigade to visit her tomorrow afternoon - I will be there in my capacity as LPOA.

Oh and don't faint but I did 5.5 hours work today for another broker and managed to get two mortgage applications through and approved. Only thought I'd be there for the morning so only took some almonds and water! Have just inhaled a packet of mini cheddars! Also doing 3 hours tomorrow morning WFH.

Nowt about this post is Christmas-related either @princesskitty29 so we are twinning!! xx