OS Christmas Support thread & timetable

Kelinik

Ms_Notalotofmoney wrote:

I have had a go at making my own from kits. Like you say, the kits are quite expensive and buying the bits to put in them etc it can be quite pricey and you'd be surprised how hard it is to find good gifts that will FIT!!!! My advise to anyone thinking of making their own is DON'T DO IT!!!

I always make my own and couldn't go back to bought ones now. I use lottery scratchcards as the pressie (they fit and are less to buy than proper pressies), never buy them at any other time and they go down great with my family. They were quite the talking point last year, especially after my little SIL won £5!

mrs-moneypenny

ive spent a couple of days sorting my stash and have listed all my squirrel so i can now start listing what im using for who (then i can see if i need to buy anything else.
I've got all my ingredients for my christmas cake so will do that tomorrow.
am going to plant up 2 lots of hyachincs bulbs with DD2 later this afty/evening

well done to everyone else for being so orgainised

caravanlover

JillD wrote:

well I thought I was organised til I read this thread - esp you caravanlover !!

My daughter was born in december 2 years ago. She was due on Dec 9th so I knew if I didnt get everything done mega early I would be too tired. So I got it all done in OCtober that year and am now hooked on getting in done early!

Hhere's what I've done so far:
- bought all my crads half price in January lasy tear - £2 for 100 nice little cards - bargain!
- have all Xmas paper leftover as bought heaps from Costco last year
- bought all pressies for nursery and preschool staff - needed to get £12, decided budget was £2 each. Well today I got candles in Primary for £1 eah and wee plates to set them on for £1 for two so £1.50 a set :T
- got all our kids Xmas pressies
- got all family/friends kids birthday pressies
- got glass bottled smellies for laydees in family
- got DD set down from £22 to £14 and had a £2 off coupon for brother:T
- got golf shoe bag for Dad
- got blank mugs and paints for 4 friends
- got multi photo frame things for the grandparents

Things still to do:
- decorate glass bottles for the laydees with glass paints
- make calendars for the kids grandparents
- paint personalised mugs for friends and fill with hot choc, marshmallows etc
- buy tins of biccies for nuresry/preschool/creche staff - waiting til 3 for 2 on somewhere
- cross stitch Dads initials for golf show bag
- fill photo frame things for grandparents
- do a cross stitch pic for my Mum

And then the wrapping and stuff. I really want to enjoy the card writing and tree putting up in December and gloat smugly at everyone else when I have all my stuff done:p

see i am not the only one thats organised

Ms_Notalotofmoney_2

shetitasatic wrote:

IF I haven't got time to make my own mincemeat I buy an ordinary jar and put it in a mixing bowl and add a grated apple, grated orange rind and a tablespoon of brandy (bought duty free and kept especially for Christmas cooking) Give it a good stir, cover and leave overnight and use for bulk mince pie baking - tastes as good as luxury brands - and is a 'bit' home- made!!!

That's a brilliant idea!! Might have to have a go at that myself! :T

[Deleted User]

Hi Everybody

I've been a bit of a lurker on this thread for weeks, really enjoying reading everybody's plans for Xmas. Have picked up lots of great ideas, too

We're going away on holiday on 23rd October, and not back till 4th November, so my plan is to have all present buying (and possibly wrapping) done by the time we go away. Am quite well on the way with my present buying, and those people I haven't yet bought for, I mostly know what I'm going to get them, so don't need to worry too much about that.

Sent DH up to the loft last night to get wrapping paper and cards out, so I can figure out what I still need to buy in that respect. Which brings me to the main reason for this post - I quite fancied trying out the brown paper wrapping ideas mentioned earlier in the thread. Does anybody know a good, cheap place to get large quantities of brown paper?

Another thing that I'm curious about is that I'm guessing that most of the people posting on here are female (apologies to those who aren't!!) and I wondered how much everybody's partners get involved in Xmas planning?? My DH is SO not interested, doesn't even have any idea what we've (I've) bought for any of his relations until they open them! Never does any Xmas shopping (other than for my present), never writes a card, hangs a decoration, anything! Not that I particularly mind, as I really enjoy doing it all (it's the control freak in me!), but I've got a couple of friends whose partners love to get involved in the whole thing, so I just wondered if my hubby is the exception or the rule. Would be interested to hear from others.

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of an essay ...

Lillibet_2

cmathews wrote:

We're going away on holiday on 23rd October, and not back till 4th November, so my plan is to have all present buying (and possibly wrapping) done by the time we go away.

Another thing that I'm curious about is that I'm guessing that most of the people posting on here are female (apologies to those who aren't!!) and I wondered how much everybody's partners get involved in Xmas planning?? My DH is SO not interested, doesn't even have any idea what we've (I've) bought for any of his relations until they open them! Never does any Xmas shopping (other than for my present), never writes a card, hangs a decoration, anything! Not that I particularly mind, as I really enjoy doing it all (it's the control freak in me!), but I've got a couple of friends whose partners love to get involved in the whole thing, so I just wondered if my hubby is the exception or the rule. Would be interested to hear from others.

Ohhh, where are you going? I love buying Xmas pressies whilst I'm on holiday. I know it sounds daft but they are usually cheaper plus it offers the chance for different pressies & makes it a bit more fun on the day trying to explain to dad how you got it through duty free etc etc:rolleyes: Plus I'm always giving bundles of tea towels etc bought from day trips to seasides, stately homes etc, I know it doesn't sound very exciting but for some reason the women in my family love getting them

As for how much my hubby gets involved....not at all. He is just like yours....as his mum thanks him for the presents he is asking me out the corner of his mouth "what was it?":p He flatly refuses to do his Christmas shopping before December (he only has me to buy for plus he likes to get something from just him to Spud) then moans about the crowds, parking, lack of availability blah blah blah. :rolleyes:

tiff

cmathews wrote:

Hi Everybody

I've been a bit of a lurker on this thread for weeks, really enjoying reading everybody's plans for Xmas. Have picked up lots of great ideas, too

We're going away on holiday on 23rd October, and not back till 4th November, so my plan is to have all present buying (and possibly wrapping) done by the time we go away. Am quite well on the way with my present buying, and those people I haven't yet bought for, I mostly know what I'm going to get them, so don't need to worry too much about that.

Sent DH up to the loft last night to get wrapping paper and cards out, so I can figure out what I still need to buy in that respect. Which brings me to the main reason for this post - I quite fancied trying out the brown paper wrapping ideas mentioned earlier in the thread. Does anybody know a good, cheap place to get large quantities of brown paper?

Another thing that I'm curious about is that I'm guessing that most of the people posting on here are female (apologies to those who aren't!!) and I wondered how much everybody's partners get involved in Xmas planning?? My DH is SO not interested, doesn't even have any idea what we've (I've) bought for any of his relations until they open them! Never does any Xmas shopping (other than for my present), never writes a card, hangs a decoration, anything! Not that I particularly mind, as I really enjoy doing it all (it's the control freak in me!), but I've got a couple of friends whose partners love to get involved in the whole thing, so I just wondered if my hubby is the exception or the rule. Would be interested to hear from others.

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of an essay ...

Re brown paper, I've found the cheapest so far to be Ikea, a 10m roll for 79p. Wilkinsons have some I think its 6m for 69p. Pound shops might have some. The Ikea stuff is good quality paper.

piglet6

cmathews wrote:

Another thing that I'm curious about is that I'm guessing that most of the people posting on here are female (apologies to those who aren't!!) and I wondered how much everybody's partners get involved in Xmas planning?? My DH is SO not interested, doesn't even have any idea what we've (I've) bought for any of his relations until they open them! Never does any Xmas shopping (other than for my present), never writes a card, hangs a decoration, anything! Not that I particularly mind, as I really enjoy doing it all (it's the control freak in me!), but I've got a couple of friends whose partners love to get involved in the whole thing, so I just wondered if my hubby is the exception or the rule. Would be interested to hear from others.

I guess I'm very lucky in that respect, in that both Mr P and I love Christmas :snow_grin, and the jobs are split fairly equally between us... I do all the present shopping/wrapping/delivering/posting and card writing (except I make him write his parents and his uncle's cards - for that "personal touch"! ), and the majority of the practical preparation and clearing up (i.e. washing/ironing/making up beds for family and friends staying, general housework, etc). However, in return he does all the decorating of the house/tree (which I hate doing because I am not very artistic, so it never looks like I think it should in the transition from "head" to "reality"! :rolleyes:) and 95% of the cooking (I am allowed to help with some of the basic prep, but he is a chef, so is pretty much a control freak in "his" kitchen - but I really don't like cooking anyway, expecially on important occasions where we have all the family round, so that suits me fine!! :rotfl:). However, I do do most of the food/drink shopping - he writes me an enormous list of what he needs.

Overall, I guess the division of labour is pretty much equal and it works for us, although I think people look at us and don't see it that way...but thats because I spread my jobs out over months (I shop all year and stash things away, write and update lists for everything - presents, cards, food, etc ), whereas Mr P can't really do that much in advance - he decorates the house mid-December, and then really does all the hard work on Christmas/Boxing Day and New Year's Eve, which is when we always entertain friends and family :T. (By that time, I've done my "bit" so I get to put my feet up with a nice glass of "sherry"!!:beer:).

Piglet

full-time-mum

cmathews wrote:

Which brings me to the main reason for this post - I quite fancied trying out the brown paper wrapping ideas mentioned earlier in the thread. Does anybody know a good, cheap place to get large quantities of brown paper?

Try Wilkinson or the pound shop - you never know!

cmathews wrote:

My DH is SO not interested,

Ditto. My OH used to be a 24th December person before we married. He is not so bad now but I have to nag like mad to get any help on the Present Ideas Front. He enjoys putting up the decorations with the children but as for the rest....

Youngests birthday is in about a fortnight and I've no idea what to get her - we already seem to have everything. Will he sit down and discuss the problem? and as for what to do about a party well......

Nix143

I'd be interested if anyone has seen any cheap white christmas tree lights yet......I usually roll mine up every year and put them away so they are fine for next year - however last year some friends decided to take my Christmas tree down for me while I was in bed asleep and I woke up to find 4 sets of lights in an irretrievable tangle which got binned :rolleyes:

Am now worried I wont have a lovely sparkly Christmas tree for my living room this year