OS Christmas Support thread & timetable

Queen.Bess

DH and I last night gathered together all the gifts we wished to 'recycle' to our friends and relatives and were really very pleased with the result! We don't need to buy many presents at all! Plus with all the vouchers we've saved, Christmas this year should be pretty cheap!!

tinselfairy

Just finished reading one of those books about the author's trials and tribulations of moving to and living in another country which led me on to thinking how a book could be linked in with another gift.
This one was about Italy, so could be given with homemade flavoured olive oils.
Maybe one based in France could be given with a french lavender plant.
I'm sure there must be plenty of others, but my brain is too tired to think just now.

^!£$&

Wanted to say thanks to op for calendar idea have some friends who dont have kids but a dog who is their baby so gonna pop round next time i look after him with a camera and take some photos of the dog to do a calendar for them for next year!

aimeelister

My OH and i had a bit of a brain wave over the w/end. My OH is a keen amateur photographer (a rather expensive hobby but its his one vice so i suppose i cant really complain) We went to see my grandparents who are really ill and took a load of photos to show them. Anyway while we were there Aunt turned up and looked at the photos and said they were amazing. So we have thought that we might get some printed to A4 (with snapfish getting the points with pigsback!) and put them in some cheap clip frames and voila instant cheap personalised Christmas presents.

Roz_V

Thanks to the person who posted the Woodland Trust - dedicate a tree link. (possibly nicki??) Just had a look and it's possible to buy a tree in the woods that are across the road from where we live so think that will definately be a good idea as a present for someone, possibly OH!!

kezbradley

Lillibet wrote:

Planning on filling some planters for my Mum this year, went into Homebase earlier & found them selling off sets of 3 terrocotta embossed planters for £7.99 down from £20 & 20% off all their spring bulbs so got a 100 bulb mixed pack for £8:D Would normally need to buy potting compost but we are having some topsoil delivered next month so will use some of this;)

Now in the process of making our Christmas "pudding", which is actually a autum variataion of a summer pudding, made with autum fruit which I have picked for free (balckberries, plums & apples) with cinnamon, ginger honey & nutmeg & HM sultana bread. Will freeze ready for the day:D

Also about 1/3rd of the way through knitting my sons Xmas stocking, however it is turning out HUGE:rolleyes: That'll teach me for doing it by eye rather than measuing. It'll cost me far too much in presents to fill it:eek:

Lillydrip, I get my wool from the local pound shop & yes, you've guessed it, £1 a ball for double knitting wool;)

OOOh Lillibet your pudding sounds lurvely any chance of a recipe?

CAFCGirl

Got some blackboard paint today to make some shopping list/ to do boards for gifts for people.

Have two nicely cut pieces of MDF, which came in a box at work for paddding (?!) which apparently the paint will work fine on, so will paint those and then using weekend off will be creating some adornments out of salt dough to paint and ten glue on, using some screw-in eyelets (or whatever they may be called) to hang then with.

Am impressed that these will cost me next to nothing, cost of paint £2, salt dough, only about 50p! not even that! Paints I've already got and boards for free and two presents!

Also got a pack of three cheap pine frames from wilkinson to adorn as gifts too! only cost 80P for 3 frames!
And got two really nice large mugs to create hot choc gift sets, 2 for 99p,
Just need sachets of hot choc and mini marshmallows now!

Lillibet_2

kezbradley wrote:

OOOh Lillibet your pudding sounds lurvely any chance of a recipe?

I kind of made it up as I went along but something like this

Make white loaf or fruit loaf according to breadmaker instructions. I made a white loaf with about 4 tablespoons extra sugar, a large cup of sultanas & some ground all spice.

Pick whatever free fruit you can find near you, I used apples, plums & blackberries. Slice & cook the plums & apples with a few tablespoons of sugar in a bowl in the microwave, no liquid or anything added as you want them to hold their shape.

Line a pyrex dish with the bread. Start by cutting a circle for the bottom then add slices around the side until it is fully lined, if the crust is quite hard cut it off but leave if it is soft. If it is a very big bowl or if you don't have quite enough fruit you can add a extra slice of bread halfway through the fruit.

Mix the cooked fruit with the uncooked soft fruit, add some apple juice, some vanilla extract or a pod or use vanilla sugar in the fruit, I used ginger honey as I didn't have any ginger, & a pinch of nutmeg, but you could adapt spices to taste : cinnamon, nutmeg, ground all spice etc would all work. You could possibly also use some sort of liqueur instead of the apple juice, depending on taste. I couldnt' think what so didn't bother.

Pile fruit mix into bread lined bowl. & add slices of bread to top until completey covered. Clingfilm & place in fridge with something heavy on top to "set" & allow juces to seep through to the bread. It won't be as stongly coloured as a summer pudding so you could either make a fruit puree type sauce nearer the time or accpet it as is, this is why I made sultana bread as I thought it would look nicer as you could see it. (Hope this makes sense?)

Left in fridge over night then popped into freezer. Tomorrow I will turn out of bowl & just wrap in clingflim & stick back into freezer until needed. I will probably defrost back in the same bowl to ensure it holds it's shape. When ready to serve turn out onto a plate so that it is upside down.

Hopefully when presented it will look like a kind of alternative Christmas pudding, I may even stick a sprig of holly on top.

Nice & cheap as I only used free fruit & HM bread. Rubarb might work in it if you have any, pears would be good,, also raspberries although they woulld give it a traditional summer pudding colour which I was trying to avoid as I wanted it to be a bit different.

Of course, I haven't tasted it yet, it might turn out to be pants:p

cha97michelle

I was in poundland today, and some of the stationary was fab. I saw a set of 8 marker pens with roller-stampers on the other end, and thought what a great stocking filler they would be for my 6yo nephew.

also, i wish i had spotted something like this when i was buying pressies for the kids that i teach.

I managed to get xmas pressies (clothes) for all 3 nephews today using my nectar/adams vouchers, leaving me with enough vouchers to get my friends baby a bit of something when it eventually arrives.

We also got a book for DH's dad, and an origami desk diary for his mum. These weren't overly cheap, but another two out of the way.

QueenB.

Got one of my sisters presents today, was in Asda and they had an oriental cooking set reduced from around £8 to £3.50. It has 4 beautiful little wooden bowls, chopsticks, bamboo placemats and it all comes on a sweet wooden tray. She has really gotten into Oriental cooking so this should be just the thing for her.