Cheap and cheerful Christmas

[bobstersmum]

Does anyone want to join in sharing budget / cheap but cheerful Christmas ideas? We are not going to be able to spend too much this Christmas as dh recently lost his job and the new one looks uncertain at the moment.

We have 3 young dc age 1 (girl) , 4, and 5 (boys) so still want to make it lovely for them.
We will be reusing our artificial tree but I am going to spruce it up with some new decorations, I have seen some really nice single ones in Poundland. We have already put a few things away from the early b&m toy sale. Has anyone got any ideas for cheap little things for boys to bulk up their presents?

Following this as wanting to have a cheap and cheerful Christmas too! I will have a 10 month old daughter but we have finished her presents. Wanting present ideas for the rest of the family :)

-I went and got most of daughters things in the toys r us clearance sale. The entertainer shop is quite good for boys and not expensive :)

Don't get sucked into the commercial rubbish to entertain the kids. Bake with them and make decorations as activities in the house. Look up the TV guide and record films in advance instead of buying DVDs.

Thanks, I will at the entertainer I've never shopped there before. That's a good idea about recording the Christmas films now, I am going to get on with that today!

What are your dc into at the moment? My ds loves lego and we've just bought 4 pretty big sets (with boxes and instructions )off e bay for £14 including postage! Home bargains have some nice stuff selling very cheaply at the moment. Are you on any local Facebook groups? We see some good quality second hand stuff in there a lot. Investigate what's on for free in your area, get all of the lights switching on, Carol services etc in your calendar!

Hi indubious, they are into batman, star wars, minecraft, they love lego but we have hoards of the stuff! They also love toy story, we have done of the characters but not all so going to look at some of those, I've seen people selling second hand full sets but a bit wary in case they aren't fully working!

The works have got some great little Christmas craft sets in and they were buy one get one free last week.
My 4 year old loves them and they’re a cheap way of giving them something fun to do on weekends without leaving the house

Home bargains have these tin baubles this year and there's a Star Wars one, they're 49p!! Have you had a look at Toysforapound?

Was also going to recommend toys for a pound. I got a few nice bits for my 18 month old there, but there's loooaaddds for older kids.

At that age your little ones will get a lot of pleasure from being involved in Christmas preparations rather than what they have been bought.
Things like writing a letter to Father Christmas, visiting a local church to see the Crib or a carol service, making decorations for the tree or a Christmas mobile, helping with baking, are a few free/cheap things you can do with them to make Christmas special.

Set up the toys they already have ready for christmas morning, father christmas did it. In out house father christmas also leaves a special breakfast out. Both mean presents aren't opened all at once and it can be spaced through out the day.

Dd and ds still loved unwrapping just as much and if not more than the gift in side. I've been saving newspaper to layer up their presents when wrapping. It should also help to fill up the stupidly large stocking I throught it was a good idea to buy them.

Have a look at the Christmas Topic Board for loads of cheap and cheerful ideas, especially a thread called "An advent of things to do..." which is packed with ideas for free projects.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I have never heard of toysforapound, so off to look at that! Thanks!

You can buy Christmas themed punch balloons from Amazon really cheap, they blow up quite large and when mine were smaller I'd blow some up around the room and they had loads of fun with them and it made the room look full!

For the 1 yo filling a box with balloons and wrapping it is nice for them too, they'd probably be happy with just a box tbf!

I got cheap magnatiles from wish last year- no different to the real thing and a fifth of the price