What went well... a note-making thread

[OctogenarianDecathlete]

What is going down well with your family this Christmas?

Make a note here for next year (and for us to borrow your good ideas!)

So far for us:
• Charity shop books in stockings - Santa found a job lot of 'vintage' Minecraft books in a charity shop. Even though they're a bit out of date youngest DS is devouring every detail.

• Jolabokaflod - not sure whether this is really an Icelandic tradition or not but we did this last night and it was absolutely lovely! Again, some charity shop books, some new, everyone snuggled and reading. So soothing!

Suggested to a friend switching stockings on kids doors rather than trying to fill them thanks to a mn tip from several years ago. Worked perfectly.

That's a good one.

We've always switched ours but on the end of their beds. We hung them downstairs this time. Much easier!

Thanks to a thread on here the screaming goat from Amazon was a hit!

DS (5) was worried Santa might not come if he couldn’t get to sleep so we put stockings in the living room instead. Winner! Much easier for “Santa” to fill without disturbing anyone…

Our kids are now old enough to be able to wait to a decent hour to open presents and have breakfast. We aimed for 7 am, which was nice, compared to 5 the previous years.

Also prepared a snack basket filled with favourite food and drinks to last this week. Of course, most of the absolute best things are gone (chocolate, pringles and soft-drink) but they are happily selecting, sharing and planning as opposed to squabbling.

I bought both DP and DS these magnetic cube puzzle things for a fiver each and they’ve not put them down…

Eating out instead of cooking was a win for me. 😁

What are these things? I think I need them.

The organised mum 13 week plan is genius. I've never been so calm and relaxed before!

Big shout out to the MN thread that recommended James Martin's Yorkshire puddings recipe. We bought risalamande so have no leftovers filling the fridge hurrah. As always Delia's apple chestnut and sausage meat stuffing was bloody delicious, and Jamie Oliver's get ahead gravy did exactly that.

Cloth gift bags save time wrapping and save waste.

We put only Santa's gifts round the tree this year and let them open in 1 go.
Our gifts and family gifts came out after lunch in their sacks and after tea we'll open gifts that are for the family (mostly games)
The gifts last throughout the day and the younger kids aren't asking every 5 min 'can I open more presents' as they can't see them (stowed in the cupboard in sacks)

I also bought duplicate stocking- 1 already packed and just switched them. So easy.

Weird cube things.

DS keeps making weird shapes with it and bringing it to show me. He is 20…

With older teen/young adult children, ILs etc I usually buy a game as an Xmas Eve present.

This year I bought a magnetic strategic one that I'd seen on social media and it was a big hit.

Musical gramophone advent to play everyday, especially appreciated by Floof the cat.

Lots of lights around the house and 2 Christmas trees put up early lifted everyone's mood.

Nice smelling things around the house like lavender, rose and lily of the valley.

Christmas cakes from baker on 23rd and a small F&M thank you hamper got on 23 meant lots of nice treats on 23 and 24 and cat loved the hamper.

First Christmas with dp and ds so potential for awkwardness... last minute cracker purchase of Who Am I crackers from Waitrose meant we just played that during our meal and there was no free form conversation required.

Got DD2 a toy Dyson hoover that actually has some suction power to it and you can empty the compartment it sucks into. She spent 45 minutes vacuuming the kitchen, saved me having to do it. Out of all her gifts, that's probably her favourite.

Where can I buy a hamper with a cat inside? I need one!

I bought some wooden nutcracker jigsaw puzzles from Wentworths. We did them at the table between starter and the turkey. They were quite difficult to do though as the pieces are so small and random shapes. They will be packed away for next year. New tradition after 24 years😄🎄 We all had a fabulous day yesterday. Looking forward to a bacon sandwich for breakfast and a load of leftovers to graze on throughout the day😄

We did the same Sausages.

They were brilliant weren't they? Although the 2 best puzzlers ended up with the 2 easiest puzzles. Next year we'll swap them!

Christmas dinner bought from Cook as I had to work until 3pm.

Now it wasn't as good as completely homemade, but it was so much better than I imagined and really lifted the load for me.