My best Christmas tip

[Frynye]

Buy decent sticky tape and a good dispenser. Makes the whole thing so much easier.

Read somewhere to keep sellotape/scissors hidden! Sellotape seems to have a habit of disappearing .

No presents for adults? Bit miserable if there aren't any children.

Not at all in my experience. It takes the biggest stress and hassle out of the day. A far more pleasant experience.

It's just a flipping tip, not an order!

Most adults would agree (and be relieved) not to buy for each other if they had any maturity and sense.

Genius! 😁

If you buy tickets, eVouchers etc, forward the email to yourself with the name of the event/shop as the subject heading.

Often they come with a transaction number or "Thank you for your purchase" heading and it makes them harder to find and sort through down the road.

Also, buy a distinctive gift bag/box and keep all of your scissors, sticky tape, ribbon, tags, bows etc in there. A one-stop shop for your wrapping sessions.

Gift list app, it’s free . List recipients, gift idea. Tick ordered, received, wrapped.

My best tip is to not do Christmas.
Saves loads of money time and faffing.

Buy as much pre-made by the likes of M&S, Waitrose etc & pre order asap as stuff sells out. Far less hassle on the actual day then.

Store all the decorations in various really useful boxes.

Exactly. My kids are adults. I'll buy them what I want. They will always be my kids.

Use Trello app and list all of the shopping required over Xmas, including food, drinks, chocolates and presents and mark when bought. Reuse the list the next year and just update with any changes. Game changer for me and means I can share list with husband and we can both update/edit as needed.

Hahhaaa yes this would make my life so much easier

Where were you back in July? 🤣 I bought 3 Lego sets and a necklace and I can not find them. 😭

Get out of the house for an hour’s walk at some point during the day.

It's a top tip through bitter experience of not having done so!

There's one about 5 miles away will take anything, the guys there are friendly and will help you put stuff into the skip.

The one slightly further away though they are miserable, will not take fence panels and demand you register before you are allowed in.

Make a list of the most important gifts/ gifts you need/ first people you’ll see and food for Christmas- kind of the bare minimum but everyone will be happy and get first, that way if sickness, storms or money issues bring everything into question you can still have a great Christmas!

If you have several DC allocated them all 1 colour wrapping paper. If any gifts fall out of stockings you know who it belongs to.

This is probably my one and only Christmas tip as well! I do a kind of worm-crawl into the bedroom dragging the full stocking behind me and exit as I entered, taking the empty one with me. Ours are actual stockings though so its easy enough to replace them with one that looks the same, as long as they are both black or both tan.

How is that a Christmas tip?

Christmas would have been a right joy during our 8 years of infertility if we had done that!!

Condescending much? Some adults have no children in their lives, some adults have no family and rely on the warmth of good friends. Some people genuinely enjoy giving. Adults can actually chose to stop doing things they don’t want to.

I have a little basket where I store all my sellotape, parcel tape, string etc. I also started a spreadsheet a few years ago now, that I add a new tab to every year. In it I list what I have bought. Helps me to keep tabs on spend, recall what I’ve actually bought, and also remember what is for Xmas, and what’s for birthdays, as we have several birthdays in December.