My best Christmas tip

[Frynye]

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

Keep all.the.lists in a spreadsheet / workbooks. With a new column each year

This is what I do. I write it all out in a notebook, each person and what I have bought for them, adding to it as I go along. I try to remember to photograph the list so I've got a record when I'm out and about so I know if someone needs evening up. But I usually forget and end up having to play 'present shuffle' when one person has got far less than everyone else!

Gift giving doesn't work for you? Fine. It's not "sensible", it's just your personal choice.
There are only adults in my family, and we take a lot of joy from the giving and receiving of gifts.
It's genuinely a lovely part of our day.
It's just a different way, not right or wrong, nor is it sensible or foolish!

I've done that! 😀
Yes, keeping a book or spreadsheet is definitely the way forward. It also reminds me what I bought last year for everyone, then I'm not likely to accidentally repeat a gift!

I do like a list :-) I have a list of tasks which must be done by <different dates> in the run up to the holiday, fun things that i quite fancy doing in the holidays, people & and their presents, Christmas cards (sent/received)

My target is to reduce all of these to zero, so seeing the effort required reduce from year to year is always encouraging

That beats my trick of wrapping them around wrapping paper tubes!

As my generation has settled into adulthood, we definitely buy much less for each other and if we weren't a small family I think we'd absolutely do secret santa between us, but now we focus on a meaningful gift each, something small like favourite chocolates and experiences instead.

I just got a proper sellotape dispenser this year - DH was pretty pleased with one of my purchases for a change 😂 I’ve also got a paper cutter too although not sure how high to set my expectations!

Most adults do enjoy both giving and receiving gifts, I literally only see this grinchy "joy and gifts and fun are not for adults" attitude on Mumsnet, and unfortunately many of them seem to think they speak for the entire population!

I don't think it's grinchy at all. I just don't take any pleasure in receiving gifts or buying them so while I have plenty of joy and fun in my life generally and at Christmas if it included having to buy presents for adults and receive them a lot of the joy and fun would be lost.

Ok, that's you personally, a single person.

I'm taking issue with people saying that most adults feel the same way, and that anyone who does enjoy giving and receiving gifts is immature and entitled. That's demonstrably not true.

This ⬆️. It's demonstrably not true!

Although a recent thread where someone asked if saying no gifts for adults was OK was filled with people in agreement. I'd say it's becoming far more mainstream an idea.

Even present mad in-laws, who for my first Christmas with them still did stockings and I had an insane 47 individual things to unwrap have for a while now gone down to just one present.

I suspect more and more adults are joining the sigh of relief of cancelling the faff and awkwardness of presents and will continue to do so

And as I said in my original post it's an opinion I've only seen commonly on Mumsnet, definitely not a good representation of the average human.

Plenty of people don't see it as a faff to spend five minutes buying something nice for someone they love.

Fair enough. I don't know anything about anyone else in real life. What people you buy presents for has never come up in conversation with anyone so it could he 1%, 50% or 80% of my friends not doing it. I haven't run a survey.

I still think it's on the rise based on more recent threads here.

But there are other things I have only seen on MN as people saying are a problem. Like travelling to see family over Christmas or this notion that children should always be in their own home. I don't see driving for hours and packing up the children's presents as the least bit controversial or onerous. Far less so than having to come up with present ideas for myself or other adults.

Hahahaha!

My tip is this:
Once your recycling bin has been emptied for the last time before Christmas (it’s tonight, for us) don’t stuff it full again with cardboard and bottles/ glass jars etc. Stick any cardboard (eg delivery boxes) in the boot of your car, along with the glass to be recycled and get rid of it all in a recycling facility that is not your own bin. My local supermarkets have massive recycling bins in their carparks. Aim to go into the start of actual Christmas with as empty a recycling bin as possible.

I wrap in order of the people I’ll see- so if we see friends early December theirs get wrapped earliest. Then close family who we aim to visit closer to the day.
I always intend to wrap as I buy, but get waylaid.
I wrap the kids stuff straightaway.
You need tiny screwdrivers(like Christmas cracker ones), whatever will cut through cable ties, and batteries in a kit to hand, for opening small kids gifts on Christmas morning.
My mum always put books in our stockings so if we woke up stupidly early we would read and not disturb them till later! Usually an Annual 😂

I discovered this year at Thanksgiving that if you make the roasties the day before, cooked in duck fat and to about 90% crispiness and then cool them, bung them in the fridge and reheat them in the air fryer on the big day, they are absolutely perfect and it's just one less thing to have to fit into the oven. They do need to be cut smaller than I would traditionally do but that's ok with me.

I get paid interest on my saving pots every month, I stick it all into a higher interest account each month which I need 90 days notice to access. I let it build up all year and usually will have £400 or so and I use that to pay for Christmas so it's like I'm getting it for free.

And Art Pass cards….🙄

I love buying for adult dcs. They do for us too. I've just been out with ds1 and he treated us to a meal and happily gave us the gifts he'd wrapped. We facetimed ds2 and he asked me what I wanted for Christmas. They'll be staying at ours over Christmas but they love the build up.

No tips just enjoy it.

Lay the table before you start cooking dinner.

Biddy, you are a genius.🏆

Well this hands down wins the thread! (Except the duplicate stocking which I didn’t learn about until my DC were grown 😭)