Tacky tinsil and shop bought chutney, we love Christmas too thread.

[VoldemortsNipple]

For those like me who love Christmas and are slighty envious of the homemade Christmas threads, here's one for us.

A place to share the best bargains the internet has to offer. Confess our sins of being onto the third copy of Boots gift guide. Shout how much we love Aldi three bird roast with paxo stuffing. You get the idea.

I also feel that buyoing toys and other stuff for the dc's cheers me up on a bad day too.

I also feel that buyoing toys and other stuff for the dc's cheers me up on a bad day too.

I love that on this thread the 'lovely-themed-colour-scheme-tasteful' brigade and the 'bung-on-multicoloured-lights-and-tat' gang can exist happily together in glorious shop-bought Christmassy harmony

I just picked up 3 copies of the Boots gift guide. One for the bookshelf, one for the side of my bed and one for the staffroom in work.

With cup of tea in hand, I'm going to dive in while dcs are still at nans.

Love a good gift guide. That, and for the first time ever I bought some Christmas magazines this year, just so I can go for a long soak in the bath and peruse what I might do if I had the time/craft supplies/was remotely capable of making something decent rather than having to pretend DS, 2, did it.

I used to get Boots, WH Smith (do they still do one?), Tesco, ELC, Argos, Woolies (a moments silence and bowed head for what was one of the essential Christmas shops).

I've got my boots gift Guide but my Lakeland one got destroyed by ds

Any suggestions for gifts from boots for my 18 year old brother? Im bot buying him booze because he'd get up to no good

Crazynanna - could you tell me the website you used for your stocking fillers please? I'm seriously tempted by that M&S Christmas Done For A £100 Dinner thing...sounds just my cup of tea!

Thanks for that kinky I've just bought 2 Christmas magazines from Asda :)

I'm having palpitations over the idea of a Lakeland Christmas book, I neeeed one. Even of it is to fantasize over how perfect my Christmas would be if I was on that other thread.

Just bought my second present and first for the dcs. The Guiness book of records. Ds2 has been asking for it. I also saw Ripleys believe it or not 2011 for $4 so might go back for that.

I also had a great little nose at all the decorations in B&M. I was very tempted to get some lights. But then I remembered I have a pre lit tree.

saythatagain that website is in the Christmas topic. Sorry can't link on my phone, but easy enough to find.

saythatagain Here you go

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/1326959-Bargain-gifts-lots-of-girly-things-for-1-or-2-Kimmidoll-etc

Ooh can I join please? Waiting for payday so I can go buy lots of sparkly things! It's dd's first Christmas and I may go a little overboard....

Thanks muchly

Hooraaaay! This is the thread for me!

I did do a proper full on Nigella Christmas before DS was born, but I remember being pretty unimpressed at the time; I slaved for hours over homemade gravy and red cabbage flavoured with pomegranate and I thought "I couldve just bought this fucking lot from M&S".

So the following year, I did. Which was lucky considering DS was only 12 weeks old!

The only thing I really do is bathe the turkey in a Christmassy brine; it takes about 20 minutes and it's now something of a tradition. Plus the children can get involved chucking all the ingredients in and it's quite nice that way to get them involved in some Christmas food prep that doesn't involve boiling hot goose fat! I'll happily copy the recipe on here if anyone wants it? It does stop the turkey drying out in the oven and makes me feel important

My best friend makes the booziest Christmas pudding in the world and gives it to me, so that's that done.

The roasties in a tin from M&S are just the best thing ever. £4.99 I think I paid last year and they were lovely. I'm buying 2 packs this year just so I can cook them off and pick at them later .

IMO, no one gives that much of a shit about the veggies. They want meat overload and bollocks to your colon health.

I also get an M&S pre-done honey ham for Boxing Day to have with more roasties and perhaps some token cabbage, that went down well last year.

Getting a prelit tree from John Lewis this year; last year we went to B&Q for the tree and it was like Day of the Triffids in our house the sodding thing was so massive. The top of the tree was actually bent on the ceiling

Welcome alwaysrocking and peanutbutter

I have a john Lewis pre lit tree. They are expensive bugt you get what you pay for. I paid 130 pounds and thorght, if I get 10 years out of it, ill have had my moneys worth. I'm on to year 5 this year and it still amazes me how lovely it looks. I spend hours staring at the tree when it first goes up.

I'm getting very tempted by the m&s raves on here. I don't think I could justfy spending that much on one meal but I think I might suplement it with a few nibbled. That's if I don't get a better offer, as in get invited to my Mums :)

Yes please to your brine recipe peanut - love the idea of dd1 being able to help!

Now i AM on the homemade one...however i'm kinda lazy and crap!! But i have made a couple of things, so i'm letting myself off, and i love tacky cheap decs from the likes of B&M's...I'm currently waiting on them getting rid of their Halloween crap and getting all their Christmas range out, then i can go mad!! I also like poundland crap and the likes..

So is it possible, for me to be on the two threads

I have made christmas pudding vodka and chutney to go in the mini hampers I am doing for gifts.

That is the extent of my home made christmas

My home will be a shrine to a multi-coloured festive orgy.

What trees do you all have? We have a fake 6 footer and I have been promised a real one this year. However, I am contemplating buying a gorgeous 7 foot fake one instead as I will get more for my money. Any recommendations?

aaah, my spiritual home at last ...

last year, we had:
artificial tree (from Argos) tick
far too many decorations of the cheap n tinselly kind tick
fake snow spray on windows tick
dinner catered by M&S tick
sat in a sea of wrapping paper, half eaten Thorntons and broken plastic tat all day tick

can i join? [hgrin]

oh i saw something in the paper yesterday about a company that will rent you a real xmas tree, all potted and prepared, then will take it back, grow it, and rent it out again the following year ... and so and so on, until its too old or big, then planted in the great outdoors. all envo green and all that.
its a scheme to reduce the number of real trees just chucked away into landfill after xmas.
i liked the idea, if i was going for a real one rather than our Argos special, i would do this.

toomuch That is a lovely scheme. I would do it too, but I have a woolies 6ft fake in the loft.
I do need to get some more decs though, and now that the ds's are no longer babies, I want to decorate their room too.
Dp is right old misery and hates putting the tree up. If he had his way, we wouldn't have one

I'm sticking with my 6ft woolies value one! I was tempted by the John Lewis pre-lit (I hate putting the lights up), but I think we will stick with my pathetic malting one and all the nostalgia that comes with it. By Voldermort's calculations, my tree has cost me £1.15 a year [hgrin].

In fairness, it looks nice when it's decorated. I'm just finding fake plastic pine needles all the way into the summer.

You've all inspired me to create a novelty tree-topper this year though!

OP yes I'm getting a pre lit from John Lewis this year. It's going to set me back £180, but bearing in mind a 6-7ft tree from B&Q is about £40ish; Im hoping that I'll make my money back in a few years. Plus no needle drop! It's LED's in the branches, so DS shouldn't be able to pull the lights off and electrocute himself I've had four years of real trees, and I've never been overly impressed.

silvery my dad was the same, he actually refused to buy a tree one year and on Christmas eve my uncle came round with one because he felt so sorry for me and my mum. Now I've left home though, my mum doesn't fight any more and they don't even have Christmas lunch, last year they spent the day decorating

I'll post my brine recipe for the turkey when DS is in bed...

Our tree is a fake 6 foot monster, but we have to seriously downgrade as the living room in this house is so small and square that wherever it goes it will cover half the floor space and we won't be able to see the tv from any angle. We will essentially have a giant tree bang splat in the middle of the room. Dh wants a real one, I'm not convinced. Aside from all the needles falling off, how well do real trees stand up to being lived in by cats and possibly pulled over by small children as they try to follow the cat up the tree...

magneto I really wouldn't. Aside from the needle drop (and if you so much as dare to put the central heating on; it's going to happen), they never seem to last longer than 2 weeks before turning a browny/green colour. I doubt the cat would bother the tree; would the smell and prickles not put it off? My DS would definately try and eat the needles, no doubt. Plus the mess when you drag them in and out the house is bloody horrendous. Hoovers just don't pick the needles up properly.

Rant over, sorry!