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.

How about a compromise? Fake one inside, little potted 2ft job with some outdoor suitable lights outside the front door? You can plant it after christmas and kee it for next year?

I like the idea of a little real one outside. I feel mean chopping them down so I love the idea of giving it back to be re-used next year.

You've convinced me I definitely don't want a real tree. Now I just have to ignore dh and do what I want instead

I decided that if I was going fake I was going all out so I have a black Christmas tree and lots and lots of bright decorations. Going to have to find a table to balance it on this year as dd will be crawling and she is a magpie for anything shiny!

Oh can I join?

After last xmas I couldn't give a flying wotsit about homnemade shit so long as we are healthy. Dd was only 3 months, me, dh and ds had swine flu and ds was diagnosed with pneumonia on xmas day night. Its ds's birthday on 23rd too.

I HATE tinsel and have loads of individual wooden / tin xmas tree ornaments but they're on a fake tree - ok?

I'm not doing xmas dinner cos I'm not a grown up cos we are going to mums.

Have bought most of dd's stuff and all my nieces and nephews. Ds is trikcky - he will be 5 this year, I don't feel like he's getting one big thing and am worried he will be disappointed. My brothers getting him a dsi though so I think I'm being stupid.

One of my workmates went to a Christmas store last year. She said they had an advert that you could but a tree and choose a colour scheme. They would then come to your house and dress your tree, then come back after Christmas and take it down for you. All for the small price of 850 pounds!!

Dignity - sounds like last christmas was awful. Here's hoping for a calm and healthy one this year.
I'm worried about presents too. My ds's are 4.4yrs and 2.10yrs and I don't have a clue what to get at all! My parents are buying them both bikes so that's the big thing sorted, but feel they should get a main present from me, which is silly really, they have everything.
Your ds will love the dsi, we got onme for ds1 for his birthday, was so funny when he opened it, thought he was gonna cry he was so overwhelmed.
We also bought him a case for it, so when he opened it all, he thought he had 2 and gave one to his brother, was so cute!

I swapped one of ds2's old toys that he doesn't play with with a friends ds's toy that he doesn't play with. A small play oven which I'm going to wrap for ds2 for christmas. I will buy him a few other bits, probably dressing up stuff or small world things like playmobil.
Ds1 is getting bakugans and Ben 10 stuff. Not sure where it'll all go though.
Feel a pre-christmas clear-out coming on. Hate getting rid of stuff, but due to space will have to be brutal.
I had decided to get rid of a big box of bob the builder stuff as it's not been touched in years, only for ds2 to drag it out yesterday and play very happily.
Anyway, I'm rambling.
Gotta get my lists drawn up of what needs doing and buying.

I know what you mean re the clear out. We have way, way too much and am actually quite ashamed of it! Thing is we have boxes of postman pat / fireman sam / bob the builder stuff but I don't want to get rid in case dd likes it when she's a wee bit bigger.

Same as ds has a elc tower of doom he doesn't play with and a big wooden fire station - if I get rid of them (behind his back!) I gurantee dd will want the same kind of thing in a year or so.

Have got rid of loads of baby stuff though and finallyt accepted there will be no more babies

Silvery My DS is 2.10 and I have been buying up Imaginext stuff like a crazy lady. I'm very impressed with them. My DSis is getting DNephew the Skyracers set too. It was half price in Argos this week at £23.99

They always start playing with whatever is about to go in a clear-out. I managed to persuade DS to let me take his Happyland stuff to the children's cancer ward at hospital (DD was a patient earlier in the year), but it took some doing!

Love this thread...can I join please? I have my bible (the Boots gift guide) and I have already brought out the Celebrations (only 8 left from the whole tub)

I love all things Xmassy and the smell of tinsel takes me back to when I was 5.
I can't be doing with all that gluing and sewing...bring on B & M!! Feeling quite nostalgic with all these mentions of Woolies...RIP.

Feel no shame saxony. In the haze of half-term illness yesterday, I cracked the Quality Street - the tin that I insisted would stay put until Christmas.

Mmmm tins of chocolate... they're on offer in my Sainsburys at the moment, like 2 tins for £10. That's filthy isn't it?!

I need a boots gift guide, got MIL and SIL's gift on their 3 for 2 offer last year (ha!) will certainly use for the ungrateful bitches again this year. any gift ideas for MIL's 47th new husband? I don't know what to get; clearly not going to just leave it! I've met him once; not much of a drinker, odd character and no hobbies that I know of. Help?!

Ooh yes saxony the smell of tinsel! Mmm!

Hi guys, just popping in to say boots has 1200 points for every $50 spent today. I'm off after work to get some bargains :)

Well I've had a great time in Boots tonight. I managed to get a few stocking fillers for DD and ds1 so Christmas is well and truly on its way :) For any of you with teenagers to buy for, Boots had some great offers on perfumes and aftershave. I managed to get ds1 who has just hit the lynx stage some nice Burberry aftershave, 100mls for 16 pounds and haraduku perfume for DD for ten pounds.

I was a bit dissapointed by the total lack of festive music. Wouldn't you think if a shop is going to entice you in for Christmas shopping they should at least have a bit of slade in the background. Ok I suppose we haven't had Halloween yet, but you can't announce on daybreak one day, only 60 days till Christmas and then not pull out a Christmas cd :)

I got my extra boots points buying this months supply of nappies, wipes, some magic expandable flannels for stocking fillers and a pair of pjs for ds for the hamper.

Ds started weaning at the beginning of the year so I joined the boots parenting club (10 points for every pound on baby stuff) and made sure o got all the baby food, napped etc from boots. I will have about £70 in points to spend there. I just can't decide what to get!

I have ordered the inlaws present which was the sweet hamper, I'm just going to make some snowman soups to add to it to make it look a bit more personal. It turns ou the nearest sweet factory is somewhere in Wales and dh like the look of the hamper anyway so we went with that (plus got 9% cashback through quidco).

Ds's presents have all been ordered, just need some dummies, vests and socks for his stocking and the ever elusive perfect colouring book. Got most of his stuff from amazon then got the 20% birthday club discount from elc for the rest of his presents (plus quidco cashback).

I decided on a camcorder for dh last night and knowing absolutely nothing about camcorders I hope I've got him a decent one! If anyone finds a bargain in Argos that is out of stock, try their eBay outlet store)

I have all the stocking chocolate, need tree chocs and tin of roses/quality street.

So I just need my mum, sister and brothers presents now. Can't decide on anything for any of them though....

Sorry for the really long post, freezing my arse of at the train station because my train's been cancelled. So trying to keep my fingers warm!!!

Can I join please? Even though I don't cook Christmas Dinner. We all trudge round to my Mums. I'm scared of poisoning somebody and Mum wouldnt have it any other way.
Have bought Christmas Cards personal and boxes. Did it at M&S thinking I could use the greetings cards reward card cos I had two that were full so should have been entitled to two free cards. The girl put them through the till then informed me you can't use them on Christmas Cards. Knocked the festive right out of me.
Those who have pre lit trees can I ask a daft question? How long are the lights meant to last? I wanted to get one but worried it's a lot to spend if they conk out after 2 years. We need all new this year after finally parting with all our 10 year old stuff last year.
We have a concession to home made Christmas. It's a tree ornament made by DS 6 years ago. It's a stocking that looks like a welly with three feet.

magneto I love reading long posts so don't.worry. l hope you're train was nice and cosy and warm when of arrived. I think I will elect you as the tacky tinsel bargain hunter :) you seem to be making great savings all over the place. I really must start using quidco more often. Dsis uses it all the time and takes up a couple of hundred cashback each year.

Can I ask what snowman soup is and how you make it. It sounds lovely. I've decided to sneak a bit of homemade in also. I'm going to buy those cookie cutters from lakeland which stack up to make a christmas tree. If they turn out nice I will give them to Ds2 teachers and also take them to people we visit over Christmas. We are scaling down this year on dh's family. Dniece's have all got dcs of their own now, they've all had teenage pregnancies but that's a whole other thread. Anyway we are doing under 18s only, so a cookie Christmas tree will be nice just as a small tolken.

Welcome fooffy I hate it when shops do things like that on promotions. But don't worry we will get you back in the festive spirit.

I have a prelit tree. They have led lights so they are supposed to last ten thousand hours. I noticed last year on mine that a small section wasn't lit. I think it must just be a fuse gone but by the time the tree was decorated, it wasn't noticable so I didn't bother to find out. Mine was a john Lewis tree and I must say, it was expensive but well worth the money. The whole tree is well crafted. It has hinged branches that fall into place and still looks like new. I'm onto year 5 this year.

Snowman soups is:
1 individual packet if hot chocolate,
Some mini marshmallows
Some mini chocolates (I'm going to use some of them tiny foil wrapped santas)
A candy cane (to stir it)
And I'm going to add some edible glitter to the hot chocolate mix.

The idea is you "present" it in a fancy wrapped cellophane bag with ribbons and a poem of instructions. Google it there's loads of ideas

Got paid today so the festive shopping can begin in earnest already bought an advent candle and some more decs from B&M and now trying to decide which puppets to buy for dd. Everyone in my office is a bit grinch-like about Christmas so it's great to read other people being as excited about it as me!

I've written out all my lists etc of what needs doing and who I need to buy for etc, just need to actually do it all now!

What's B&M??????

Yes, I was wondering what B&M was too!

foofy I did that at M&S last year and the annoyance it caused was really disproportionate!

B&M is a big bargain shop, sells pretty much everything, kind of like a pound shop but not all a pound IYSWIM! They have a great selection of cheap and slightly tacky Christmas stuff. Must just be a midlands thing!

itspeanutbutter - that sounded really dramatic! I was marginally pissed off but ranted at DH when I got in.
If anyone is looking for reasonable decorations The Range have a really large selection. From the tasteful to the seriously ' I have to HAVE it' kind of so tacky it's fab. Also Dunhelm Mill.

ooh taking ds to dunhelm mill tomorrow prob; he's 1 and it's raining so I have to do something!

We have B&Ms in Cheshire and Merseyside too.

I had never heard of Dunhelm Mill though - apparently they're only in retail parks where I live which is probably why I've never seen one.