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.

But now I simply have to have a festive fleece throw

Aw I like the red one with stars on magneto that's cute

Only problem is it does have a lot of crap too, which you have to sift through

I am going to have to get one of those throws magneto!

Ah yes peanut it's all about the sifting.

Magneto Its festive. No doubts.

Snowman soup sounds lovely magneto they would be ideal to make up for unexpected guests. I also like the biscuit in a jar idea. I was going to make them last year but, ermm, never got round to it :)

We have a dunelm not far from us. Is Aintree close enough for you magneto? The dcs would love those fleece blankets. I haven't been at Christmas before so will have to make a note to visit. peanut please report back on dunelms festivities.

Aintree is a bit far for me, as I don't drive so I would have to convoke dh to drive there (and he despises driving through Liverpool because he doesn't know where he's going)

But it seems there is one in Chester, which should be easy to get to, can't believe I've never seen one before though!

For those of you who do stockings for adults, do you do your own or does dp do it for you?

There are some treats I'd like but don't know whether I should buy them myself, give dh a list or just let him get on with it and hope for the best!

Stupid iPhone autocorrect, is convoke even a word? I meant convince! And I see my strikethrough didn't work either. Fail.

I love giving and receiving surprises and dh hates them. So last year we agreed to just spend $30 each on each other and we could get surprises. Dh ended up giving me the money and asked me to pick my own present. I bought, wrapped and put my own present under the tree. So it was a surprise for everybody but me!

I've never done him a stocking though, I might suggest that this year instead.

Can I ask if anybody has older dcs and what traditions you have? Our dcs have outgrown a lot of the little traditions like elf on the shelf (who has sat on the picture rail since last Christmas) panto and visiting fc. I'm keen to find new traditions to do with them. The past couple of years we have been to the pictures on Christmas eve but as much as it helps Ds2 relax and sleep better its not very magical. Is it possible to keep Christmas magic with older dcs.

I buy online from Dunhelm. I've been having a happy little look at their Christmas goodies. Like that blanket. They are so reasonable too.

We always spend Christmas at my Mum's. This is the first year ever that we are going to be at home. I'm going all-out to hone a few new Christmas traditions of our own. I'm having an elf for the first time. Also, I've bought them both playmobil advent calendars. Now DD is 13, and you would think too old for this, but she was very chuffed when she saw her little FC post office with the elves and Christmas tree! My only mistake was letting her see it, as the elf was going to bring them. We never have a stocking, so I'm doing stockings for all of us to open upstairs before we come down to main pressies. I'll do mince pies and gingerbread with DD before Christmas Eve. For the first time ever we won't be at my Mum's for our annual Christmas Eve party, instead they are going to come to mine (we live just over an hour away) and spend a chilled afternoon. I'm thinking of putting out some buffet, getting some family games in, and making hot sandwiches - bacon butties, sausage, egg, with various sauces/relishes for supper, along with baked things courtesy of DD.

I don't know what else I'll do. DH lives in fear of my festive drive, and I made it very clear that if we stayed in our home away from extended family that I was to be allowed to get my full festive crazy on and go wild. That is what I intend to do. [hgrin]

How old are your DCs Voldermort?

DD is 15
Ds1 is 12
Ds2 is 9

We have bought the Christmas cookie tree cutters today from lakeland. It will be nice to make them with the dcs.
DD would love the playmobil calendar too and Ds2 would love the lego one. But they wouldn't be happy to share one and I can't justify buying three of them.

Last year I gave them a lush bath bomb with their Christmas pjs. They went down well so doing that again.

On the subject of cookies...I love these ninjabread men!

I can't wait to start going to a panto with ds! I only ever went to one, which came to my primary school. I think I'd probably make my kids go to the panto until they left home .

How are we all doing on our Christmas shopping?

I only have my mum and my nan to sort out now. Plus new socks/pjs/underwear for the stockings.

Then I get to organise the Christmas decs...including that fleece!!!

Oh and Iwantoneofthose.com are doing a 3 for £20 on all this stuff here, free delivery, plus don't forget 9% cashback from quidco.

And for those who want some nice posh chocs, I also got some bargains from Hotel Chocolat, spend £60 you get a free box of chocs worth £12, spend £100 and they give you a £10 e-voucher. Plus, you can get 10% off a £30 spend, plus 10% cashback. Just watch out with the despatch dates on anything you order - they charge nearly £4 for every separate despatch date so make sure everything can be despatched at the same time.

I'll try and post anything else I come across.

Forgot to say, al the cashback deals I use are from Quidco, but you should really get into better habits than me and use TopCashBack too because they don't charge £5 per year for the priviledge! But I keep forgetting to do this myself

I just got an e-mail from quidco. Didn't think I'd signed up........
So far, I have got ds1 a pack a bakugans and ds2 has this which I got second hand from a friend, and this which arrived today (ordered from amazon).
I'm going to get ds1 a game for his DSi and either some Ben 10 stuff, or Scooby-doo.
I have 6 other children to buy for, dp's stocking, my parents and my brother.
Am a bit skint though!
Oh well, will do what I can.
Looking forward to going through the decs etc. dp is dreading it, miserable git!

Hello all, can I join you! I am trying to keep Christmas under control this year. I am currently struggling a bit with anxiety and depression so need to try not to get too stressed LOL We have 6dc though so Christmas is alsways full on! I do love Christmas though.
I am doing well on shopping, and have about 75% of my pressies bought. Have wrapped about 50%. Have found box of Christmas baking things and story books from the loft (located when getting Halloween stuff, now stashed in my bedroom) and made my first batch of mince pies for the freezer yesterday. I will be combining a mixture of shop bought yummy things with some homemade cause I do love baking
Have also managed to book an Ocado delivery slot for evening of 22nd so am feeling quite organised for once. My aim is to get as much done and ready by end of Nov, cause Dec is always chaos with hundreds of school concerts, nativity plays, musicals etc... and I wnat to actually be able to enjoy the run up to Christmas this year for a change.
52 days to go...have our countdown Santa out already

Hi NamesAllGone of course you can join! I was getting a bit worried I had killed this thread with my constant waffling!

Christmas must be amazing with 6 dc! All their excitement must be fabulous!!! At the moment, I'm the only person in my house who is excited, which is a bit rubbish!

Not impressed today that I have two weeks off work, one in mid November and one in early December and Amazon's black Friday week is right in the middle of the week I'm in work!!! Got some great bargains there last year, when I was on mat leave and ds was 3 months old so didn't really mind that we were on Amazon for an entire week!!!

I have nearly done shopping

a few more bits that's all.

Will be having a mammoth wrapping session in December.

Still not sure of my shifts over Christmas yet So no point planning things yet

if I'm off on xmas day then we have 20 coming for a buffet. If I'm working it will be on another day.

Off to home bargains and dunelm tomorrow.

Hi Magneto, yep, there is always MUCH excitement around Christmas in this house LOL Hope you get chance to grab a bargain on amazon despite work!

ENS well done on the shopping!I am trying to avoid leaving all my wrapping till last minute this year - it takes me hours LOL

I have just wrapped DS2 pressies (he's 3) and realised I actually have too much for him All stuff I have bought throughout the year when I have seen a bargain! Anyway I have put 2 things away for his Bday in April, so feeling supremely organised now LOL
Have pretty much all of DD4 things bought and wrapped, need a couple of things for DD3 still but have most bought and wrapped. Have DD2's bought and wrapped except main present - she wants a Karaoke machine and am still holding out to find a baragin!
Need to sort DD1 - have a few bits but it's also her Bday in 2 weeks so need to sort that first!
Then just DS1 left, who will want stuff from Games Workshop and will email the list with links so he is dead easy to sort LOL
Then need to consider DH.....

Hoped to get more mince pies done today but didnt manage....(cleaning took over!)

Now off to browse ideas for Magic Elf as haven't done that before (never been organised enough!) but hoping to manage this year

Oh, and finally got round to booking panto tickets - yay!

Hi guys.

I've been a bit busy this past week and neglected MM. I'm happy to report I've made a good dent into my Christmas present list. I've had a good few bargains from the internet, including a cadburys chocolate teapot for ten pounds reduced from 35, for my dsis from Urban Outfitters.

I've also been checking quidco for deals. They have 13% cash back from find me a gift.com. only problem was I couldn't find anything :)

Namesallgone you sound very organised and I agree, Christmas must be lovely and hectic in your house.

I saw a Christmas tree all I lit up on my way home from work yesterday! Now I like my tree up early, but early December.

I was looking at the Christmas stuff in The Range this morning and must say I was impressed.

Some gorgeous stuff and very reasonable.

Ds2 (nearly 2) seems as excited by Xmas things as I am. Obviously teaching him well

When do you all do your wrapping? I love it so take a few days holiday from work and spread it over a few days. Vh1 Xmas songs and a bottle of advocaat get the Xmas love flowing!

We dont have The Range near us so Ive just had a peak online. This is the most bazzar tree Ive ever seen.

Now there's tacky and there's tacky but really, who would want a snowing Christmas tree sitting inside an umbrella in the living room. Can you imagine the noise, it would be like a hoover going off in the corner.

Going back to see what else The Range sells

lol that tree was near the tills.

It's even more hideous in real life. My gran liked it though

I liked the baubles and the charger plates.

I remembered why I'm not on the homemade thread at the weekend.

I had a go of making that biscuit Christmas tree from Lakeland. Well it was easy enough to do. Make the biscuit dough, roll it out, cut two of each size and cook. It started off ok, but as the layers got bigger, less could fit in the oven, so it ended up taking about 3 hours to cook. I had ideas of making them for every Tom, Dick and Harry but stuff that for a game of soldiers. plan B tins of Roses back on the menu :)

I had an internet delivery on Saturday from Urban Outfitters. I really recommend you all have a look for some bargain presents. Remember the Cadburys avdvert for hot chocolate and the mug was in the shape of a chocolate chunk. $5 each! And the Cadburys chocolate teapot $10 The price tag says $35 ($ - pounds)

We arranged the date today in work for Christmas lunch and Christmas party. I work in a nursery as a cook so December is busy busy busy. I also do Christmas breakfast on the last day before we break up. Christmas fair is in two weeks and lights being turned on this coming Thursday.

It's flying in now!