Ah yes, now I remember WHY I was determined to do the shopping well in advance.

[fuzzpig]

Did much of it online throughout autumn, then got a bit complacent and stopped for a while (TBF there is a lot going on with us at home)

Went into town to get a few bits today... nightmare! So crowded, hot and jostly. I HATE it. (I did feel justified rewarding myself and family with milkshakes before heading home though)

Next year we WILL throw ourselves into doing it thoroughly a little while in advance (except wrapping - I will do that nearer the time with festive music, baileys, reels of fancy ribbon and cheer in my heart :o). My social phobic brain and my exhausted pain ridden body can't take Christmas shopping anymore. It's official.

Although I'm not quite sure how that'll work as my DCs are probably going to be actually asking for specific things and maybe writing their first Christmas lists next year - so I'll have to leave some of the budget til then, somehow.

I hate shopping in winter as the weather is cold so you bundle up in hats, heavy coats, scarves, gloves etc - only to step into a shop that has it's heating whacked right up onto full so you cook with all the other shoppers jostling for space for your elbows.

I buy in advance, and online where I can help it. Then me and DS go into town one afternoon in the run up to Oooh and Aaah at the xmas lights and have a drink in a cafe. smug ->

Do the rest on line Fuzzpig if you can.

We went out today to get the dc new beds and it was horrific! Ridiculously busy and the roads were chaos.

There was a huge crowd of people outside primark at 10.00am too. People seem to go nuts as soon as it turns Dec

we were in the crowd outside Primark too. Not at 10am though, it didn't open till 10.30 and the first half hour was 'browsing time' till 11am.

DD and I got to the carpark at 9.30 (after that you have to fight for a space and I wanted stuff from The Range).

We people watched with coffee and hot chocolate.
And yes it was chaotic

I am planning one last surge of online buying this week (we still have an amazon voucher we bought with our saved £2s, and money in DH's PayPal) where we will properly sit down and work out exactly what needs buying still - can't entirely remember as we've just been shoving stuff in the cupboard as it arrives

We can't even get that much at once when we go into town as we don't have a car! All we did today was Boots 3for2 (including lots of wrapping paper) and DH took DD off to choose my birthday present for Friday :o

Ah, Fuzzpig you will get there! Have noticed you around and really hope this Christmas is your best one yet.

I have to get more wrapping paper this week (will pop into M&S en route to car one night from work), as I ran out over the weekend. We got a few bits yesterday (DH needed a coat so we all went in for a couple of hours, including lunch). And I am down now to:
2 bath bombs for Christmas Eve box (Dh not into those! )
A "courier bag" that DH has now spotted (even though I'd already pretty much finished his!)
A couple of bottles of Christmas beers (for DH, the last bit I wanted to get for him)
A packet of Irish sweets for Au Pairs lil Bro's and Sis

And wrapping those and another 6 or so presents already got. I even off-loaded most of the presents for my family and all of DH's family ones to 2 seperate family members in the past week to bring down, so they are not cluttering up the study anymore either!!

But town was MENTAL yesterday, and I expect it will be bad from now on everyday! (I have to traverse main shopping street twice a day to get between work and car parking space).

I have agreed though to take DD for her "Christmas Shopping" trip to town on 18th, which is more about hot choc, visiting "Live Crib" and people watching with a few last minute bits to get, as even she has been getting ahead with shopping this year!! I am training her well!! (She's 6, and will be 7 on Boxing Day, so the season is a BIG thing in our house).

BiddyPop my DD will be 3 on boxing day!!!

Saturday morning, be there for 8.45 and out by lunchtime. Tis the only way

They were queuing two roundabouts back to get into my local Sainsbos yesterday

I don't handle crowds well.. especially not with the constant temperature fluctuations as aforementioned by yourhand..... but thanks to a financial cockup blip I've been so skint I couldn't do anything for the last two months....

Booked a day off work and blitzed it on Friday... it was horrid but no where near as busy as the weekend... Now last few bits will be done online and we're there...

Just a trip into town for late night shopping with DD but like others this will be a people watching trip from a coffee shop

Thanks bridezilla :) feeling excited and cautiously optimistic for this year, but also not putting too much pressure on myself either, as that would probably lead to a relapse anyway.

Walked through the mall again today and it was nearly as bad as on Sunday! We are doing some decluttering tonight (and watching the Lorax which I've borrowed from work) but I think tomorrow we will finally have to finalise exactly what else we new to buy, present-wise.

And then plan the food... Already booked my tesco deliveries for 19th and 23rd but need to actually decide what to put in them. Thank goodness for online shopping - I hate supermarkets!

I live close (with 5 minutes) to a (in)famous outlet village. The entrance to the village is also the entrance to Tesco - the only supermarket we have.

On Friday DD asked where her Advent calender was. Shit! I forgot to get one. Thought, oh well, easy enough, I've got a day off so I'll nip to Tesco in the afternoon.

It took me OVER a fucking HOUR to do a 10 minute job. 25 minutes to get into the car park, 15 minutes to find somewhere to park because it was one in one out. 10 mins to nip in a pick up the calendar (Tesco itself was almost empty). 20 minutes simply to get OUT of the car park, and another 10 minutes to get home. This was at 2pm.

I was RAGING.

I hate living here just because of the bloody outlet village. All roads are packed right up to the motorway all the bloody time, but it gets worse when you factor in Christmas Shopping, Boxing Day Sales, New Year Sales, May Sales, Summer Sales, Autumn Sell-Offs and back to Xmas again.

I've done almost ALL of my Xmas shopping online, but am dreading the Xmas food shopping. I think I'm going to have to go 40 minutes out of my way to our next nearest Tesco rather than get the RAGE again.

Oh that sounds like a nightmare. Thankfully our town is big enough to have a few decent shops but not big enough to be an uber popular shopping centre.

I didn't enjoy advent calendar shopping this year - hardly any around it seemed! Ended up getting 4 of the same from thorntons, didn't have time to get them iced with our names, so on Saturday I got some writing icing tube things and did them myself (surprisingly neatly, I must say :o)

Crowds make me even more indecisive too, because I get uncomfortable and panicky and distracted. Much better if I have a very specific list.