Best christmas tips

[starwish]

Would love to here other peoples tips for christmas... great ones I have come across on here are:
buying two stockings to make the swap easier
wrapping up a box to put wrapping paper in so you don't have black bin bags in photos
buying wrapping paper and cards in sales
I am sure you all have many more you could add to the list,

Use a disposable foil roasting tin for the turkey and just bin it afterwards. Get it for £1 from Poundland, best pound spent over Christmas!

Following on from the tip from Unexpected put the disposable tray on top of a normal metal oven tray. This makes it easier to lift out of the oven as the disposable ones can be a bit flimsy. It doesn't need washing as long as nothing spills into it.

We always make sure that the DCs have had a long run around in the park on Christmas Eve afternoon so that they have burnt off some of that excited nervous energy and have a better chance of sleeping.

The No More Socks app (recommended on the bargains thread) is already making my christmas more fun.

Oh and multiple christmas boards on Pinterest - for ideas but also so that I can indulge my christmas obsession all year round as long as I keep the iPad screen turned away from DPs eyeline until at least November

I read if you have a bare looking Christmas tree green shiny tinsel on first helps thicken it a bit.

Will have to remember the disposable tray, never heard the green tinsel one before

Another one for disposable trays. But I buy the smaller ones too and use them for everything that goes in the oven over the Christmas period. Large paper plates and even plastic cutlery and plastic cups for buffets or any meals where I can get away with it. Maybe a waste of money but anything that saves me from spending my Christmas elbow deep in the kitchen sink, instead of with the kids, is a winner with me.

tiny mirrors hung on the tree - I think Hobbycraft sell them- will reflect your lights so it seemed like double
-sounds like a tip from Viz

i wrap ds presents in one paper and dd in another - no need for labels

remember - it is Christmas - a HOLIDAY - and just chill sometimes too..........

70 beat me to the wrapping paper tip!

And also adding on to 70's tip, a separate roll of paper for presents from Santa, to be kept well hidden for the duration of the holiday and not used for any other random present wrapping!!

Best tip is to follow the Christmas bargains threads (already on to number 6 for this year) and save loads of money on presents.

Figure out if you need to order anything from eBay or ali express that's going to come from china etc and order it now so no mad panics in the week before Christmas.

Start now so when you are panicking on Christmas eve that you started off being really organised.

Make a list of everything you buy early and where you hide it (voice of bitter experience!).

I buy those big bags from dotcomgift shop and fill throughout the year. They are pretty so don't mind them bring on show in spare room.

Always buy crackers, cards, and stuff in early jan and put them up in the attic with the tree

Make address labels on the pc so only have to write the cards each year.

a separate roll of paper for presents from Santa, to be kept well hidden for the duration of the holiday and not used for any other random present wrapping!!

may I add one from a shop the dc dont go into too, i get mine from ikea, as dc dont go in there and wont see it.

Each person has a largish cardboard box covered in pretty paper ( and tinsel and glitter) to put their presents in after they are unwrapped. These are generally done on Christmas Eve as part of the day. Even nana (91 yrs old )has one.
It means all the little bits are together and my children used to love dragging their boxes into a corner and crooning over them .

I've had an idea for this Christmas eve and I'm well excited about it! I'm going to get new pyjamas for DS (2.5) to be worn on Christmas eve (like lots of people do), but we're going to have a scavenger hunt to find them, in the dark! As it gets dark we're going to avoid putting the overhead lights on, and just have the fairy lights on the tree, and we've got a load of those electric tea lights that we can scatter around the place. Then we're going to get out the torch and hunt through the house in the dark to find the pyjamas, which are going to be on his bed with some LED fairy lights on top. And there will also be the DVD of the muppets Christmas carol, so we can go and watch it and wind down before bed.

Lay the dinner table after tea on Christmas Eve or even better get kids to do it if old enough.

We have activity advent calendar and in the week leading up to the big day there are lots of jobs as well as treats:

Get house ready for Santa (clean and tidy rooms etc)
Go shopping with Dad to buy present for mum
Wrap family presents and put under tree
Go for walk and collect greenery for table/mantelpiece
Lay table etc

The treats in the calendar can be

elaborate - panto, iceskating, see Santa, go to buy tree
Easy- shiny pound coin pound coin to go to local shop to choose treat
really simple - hot chocolate, watch Christmas film, make paper snowflakes, play board game

Wrap a shoebox, lid separate, under the tree. In it, pop spare bulbs for tree lights, screwdriver, scissors, tape, batteries etc. the kind of useful things you may need unexpectedly to deal with small problems.

Buy every type battery possible from poundland so u have a stock as can guarantee a lovely grandparent(yes u dad!!) Will buy a battery guzzling toy n forget to check which batteries or not check at all n it takes those annoying square one's and 9 gazillion triple A.

(Stealing this tip from my sister-in-law!) as you wrap the kids pressies take them out of the packaging if possible - with out damaging - remove all the difficult cable tie thingies that take AGES to undo, put batteries in ready and put back in the packaging. That way the kids can ripple and start playing and don't have to wait for 20 minutes whilst someone wrestles with the packaging. Hope that makes sense

Great tips on here

The box wrapped in wrapping paper for rubbish instead of using bin bags is such a good idea! Also everyone having their On my way! decorated box to put their little opened presents in. Will be remembering these

Santa always wraps his presents in brown parcel paper in this house. Because a) he can wrap things when he gets them throughout the year; b) it's easy to replace; c) it doesn't need to be hidden away and d) there's no danger of anybody else using the same paper to wrap their own presents for the DCs.

Also, we have separate bits of our (Playmobil) nativity scene in our advent calendar - saves having to buy lots of little trinkets or think of different things to do. Baby Jesus is always opened on December 24th.

I have put photos of DC on their presents -helps for those who are too young to read their names.

Great thread! No tips yet, but I'll have a think.