What Christmas tips worked well this year and what will you not be doing next year?

[Monroe]

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas
I've picked up lots of tips over the years from these threads. This year we tried the lottery present opening for the 2 dc's. We had a jar filled with numbers that corresponded to the ones stuck to the bottom of the dc's gifts and they took turns pulling out a number then both had to find that gift. It stretched the opening of them out and they really enjoyed playing the "game"

What I won't be doing is buying loads of stocking fillers just for the sake of it. Most of them were opened and discarded within the first couple of minutes

Do not buy a sand pit

Another thing that worked well for me was doing my hair and makeup before I started cooking stuff. I have had several dinner parties where people have arrived and I've not started getting ready and then I end up spending the whole evening feeling grim as I had no time left to do my hair.

Yes to that trixy I wrote myself a slot in my cooking schedule to get ready in and DD and DH took over the kitchen for half an hour.
Last year I ran out of time, felt sweaty and horrible and avoided the photos.

Instead of finding new & inventive ways with leftover turkey a few days on do everyone a favour & feed it to the birds

Biggest win: making a pavlova the night before and just getting out a tub of whipped cream and some blueberries and raspberries the next day to decorate it in 4 minutes.

I have a Google Calendar reminder set up for Dec. 1st 2015 which lists of things like the numbers of presents needed, how many ginger cakes will actually get eaten etc. and that's a great help: a reminder when I'm most likely to start getting too much stuff!

Going shopping on the 23rd and spending the 24th in a gluten-free baking marathon with the radio on was lovely.

We cook the turkey on Christmas Eve and warm up what people want on Christmas Day. Potatoes cook much better if the oven isn't crammed full.

Adult stockings are alternate years for us - I love doing them but it's hard work, having a year off makes it fun again. Mostly treat food this year which I'll definitely do again. Nice jam and coffee rather than endless chocolate. As the kids get older theirs get more useful stuff in too. DS had a couple of TShirts in his, DD (who is at uni) had luxury tomato soup and a couple of fancy tinned meals.

What worked well:
Buying most presents throughout the year and some on Black Friday, having them wrapped well in advance and hidden in the garage, inviting mum over 5 days before D-day so she did all the shopping, baking and cooking and loved it! Christmas PJs for the family on Christmas eve were a big hit and everyone was delighted that they could just lounge around in sleepwear all day.

Mulled apple juice for buttered rum in the slow cooker worked an absolute treat too: you could have it with or without the shot of spiced rum. Yum!

Also did Jamie Oliver's Turkey and leek pie last night....phwoar, bliss! www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/turkey-recipes/turkey-and-sweet-leek-pie/ (didn't bother with the complicated pastry thing, just put regular puff pastry on top and it was amazing).

Didn't work so well.... Had nothing at all arranged for Boxing Day and felt very lonely! Also need to communicate with family more over dd's presents as she's ended up with 5 of the same of everything and we are quickly running out of space!

I did the turkey and leek pie (as did a lot of people on my twitter timeline! ) and I agree, delicious

I missed out the tat in the stockings too, and they were very succesful. less filler and more of what they actually asked for including supergraph, minecraft lego, arty stuff, bangers, sweets, note pads etc. they loved it.
more presents after lunch. but it was a bit of a push to fit it all in (including church) before their dad picked them up at 5. next year is my christmas day with out them and i think ill pick them up boxing day morning instead, for a second christmas with me.

Oh and I bought this Vtech Create and Learn and my 2.5 yr old absolutely loved it, been sitting at it playing for hours. highly recommended. I got it half price on black friday.

I have a word document of Xmas card addresses set up as labels. It works a treat except when you get technical problems and can only find the one from 7 years ago! I even had to email a friend to ask her address . This year I am going to keep a photocopy of it just in case it goes missing again and put it with the cards and wrapping paper.

Today I bought a few speical Christmas cards, two boxes or cards, wrapping paper, a calendar and date book less than 4 pound!!

I was glad I did hampers for people difficult to buy for

Vouchers and money for nieces and nephews- went down well

Aldi for the big shop and sent mr grumbles (gave me few hours break- will do his again as he enjoyed it)

Didn't buy as much junk food but small boxes of luxury chocs for ourselves. Much nicer and less damage. No crisps etc.

Went for a nice meal and drink on Christmas Eve to the festive feel

Didn't bother with santa in local shopping centre - will book a special visit somewhere this year

Had chrismas in our own house for a change - lovely

I'm loving the idea of personalised Nutella jars for next years stockings. Where do you get them from?

And any tips on where to pick up nice reduced wrapping paper and crackers?

I have a large plastic box in the loft that I put everything in as I pick things up throughout the year. So far I have underwear for DD and socks for ds for next years stockings and a body warmer I picked up for half price for my dn

My friend got my DS s personalised Nutella from Selfridges but I think loads of places sell them.

Worked:

Not sending individual Christmas Cards to people I see frequently and saving them for those not on Facebook etc

Letting the children choose what they wanted for Christmas dinner. Neither like a roast so we had brisket in the slow cooker cooking overnight and they had "junk" meals. Perfect! No moaning or strops at the table.

Ready prepared veg that just had to be tipped into the saucepan. An expense but it is my Christmas too and I want ease just one day of the year!

Spreading the festivities out. Christmas eve we went out for the day. Christmas day just us at home in our Pj's. Boxing day the in-laws came. Saturday - my family came and the in-laws popped in to say hello to them. Sunday all met up for breakfast at the local Harvester and the in-laws went home whilst my family went to the local Panto.

Did not find anything that didn't work

Monroe my BIL got the Nutella jars - completely inspired - the joy of Xmas morning was my DN in bed at 6:30 am reading her new book from Santa and licking nutella off her fingers while the mayhem unfurled around her. I think he ordered them online.

Am I the only MNer who dislikes (and disapproves of) Nutella?

What worked:

Girls enjoyed all their presents and despite getting huge sacks, there hasn't bed one present that was wasted / unused. I included more food treats this year, and that went down well.

I cut back on the number of people we had over and only did things every other day. I now feel much more relaxed and will do that next year. We also hosted a NYE party which was great fun and will be repeated.

Letting the DDs stay up late, so they woke up later also worked. I appreciated the lie in.

I had a day in London before Christmas, and so had a shopping evening with DH there. That was fab. I also had a second shopping day with a friend followed by a spa. Will definitely repeat that next year .

What I'd do differently next year:

I left too much to the last minute, so there was lots I didn't get to do. Didn't take DD2 to go and see Santa, didn't go to the Panto, didn't take the girls Christmas shopping.

Get the majority of the shopping finished earlier, get the DDs to decide what they want earlier, get the house cleaned before Christmas (or if I can, pay someone to come and do the big spring clean ).

I do different Santa paper, but next year I might do different paper per person under the tree. Might make life easier!

Roasted all veg and pigs etc the day before.
Got a stuffed turkey crown and roasted it while we all went for a walk.
Heated all veg etc up again in oven when turkey was resting.
Disposable roasting trays.

Didn't spend too much.

Played lots of games. Has a lovely quiet family time.

I can't stand Nutella.

Just thought of another - although these may have been around for years and I missed them!
I've just discovered the little suction things (some with hooks) for holding lights to windows...they haven't left a mark! This year I won't have to scrape bits of sellatape off the glass...