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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Original poster

bust your hole to manufacture MAGIC ENCHANTMENT WONDER etc...

82 replies

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 27/11/2015 10:00

...then find your kids fixate on what are really quite shit things?

DD (12) said the other day, ooh, do you remember last year, where we watched Nativity [for the 93rd time] and ate sainsbos cheese balls?

thought input: minimal
cost input: minimal

that was the year we bought her a FUCKING HARP

the FUCKING HARP CAME HOME FROM THE WEST END IN A TAXI

I HAVEN'T BEEN IN A TAXI SINCE 2003

we even HID the FUCKING HARP

(tho how we HID the FH is beyond me)

OP posts:
Hygge · 30/11/2015 14:26

DS went on various trips over the summer, with us, with friends, with grandparents.

When asked what his favourite bit of the summer was, he said "that place with the play houses where I got a balloon. Oh, and that day we went to the big shop with the fountain and the play area."

After much consideration and questioning, we finally discovered that he wasn't talking about Legoland, not talking about Sundown Adventure Land, and not talking all the soft play places we ended up at with various friends trying to fill their children's days either. And definitely not talking about our visit to sodding Hamley's (which was full of gadget shop crap and not really worth the trip).

No. He was talking about the hour or so we spent arguing in Wicks Building Supplies trying to find the right type of connectors for our bathroom tap while he played in a display kitchen, and a half hour break at Hopwood Services on the M42. Best two days of his life apparently.

iMogster · 30/11/2015 14:27

My son saw some kid on TV standing in a bubble tower, he asked if he could do it. I said you already did. He didn't believe me, so I pulled up his 4th birthday party pics. Turns out he didn't remember his party at all. None of it. He's only 5 now. Shock

worriedmum46 · 30/11/2015 14:32

We had the step kids over for Christmas day, hubby had to drive them 80 miles back in the evening. Just in the door and the phone rings dss had left the deodorant we had put in his stocking on his bed. He was distraught and could we pop it over straight away :( the Playstation etc went down well, but the deodorant told him we realised he was growing up.

iMogster · 30/11/2015 14:40

I think for my son's birthday next year, I'll take him to McDonalds as this seems to be where magical memories are made!

LizKeen · 30/11/2015 14:47

I love this thread.

We went on two short breaks over the summer, it was the DCs first time in a hotel, first time on a boat, first time on holiday.

What does DD1 wish she could do again? Go to the beach. The sodding beach we live 10 minutes from and go to all the time.

Next summer I think we will just give up on a holiday somewhere exciting, and rent a static caravan by the sea for a weekend.

angemorange · 30/11/2015 15:20

Hygge - I love that story!!

fawkes182 · 30/11/2015 16:01

Hahaha what is it with maccy ds??? My son's the same. He kept asking for skiing lessons at the indoor snow place (OH does snowboarding so goes alot and he wants to do whatever OH is doing) so 2 hour drive and £50 later for a lesson which is did enjoy very much and did very well, we went shopping afterwards.. nothing special just a little look around.. in the car on the way home he asked what was my favourite part of the day and I said ooh I dunno what about you 'my favourite part was when we went to game, then the lego shop, then the disney shop and mc donalds for dinner.' And I said oh so not the skiing then? 'Oh yeah I forgot all about that! ' right you forgot the entire reason that we came here!!! Lol xxx

IsItMeOr · 30/11/2015 16:01

Thank you so much for sharing, these are cheering me greatly.

BlueBananas · 30/11/2015 17:38

The January after Christmas that DS was in reception he had to write what the best part of his Christmas was
Did he write about the presents? The visit to Santa? The ice skating? The trip to the cinema?
No
He wrote - "I ate Pringles, the grown ups drank too much wine and we danced on the table" Blush

Pobspits · 30/11/2015 19:14

When Ds was six we arranged a much longed for we thought trip to Disney. On the morning on the big reveal we asked him (with camera rolling) 'if you could go ANYWHERE in the world today on holiday where would it be?' D's replied 'you know the holiday inn opposite Tesco next to school I've always wanted to go there'. It was about 1.5 miles from our house FFS. Somewhat ruined our 'perfect fAcebook reveal video' tbh...

Pobspits · 30/11/2015 19:16

Oh and I rarely go out drinking but one day went to a beer garden with play area with some other mums and kkds. Drove there, had 2 ciders and got a taxi home. DS wrote in his weekend news - along with about 60% of the class - 'mummy and her friends took us to the pub and got too drunk to get home'.

AlpacaPicnic · 30/11/2015 19:35

The first time we went to Orlando, two week trip to do the whole Disney Magic thing DH (nope, that's not a typo, I'm talking about the adult that I'm married to) got excited about seeing a squirrel run across a car park with an ice cream cone in its mouth...

Hygge · 30/11/2015 22:12

angemorange we have had to promise to take him back to Hopwood Services next summer and stay for longer next time.

And he's asked to go back to Wickes as well.

I think if we throw in a trip to Ikea and turn him loose in their display area we will have given him his dream holiday. Grin

annandale · 30/11/2015 22:50

[weeps] Pobspits Grin Sell it to Holiday Inn for £££

Pobspits · 30/11/2015 23:13

I could've sold him to HI!!!

Wagglebees · 01/12/2015 01:02

...we asked what his favourite animal had been. His answer was a pigeon.

Grin I can't stop laughing at this! Pigeon!

angemorange · 01/12/2015 09:19

Hygge you have your next two years holiday sorted! and u can save a fortune lol :)

ARichVernacular · 01/12/2015 10:12

We went on holiday to France this year, 4yo DD's first time abroad. Five months on, she still speaks with wistful amazement about the tat ball she got from the campsite games room - one of those tacky plastic things from a vending machine that has a cheap sweet and an instantly lost piece of Kinder Egg style crap inside.

On the seasonal theme, I got home from yoga at 10 o'clock last night to find DH swearily manufacturing a postcard from our Christmas elf Grin Truly, the season of magic and wonder has arrived.

VimFuego101 · 01/12/2015 10:23

Pobspits Grin

We're taking DS to Disneyworld in a few days. He is spectacularly unbothered but he did get excited that he could have peanuts on the plane.

iMogster · 01/12/2015 10:56

Can you still eat peanuts on a plane? Hmm

VimFuego101 · 01/12/2015 11:00

On Southwest Airlines you can Grin (it's a US airline).

BarbaraofSeville · 01/12/2015 17:10

Someone mentioned earlier that they were paid £16k for an admin job in 1997. I think that was very high. I was on about £12k in a scientific role in the public sector then and the admin staff got a couple of £k less.

Outside the south east bubble of banking and law many many people earn minimum wage or a bit more. Nurses starting on £22k plus shift allowances are well paid in comparison.

I am very lucky that I earn £40k as an experienced professional. That is very well paid around here.

House prices are no indication of wages. They've increased out of all proportion and are fueled by inheritances, equity, shared ownership schemes, buy to let and rich foreign investors, not the salaries of ordinary people. Even well paid working people can't afford to buy in London without inheritances etc.

BarbaraofSeville · 01/12/2015 17:11

Bollocks wrong thread how did that happen?

HerdOfRhino · 17/12/2015 19:21

I am using this thread to prevent myself from twitching, and overbuying. Xmas Smile

Steala · 18/12/2015 07:05

I once did snowman crafts with my children. They really engaged for once, so we did painting, then I got more ambitious with cotton wool and glitter. It was a magical morning - perhaps the only one when they really loved it. It went so well that we popped to the shops to hbuy things for a snowman baking afternoon, with icing, marshmallows, etc. I had terrible PND at the time and it was the first day I felt I wasn't going through the motions and that I might just about pull off this mothering lark.

In the bath, with the children covered in snowman bubbles, we discussed what we liked best about our snowmanny day. The shopping.