'Getting Xmas done ' in two weeks - is this achievable?

[Mugiwara]

Feeling a bit frazzled here. Tips and encouragement greatly appreciated!
I'm usually a very organised person. I start shopping early, I'm an avid list maker, I follow the HGP like my life depends on it... Except this year, due to several unforeseen circumstances, I haven't been able to do anything.

I think I'll be ab le to use the week prior to Christmas for shopping/decorating/meal planning/travel etc but that's it. I have two kiddos under ten, and we're already having to cut - back (money wise) massively.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice?

If you head over to the Christmas section there is a great thread on reasonably priced presents, and the internet is your friend for getting things done without having to drag the kids shopping. Good Housekeeping have just done their Christmas food reviews and Iceland, Aldi and Lidl have won quite a lot of the top recommendations for food, so you don’t need to splurge to get the best this year.

Thank s We eMadArthur

Firstly calm down, It’s 2nd November, you’ve got ages. People who have bought, wrapped their presents by now are in the minority
The biggest thing for me is presents, so I have a list of everyone and start writing down a few suggestions. DCs have been making Christmas lists since they were little so I don’t needto do much thinking there. Online shopping for pretty much everything.

Food shopping the week before, either get up and go at 7am or stay late and go at 10pm (if you can go on your own obviously). For stuff with a long shelf, I’ll start picking bits up over the next couple of weeks.

Decorating, I buy a real tree which gives me the excuse of leaving it till a bit later. I get the decorations down first weekend and start putting new them up Gradually over the month.

As an aside, I’m a fellow list maker and started to bullet journal last year. I’m going to dig it out and look at lists I did last year as a bit of a guide.

Yes it is achievable. I often find best bargains are closer to Christmas, shops have deals on to get rid of excess. And a lot of hard to get hold of toys seem to come back in stock. I'm alawys amazed at bargains nearer to the day. I'm a early shopper, already done but then I see lots of bargains later on and wished I'd waited. I only do it early because December is busy for me work wise. As another poster said, try to go shopping without children, ask a family member to babysit or take them out for the day. Try not to stress because when it's all done and dusted kits the little things from Christmas that stay in your memory and make biggest impact. For me as child it was a satsumas and brooms annual, not the pram I received. For my grown up daughter her favourite memorable gift was actually a cheap fossil shark tooth I picked up at a fair and not the wooden playpen or bikes.

Predictive text, sorryshouldve said wooden playden.

I haven’t really started yet. I wrote a list yesterday and have started looking for ideas. I’m cutting back this year too but mainly with family and friends, sticking to buying wine for the adults and books for the kids. I have 2 teens that have expensive Christmas lists but they won’t be getting everything they want and will have to except that they can’t have ebpverything. Dd1 wants a Nintendo switch which will be bought during Black Friday, dd2 wants a Pokemon card set and a Lego set. All I need to do is buy stocking fillers, find a offer on wine and order books for younger children. I’m hoping I can do it all over Black Friday week at the end of the months (which gives me a few more weeks to save a bit more money).

We don’t really buy much more food than a usual shop as we receive food from relives as gifts (we get too much chocolate so I never buy any).

You can definitely do it all in two weeks, Except for present buying. I'd start on Amazon soon and get stockings out of the way, then buy the main presents. Then you have two weeks for decor and food and fun.

ASAP I would write a list of who you need to buy for, and figure out what your budget is.

When I was working full time with two small children I used to do one late night shopping trip to a big retail park and get everything for everyone, mostly from Toys R Us/ Next/ Boots.
It wasn't the most cost effective way of doing it, but I was time poor so it worked for me.

I used to get all the food a few days before Christmas from a large Co-op to avoid the Supermarket bun fight.

Now I work part-time Im able to take my time and do quite a bit of online shopping to get the best deals. I probably spend loads more now, partly because my children are older but also because the more I shop, the more I spend!!

Gvmama I have to agree doing it all in one might be the way forward . I always used to buy tin of biscuits etc early but they always got eaten. So buying them a week before Xmas might cost me a little more money but saved me money as I haven’t had to buy them twice .

One thing I find that helps is to start buying Christmas food buts alongside the normal grocery shop. Many things have long enough dates, it spreads the cost out and means less needed from special trips nearer the time.

Of course it’s doable. There’s no way I spend 2 weeks organising Christmas! Even with present buying.
Online shopping is your friend.

Ok, so I don't do the food shopping /meal planning, but the past few years of Christmas have been one massive Amazon shop sent to my mother, and then all last minute shopping bits, wrapping, decorating (because the kids like to help) all happens after I land in the uk some point after the 20th Dec. Last tear I also devorated the chrustmas cake, made the mince pies and cooked Xmas dinner whilst also catching up on the alcohol consumption that hasn't happened since August because I live in a dry country
So, yes. I think 2 weeks is perfectly do-able, especially given you have nearly 2 months when you can do a bit of thinking.

I rarely do much at all until a week or so out! It not the cheapest way to do it I admit, but it's the least stressful by far. We start around 10 days beforehand and order 3/4 of the gifts from Amazon (yes I know ethical issues but it's easy), I also go to Aldi that week and buy all the non perishable stuff that isn't brand specific and sweets all round.

I've booked an Ocado delivery for Sunday 23rd already (I finish it that week but I have £100 worth of items selected to hold the slot) and I will pop in butcher to order turkey for collect Xmas eve soonish. The week leading up to Christmas I will pick up remaining gifts and print off experience vouchers for all the troublesome people, dispatch handful of cards and visit relatives not seeing at Christmas.

On Christmas Eve mum and I go around 6am to buy everything else. I leave my daughter to wrap everything but her gift - oh and she bakes lots of treats.

It's fine,never gone hungry and everyone has too much stuff anyway. We buy stuff for the relatives we see on New Year's Day after Christmas, there's sales!

Write a list of presents, locate on internet and buy.
Christmas decorating - that is part of our family time. Every weekend in December we do something. One weekend is marked for decorating. If we have the money we go to a naice garden centre or the farm and get a real tree. Leave to the kids and sit with a glass of something and just watch chaos and laugh. Cheesy Christmas film or music on in the background. If your anal then rearrange when kids asleep.
Food - meal plan and work out what you actually need. Then if you can find someone to watch them and shop on the 23rd. Most supermarkets allow you to order and collect the Turkey. Check your local butcher if you have one - just ring and check.

Yes. I once had a work deadline that took all my time and mental energy until 10th December.
I had a lot of presents to buy, and was hosting Chr. dinner for family plus house guests.

I wrote a load of detailed lists in an exercise book -
Cards
Presents
Food shopping
House cleaning (badly needed!)
Advance prep.
Etc., with dates when they pref. needed to be done by,
and worked through them methodically.
It wasn't as hard as I'd imagined.
I still make the same lists now.

Can you spend a few hours each week ordering stuff online and reserving supermarket delivery slots? If you order gifts from Amazon you can have it gift wrapped and delivered directly to the recipient.