Flops and failures 2018

[BlytheSpiritsSpirit]

Which gifts, snacks, days out etc were a dud this Christmas?

I bought matching pyjamas for my dc from a UK seller on Etsy, and the sizing was completely off (far too small even though I sized up) and the stitching was very poor - one night of wear resulted in trousers completely unraveling at the crotch. I wanted to support local business, but next time I'll get Matalan pyjamas; at least Alder Hey will benefit.

I also regret buying Costco mince pie cake things. Just no.

Prosecco and winter berries crisps. Crisps are not supposed to be sweet.

A New Year rather than Christmas disaster, but Jamie Oliver’s steamed Korean buns - steamed them for 40 mins and still raw, so gave up and chucked them in the oven where they turned into insoles.

All the chrsitmas flavored crisps this year were rank. And I love crisps. Not impressed.

Disney emoji blind boxes. Absolute shit.

DD got a guess who game but it was called 'what's my name' so flimsy didn't last an hour. Utter shit.

Heston’s cherry and lemon flavoured mince pies. Tasted too artificial. Sorry Heston.

Posh Kettle crisps - bacon and maple syrup = big no from us.

Treasure x and poopsie slime toys. A messy faff that the dcs got about 2 seconds of fun out of

Tesco salted caramel tortillas no just no.

Ordering with ASDA for home delivery on the 23rd dec was definitely a failure! 30 substitutions and 9 unavailable items; never again!

Pringles pink peppercorn and prosecco crisps were a hit here!

Aldi's Christmas pudding too.

Aldi's prepared veg were a miss. As was their gingerbread ham.

Asda on 23rd here too. 8 unavailable but not mentioned by delivery man so I was blissfully unaware until Christmas Day- no gravy, no brandy sauces! When I’d decided to not bother trying to make gravy any more too! (It’s my food nemesis)

Lidl stollen- I bought the mini ones , ate a few. They were heavy and claggy. (Luckily I only bought one bag)
Also bought a full sized one at the same time , it was like a brick, I could;'ve re-inaced the murder scene in Tales of the Unexpected them calmly served it up . (I didn't even attempt to eat it)

Hits:
Box of Stella Artrois in the Christmas bottles (same Lidl ) DH loves it
And som chllli cheddar from Sainsbury

M&S vegetables- they were fine but I paid something like £35 for two boxes and the vegetables (incl. duck fat potatoes) we prepared ourselves were just as nice and much cheaper.

** oh I mean pre-prepared M&S Christmas Food to order veg, that wasn't clear!

Delivery-
we had a Waitrose delivery on 21st, Ocado on 23rd and Ocado again ( with lots of lovely sale stuff) on 27th. It was great, no problematic substitutions and lots of bargains.

Pressie-
Kano wand, we are still trying to get it to work,

I bought matching pyjamas for my dc from a UK seller on Etsy, and the sizing was completely off (far too small even though I sized up) and the stitching was very poor - one night of wear resulted in trousers completely unraveling at the crotch.

A lot of Etsy sellers just resell crap from Chinese websites. I bought a kids outfit from there and then later found it on aliexpress for a fiver. Cheeky sods.

Asda once cancelled by order on the 22nd December, so I’d never use them for Xmas again. This year it was Morrison’s and about six items were missing, no attempt at a substitution. Really, really annoying as I then had to face the craziness at the local supermarket. It wasn’t even seasonal stuff. It was things like lettuce, sliced beef and hummus. I’d rather they sent something slightly different than nothing at all.

For us, it was mostly timing issues. Every chunk of time that I managed to carve out for quiet time ended up being invaded by others (a family breakfast, visitors from afar, a Christening, ...) so I managed to keep the house going but not get time for fun cooking, any baking, no Christmas flower arrangement , no reading by the fire and definitely no hike in our local mountains.

So next year, I need to learn to say “No!” more forcefully.

Others fails were getting a smoked ham (didn’t check the pack and DH not keen on smoked), and losing my mulled wine recipe.