What have you bought today for Christmas?

[MustBeTheWine]

I thought I'd get the 'What have you bought today?' thread started a little earlier this year as I noticed a lot of us have already started our Christmas shopping :)

I've absolutely loved this thread over the past couple of years as it's given me so much inspiration when I've struggled to think what to get for people and has also helped me stay organised.

Happy Shopping!!!

I'll start thing off with what've purchased today. I've been trying to get all the stocking fillers out of the way first this year so today I managed to get:

For DC stockings:
Mini Karaoke microphone
Grow a cactus in a tin
Hot sauce hand warmers
Shark attack bath bomb

For DP stocking:
Desktop distraction putting stationary set
Fake news Trump card edition
Total eclipsed of the fart lavatory mist
Bullshit button
Gentlemen's multi tool with flash light

Also got a moon light each for both DC as my DM has one and they've taken a fancy to it so I thought it would be nice gift for their bedrooms.

Why on earth would you start shopping for Christmas at the end of May? What if you get to Christmas and realise one of your gifts is faulty? You'll have no hope of returning or exchanging it. Watch out for the shelf life of products too (e.g. bath bombs generally wane a bit after a 4/5 months). If it's that you need to spread the cost then just put the money aside in a separate account until nearer the time.

Where did you get the grow a cactus from OP?

@Sisisimone

Where did you get the grow a cactus from OP?

I was going to ask this too…

Ooh where did you get the shark attack bath bomb from? That's the sort of thing my DS would love.

I bought some of the winter wax lyrical candles from the bargains thread. Yesterday I got a little playmobile bus for DS.

Sorry but starting christmas shopping in may...just why

@Kittykat93

Sorry but starting christmas shopping in may...just why

Because we want to? Because not everyone is the same? Because some people like to spread the cost? Because bargains can be found all year?

By the way, this is the CHRISTMAS board. You're not forced to read what people are up to. Just hide the board if you're so triggered by other people's shopping habits!

@Sisisimone

Where did you get the grow a cactus from OP?

I got it from iwoot.com

@shreddednips

Ooh where did you get the shark attack bath bomb from? That's the sort of thing my DS would love.

I bought some of the winter wax lyrical candles from the bargains thread. Yesterday I got a little playmobile bus for DS.

It's from iwoot.com 🙂

Well said Fluffy

Well shoot me ive been going since january. Love a good buy. Today i brought disney princess clay kit for dd2 pepper pig snap for ds and mr maker bumper pack for dd2 x

The idea of Christmas Shopping is always much nicer and more romantic than the reality .

Starting ahead and finding a few nice bargains makes Christmas much easier (and gives me warm'n'fuzzy vibes knowing I've snared something that they will love)

Today I went to a few shops and by the time I got to the last one I was fed up juggling bags , trying to browse , keeping my bag safe And the shops weren't even that busy !

I start buying items for my DD beauty advent in September , its a Tradition now that I make one for her .
One year I got a gorgeous gift box in TKMaxx that she still uses (it has teddy bears on it not Christmas) I bought it in the Summer . No way would I have queued in December and lugged it round !

I certainly don't have everything bought and wrapped by November but it never ceases to amaze me how many people are panicing on December 23rd looking for a present for a family member .

I bought a Lego set today. I know DS wants it, they aren't making any more of them and because the box was damaged, it was a third off. Saves me having to spend over the odds nearer the time when it's only available through private sellers.

I bought tartan fabric yesterday too. It's for making festive napkins in November.

It gets harder to buy things during the year, the older your children get. Now I have teens, something they think is cool now, could be something they hate in 3 months or even 3 weeks 😆
Still pick up stuff for younger relatives but sadly not my kids.

Not today but this week I bought a bottle of banana rum for my BIL and a bottle of bramble gin for my sister.

@Squirrelblanket

Not today but this week I bought a bottle of banana rum for my BIL and a bottle of bramble gin for my sister.

Banana rum sounds amazing! Where did you get it from?

Thanks for starting this thread OP loving the sound of the bits you've got for the stockings they sound great!

Have you ordered from iwoot before? I'd not heard of them till this thread.

I do my Christmas shopping throughout the year - started doing it because of cost (so many good things in sales!) and now I do it because it gives me that fleeting sense of being organised that I can’t get in the rest of my life 😂

Plus I bought some nice things last year for some of the niblings, and then didn’t manage to get them there (we were locked down for Christmas). I also got some cute stuff in the January sales for some of my nephews.

So, so far I’ve got some unusual spirits for my sisters and some tops and books for nephews, plus today I bought some velvet scrunchies from eBay for DD’s friends to go in hollow plastic baubles.

I’ve also got a stash of kids’ Christmas picture books (from The Works on their 10 for £10 deal) which I give to various toddler distant relatives! (Everyone gets an Alfie’s Christmas at least once 🤣)

I feel quite relieved to have some of the Christmas things done. I’m going to try to give more things from online orders for the rest of this year’s presents - vouchers or a hamper for my mum and dad, for example.

I used to love doing lots of intricate Christmas presents and wrapping and so on, but I actually find it a chore these days. I like getting stuff for DD and want to enjoy doing that closer to Christmas.

I also already have some stocking items for DD - normally get some little things in sales - so far I think I have: mini stamp set and notebook; neon pencils; initial necklace; mini acrylic peg lights; a hot chocolate spoon; post-its in animal shapes; glitter hair slides. I think I do have a few other things but I can’t remember them! DD is 8 and usually in her stocking she will also get some kind of mini soft toy, something for the bath, and a book. Plus a few mini Lindt chocolate shapes and some sweets.

For her presents, I already have a glitter rucksack from the Cath Kidston sale, an LED glitter ball lamp for by her bed, some sets of books, and a unicorn trinket dish and unicorn necklace. I’m planning for her main presents to be a Switch lite and a trip to see the Nutcracker (Covid permitting) - though this could always change if she suddenly wants something else! I’m going to ask one sister to get her some games for the Switch. Sometimes my mum and dad pay for the Christmas ballet as their present, and her other gran takes her to the Panto as hers.

Not sure what she might like yet to suggest to other family members. Anyone have any good ideas for 8-year-olds? She likes books and drawing - has lots of Lego, got roller blades for birthday, doesn’t need any more books right now. Please tell me what your 8+ year olds have enjoyed...

@Ohdofuckofdear

Thanks for starting this thread OP loving the sound of the bits you've got for the stockings they sound great!

Have you ordered from iwoot before? I'd not heard of them till this thread.

I used to get loads of stuff from IWOOT (and their sister company Zavvi) until last year. I ordered some stuff from them and it took 11wks to arrive. I contacted them so much and was ignored for weeks. I finally put something on Twitter and they got in touch, and admittedly were very good - they refunded the items and let me keep them when they eventually arrived. I know loads of people didn’t receive stuff though and advent calendars were arriving after Christmas etc. I don’t know if they got overwhelmed with Covid etc but it really has put me off using them.

@MustBeTheWine It's Lang's banana rum, you can buy it in a few places but I got it from Amazon.

Bought the 1st Christmas gift today! A big lego duplo set from smyths, was always planning on getting it but when I saw it had £45 off I had to buy it now

Our generation advent calendar (was £30 down to £12.36 Amazon)
Our generation Christmas doll reduced to £20.
Second set of these ive bought, this set is for our neices 7th birthday at the end of November.
Our generation accesories & outfits various reduced on smyths for neice for Christmas.

I started shopping earlier so I'll put down what I've bought since after last xmas:

For dd who will be 15m old:

Soft toy disney snow white (I had a 50% off code for poundtoy.com £10 on site normally)
Chad valley tots town cottage (currently £12 in clearance on argos)
Chad valley tots town 5 people (£2 in clearance don't think they have any left)
Disney little people frozen sledge (bought at 12.99 on amazon, price fluctuates frequently this was lowest)
Duplo unicorn train (£8.99 amazon)
Olafs little library book collection (£10 on amazon)
Pink fancy dress outfit and soft toy cat gift set (£13 vertbaudet. Absolutely gorgeous Xmas gifts every year and clothing, I wait until January sales when prices go right down)
Chad valley doll with sleepbag (£6 argos clearance it may have gone down more)

Ds who will be 8

3 x zelda tshirts and 1 nightmare before xmas all from zavvi.com (bought during a 2 for £10 kids tshirt offer which happens often, they also do 2 for £18 offers generally)
Ps4 kingdom hearts 1.5 & 2.5 for £13 amazon. (Realised its pegi 12 so will check it out. Should be OK considering it's disney. Crash bandicoot was a 12 it isn't bad at all).

Yesterday I bought 6 Birch boxes fromBrand Alley - I'll swap contents around to suit each DD
I also bought a vegetarian curry legend kit for DD1 while it had 30% off
Not a bargain but got a book on foraging for DD1 - heard author on R4 - she'll love it!
DD2 off to university hopefully so a bit more difficult to predict what she will want for Christmas
I'm all behind because of the pandemic this year - I got my first Christmas present on 7 January last year 😂

From amazon today:

For dd:
Battat bath bar rain and shine toy £4.10
That's not my duck book and Where's mr duck? Book. (I think I might give them to her birthday in September instead?)

Ds:
Tony hawk mounted autograph photo reproduction £4.99 (skateboard mad son will love this. Don't think I'll tell him it's not real lol)