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Original poster

Did you know it's Christmas?

57 replies

Rhiannon · 29/08/2001 19:10

My local Cash and Carry was putting up a very nice outside display today so it must be Christmas! So I hope you don't mind me mentioning pressies as Christmas can never come too early for me.

Could we please have ideas for different pressies not socks or slippers or anything from M & S.

I'd like to kick off with the website fletcher-woodcraft.freeserve.co.uk. They make wooden handcrafted items (click on GAMES). They make lovely walnut Solitaire sets with marbles for £29.00 and I think they're wonderful and a bit different.

Also how much do people spend on their SIL's and BIL's and neices etc?

OP posts:
Janh · 29/08/2001 20:39

ikea do wooden games too; their not-walnut (rubberwood probably) solitaire set with marbles is about £8. not as classy as your one though!

Ems · 30/08/2001 12:19

I received a fantastic catalogue this morning, I have never seen before -- Dawson & Sons. Wooden toys, games, dolls houses, the lot. Also includes lovely games as mentioned below.

Web site: www.dawson-and-son.com

Marina · 30/08/2001 22:16

I can endorse Ems' recommendation of Dawson's toys. Their customer service is brilliant too. Our son got the big wooden fire engine from his granny for his birthday (this kind of stuff goes down BIG with the over 60s). He plays with it constantly and it is beautifully made.
Also a plug for my special mail order friends Letterbox who are also great.
I think both these sites are listed in mumsnet's good shopping sites guide.

Emmam · 31/08/2001 07:47

Last year my hubby and I asked family to buy us food and drink for Christmas. It was fantastic! We got all these brilliant little hampers with lovely cheeses, biscuits, special ales, port etc. Lots of lovely luxury food for us to indulge ourselves with. We got wonderful ground coffee, Christmas teabags, jelly, nuts, pate, chocolates. We ate like kings all through the Christmas holiday and beyond.

We've got to the stage in our lives where we're just not bothered about Christmas pressies for ourselves now. So the food hamper idea was practical, but also exciting.

At Christmas we usually spend around £10 per person for family (there are SO many of them!) and about £5 per person for friends and their children. The hamper idea worked out great for this - my mum and sister put a hamper together for me and hubby and so we got about £40 worth of food, which is quite a lot!

Janh · 31/08/2001 12:46

another good mail-order site is

www.hawkin.co.uk

this is hawkin's bazaar - a mixture of all kinds of fantastic things. it's probably a good idea to request an actual catalogue though!

Wornout · 31/08/2001 12:58

I am in agreement over Dawsons catalogue it has some really fantasic toys at quite reasonable prices and I was sent two catalogues through the post yesterday (not sure where they got my address though!) So I have one and my baby & toddler are screwing up the other one in their hast to get a better look.

Mel · 01/09/2001 19:14

My oldest friend and I now have a rule where we spend no more than £1 on each of each other's children. Sounds stingy? Well, the rubbish we bought the children was actually played with for longer than some of the other expensive pressies! And at the end of the day, what we ended up buying was the stuff they always want to waste their pocket money on - you say no each time - and so they were delighted!! She comes from a huge family and what they do is put all the names in a hat and draw out who is buying for who each year. I think there's a limit of say, 4 people each. I always end up buying my parents foodie type presents, because they have a house full of stuff and have actually requested us not to buy any more things to look at etc!

A little off the subject, my son's birthday is Boxing Day and I was wondering what you all do for your Christmas birthday children?

Original poster
Rhiannon · 02/09/2001 10:39

Mel, I always thought if I had a Christmas baby I would celebrate perhaps 6 months to the day afterwards with a party in the garden. Or why not have one big birthday present that you ask everyone to contribute to so that he birthday is really special too.

OP posts:
Janh · 02/09/2001 13:53

mel, i have a cousin born on christmas day. as a child he celebrated his birthday on august 25th - his choice.
does that help at all?

Kizzie · 03/09/2001 10:25

Hi sorry to hijack christmas site but I just wondered if any of you knew which catalogue it is that supplies goodies for parties. (They do things like the themed boxes that you can put sandwiches and crisps in plus little gifts to out in 'take home' bags.) I know I've been sent the catalogue before but I just can't remember which one it is - letterbox perhaps?

Janh · 03/09/2001 13:05

kizzie, i think it's called party pieces, if you are on their mailing list they should send you a brochure to fit in with all your family birthdays?

oh - just looked on jeeves - there's another at www.thepartystore.co.uk - they have all sorts of bits as well as childrens'.

(i don't know party pieces website but it's not partypieces.co.uk cos i tried that...somebody will!)

Emmam · 03/09/2001 16:10

Saw an article about AllKids in the Sunday papers and just had a look at their website. Lots of links to brilliant places you can buy wooden toys, gifts and clothes in the UK ranging from the ordinary to the unusual. Address is www.allkids.co.uk.

Marina · 04/09/2001 08:30

Thanks for the recommendation, Emmam. It's really good, isn't it. After five weeks off I am going to practice linking to it here, thanks to Suew's revision tutorial further down:

Allkids

Kizzie · 04/09/2001 08:42

Thanks JanH.
Marina - can you tell me how you did that link to all kids please?

Bugsy · 04/09/2001 09:56

If anyone is looking to send food hampers, which is a great gift for the people with everything, I can recommend www.smoked-salmon.co.uk. They don't just do smoked salmon, they do homemade cakes, cured meats, biscuits etc etc and they make up really lovely hampers for Christmas. We used them for lots of older relatives last year and they were a huge hit.
Would also endorse Dawson and Son - they have a website too. Lakeland are good for household type gifts and www.gizmoandwidget.com are great for fun/gadget/techy type gifts.
The nephew/niece issue is a bit tricky. I think it largely depends how many you have. I only have 2 to buy for but I aim at under £15 and try to get nearer to £10. This is not because I am a tightwad but because I know that my SIL doesn't have much money and I don't want to embarrass her into buying expensive presents for my son.

Ems · 04/09/2001 10:06

firebox is good for gadgets, hubbies, brothers etc.

Janh · 04/09/2001 11:41

how much for a nice hubby, ems? do they have different categories?

Original poster
Rhiannon · 04/09/2001 18:03

Yes Janh, I'd like a new one for Christmas that does DIY and can build me a loft conversion and that would do the 60 mile a day school run!

OP posts:
Ems · 04/09/2001 18:49

Well, what with the free returns and try before you buy, I find it an excellent service!!

Emmam · 05/09/2001 12:37

Thank you for recommending Dawson & Sons! I've just ordered 3 wooden puzzles for my niece's birthday and have seen some excellent things I'm going to get my son for Christmas. Their online ordering is dead simple and hopefully my items are winging their way to me as we speak! I had to force myself to put my credit card away!

Robinw · 10/09/2001 08:48

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Bloss · 10/09/2001 15:52

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Rhiannon · 10/09/2001 21:14

Robinw,why not just put a single choc. button in each? Then it won't 24 different gifts!

OP posts:
Original poster
Rhiannon · 10/09/2001 21:14

Robinw,why not just put a single choc. button in each? Then it won't be 24 different gifts!

OP posts:
Ems · 11/09/2001 06:52

Robinw, stickers, trendy big marbles, Boots do great little smellies - bath balls, lipsols, mini hair bands and clips, Clares Accessories do little bracelety, hair things, little rubbers, pencil sharpeners, search £1 shops, pop in the occassional choc and sweet, a balloon, 20p .....