What do you REALLY want this christmas - and do you think you'll get it?

[Tigermoth]

This christmas, apart from world peace, the things I really want are:

100% empathy and hands on help with our sons from all the adults around me (dh, MIL and FIL) all the time. If I have to face all three of them ready to go out and sitting on the sofa looking pained - again - while I rush round putting hats on heads and shoes on feet, brushing teeth, combing hair and generally trying to do 20 minutes worth of preparation in 5 minutes, I will explode. (Yes, I know they do most of the cooking, and they are lovely people, so I really shouldn't complain..)

I want a lie-in on christmas day. Ho ho ho.

I want my son to quietly start writing his thank-you letters on Boxing Day.

I want a few hours totally to myself - when I'm awake.

Santa - are you listening? I'd sacrifice the presents if you could make the above happen.

I'd REALLY like my DH to be home for Christmas, but it ain't gonna happen, boo hoo.

I'd like to spend my Christmas money on something frivolous without thinking I need a new pair of boots or whatever or feeling guilty because ds really needs more vests etc. I'd like to get there and back to Spain without crashing or being hijacked. I'd like dh to do something for ds without me feeling the need to say thank you. Why should I be grateful he never thanks me for doing all that I do? Its always like he wants a prize everytime he tells me he's done something (put ds' shoes on or changed his nappy without being asked). I'd like to win some sort of prize from Readers Digest after I've been sending the countless prize draw leaflets back. Its always you've reached the final stage again and again just once I'd like to win - £10 would be nice. I'd also like dh to say he won't moan everytime I buy yet another cookery book. I would like a few hours by myself without dh asking why I need a few hours by myself. And lastly I'd like a fairy godmother to tell me three choices of meals for each meal time where I'll have all the ingredients and I just have to choose one. Am I the only person who gets tired of having to choose what we're having for mealtimes? You'd think with all the cookery books I have it would be easy. I know I've been very greedy here but well it is Christmas. Oh yes cruel as it is I'd like ds to have a really naughty day on Thursday when he's home with his daddy while I work so dh can appreciate what I do on a day and why I sometimes don't get much done in the house!

I got my lie-in last year - I cheated and changed the time on the kids alarm clock and told them they couldn't come out until it was 7am!!!
Selja - I feel exactly the same way - my Dh takes me on a guided tour of look at all the house work he's done, and besides I do love the shopping and organising so it's my own fault really that I don't include him more.
The best was my mother - wanted to get me something personal, so I suggested a bra . No that's wasn't personal enough - and just who else in out house is going to wear it ??? They aren't big enough for hanging baskets or carrying toys in

This is the first year that I've bought my own presents! For the past month or so, if I like the look of something, it comes home with me and goes in a box for DH to wrap at his leisure.

It's great I've been treating myself to all sorts of little bits I wouldn't normally buy in Next and the Disney shop. On a day trip to France I bought some things from a gift shop.

Sorry I know it sounds dull but when your DH has bought presents in the past that include a potato peeler and a blender times can get desperate. The year the potato peeler came I could have stabbed him with it! R.

Rhiannon, I'm glad that I'm not the only one with a dh who is practically minded when it comes to presents. Last Christmas there was something in particular that I wanted, and I dropped hugely leaden hints left right and centre for weeks before Xmas. On the day he gave me .... a frying pan. He said he knew we needed a new one. I believe in receiving presents graciously, but I found it very hard indeed to remain civil, let alone be grateful! This year we've bought ourselves a huge joint present, so aren't giving one another gifts on the day, for which (I think) I am thankful!

Im one of those annoying people who doesnt ask for anything for Christmas just get what Im given. Dh is a very good present buyer though.

Selja, how annoying is the line 'Ive done the washing up for you'. Yeah, thanks darling. Why do I say thanks??

I'd like a Christmas with no pressure. We are staying at home this year for Christmas Day. First time since we've been married (over 4 years). I am really desperate for the day to be a happy one & for my dh not to turn into a manic stress monster & make me wish I had a better set of carving knives!!!

Hmmm.... in my dreams I'd like a week away on my own, preferably somewhere like the Greek Islands learning yoga and anger management!!
Yup, I need a new frying pan, too, so the omens are NOT good!

I've put in an order with dh and the sluglet for an uninterrupted night's sleep. Dh leaves me a list headed "gimme gimme gimme" which is basically a list of CD's he wants. That and a bottle of alcohol and he's happy, so lucky to have a music obsessed husband.

Want Santa to pay my visa bill, my debenhams bill, my next directory bill and my overdraft - its not that much to ask is it?

LOL at the potato peeler Rhiannon! My former boss gave his daughter-in-law a monogrammed spanner, one year. He topped that when he gave his wife a set of vidoes made from the old cine films he had of his first wife and family. He genuinely couldn't understand why she was upset!

Suedonim - where is your husband? is he on an Afghan thing?

Azzie and Rhiannon..my dh obviously has lots in common with yours...one year he gave me..a hoe and a hand-held mixer ( if it had been a Kitchen Aid I might have felt better about it). Another year it was a teapot!! Before we were married he gave my mother an ironing board cover! (she never irons anything). He really appreciates practical presents, and thinks everyone else should too. The most successful present I've ever given him was a B&D Workmate!! (Yawn). In my stocking I would love tickets for a w/e in Prague, the promise of a babysitter and an evening out once a month, a HUGE box of Belgian chocolates and a pile of Jo Malone goodies.(I hope I haven't mentioned needing a new toaster!)

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hi i am going home to my mom's in ireland in a very small rural village and we did not hire a car last year and it snowed for the first time in about twenty years so we were stuck in with a very bored five year old and a even more fed up 38 year old oh boy that was a great christmas i have ordered my car hire this year i think it was amazing we were able to get trought it without killing sombody well dh is a great gift voucher person i hate vouchers it like i cant be bothered to put any effort here's a voucher

Janh, no, he's currently toiling on an offshore gas platform in the North Sea, to ensure everyone can cook their turkeys on Christmas day! His days of defending the empire(!) are long gone as he left the Royal Navy years ago.

Robinw, he was okay as a boss, funnily. He just didn't have any present nous!

Faith, your stocking wish list so closely resembles mine. One christmas, pre children, I actually got a santa to deliver my dh surprise tickets for a weekend in Barcelona. He's never forgotten it and drops hints every December.

However, with no family for about 300 miles, there's no chance of dropping off our sons with their grandparents for a weekend, and the two year old is too young to go on a weekend sleep-over with any nearby friends. A real downside to having a wide age gap between children!

We can off-load our 7 year old like a shot, but will have to wait another 2 or 3 years before we can do this with our youngest. Those same friends who are eager to have our oldest, naturally balk at the idea of letting a toddler loose in their untoddler-friendly house for 48 hours. So that means 10 years without a weekend free of children. Sob!

Suedomin, Hard luck! I hope you and your husband have your own Christmas later.

Rhiannon etc yes, isn't it a good idea to buy your own presents? That's what I'll be doing this year. Hang the surprise.

I am sad, cos I love new kitchen gadgets! Not a potato peeler, but otherwise.

Last year I got a breadmaker, and promptly put on 2stone! For my birthday I got an ice-cream maker, and I think I'm getting a super dooper food processer for christmas.

On my wish list as well as this is a new job without 2 hrs commute each way!

Crunchie - I yearn for an ice cream maker (probably a bad idea though!). Which one did you get? Is it easy to use?

I'm having a great time buying my own presents! Tomorrow I'm going to look at a Raleigh folding bike with a gel seat that's advertised in the local paper for £50. Yes I can have it for Christmas is my excuse!

Love the sluglet, slug! My partner is v good at buying presents but what I "really really" want is an Audrey hepburn barbie doll - doubt there's any chance of that! I will probably get a Sonic Youth cd, a jumper from Monsoon and a poetry book - I can't grumble at all tho' now I've seen what the rest of you might get!

I want a long uninterupted sleep followed by a lie-in followed by tea and toast in bed followed by a bit of a nap - anyway, you get the picture...

As for other presents, well a subscription to lots of lie-ins - if it doesn't exist then someone out there needs to sort it out! I'd do it myself except I'm busy thinking of sleep...