Moving at Christmas??!!

[ditzzy]

After about a year on the market I’ve finally found myself in a nice short chain (my buyer has a first time buyer, my seller has already left to retire abroad) so the legal work has gone much faster than I expected!

One of the agents called me yesterday to ask whether I wanted to complete before or after Christmas (exchange is apparently expected mid-December now). When the offers were flying around I didn’t ever think Christmas would be possible!!

I’ve moved plenty of times before but this is the first time with children (Dd1 is 8, Dd2 is 4). Moving at Christmas will be a nightmare won’t it? They’re already nagging to get the tree out here…. But Christmas in the new house would be a lovely way to start a new era……

Any stories to help me decide?

We moved on the 10th of December almost 2 years ago with a 1 year old and a 3 year old. And it was fine, we didn't have very far to move. But it was nice to be in before Christmas and more relaxing to not have the move hanging over us and we managed to get the bulk of our unpacking done before Christmas day. So I'd say go for it.

We moved in on 21st December. We had been able to move some stuff beforehand though as we were moving from rented to bought and we extended our rental period so that we could do so. We had a lovely Christmas with a free and a traditional roast dinner, although we are in a room with a plain concrete floor and no electric lighting. Lots of candles made it magical.

I’d want to be in for Christmas

4 years ago I was moving from rented to my first house, got the keys at 6pm on the 13th December. Luckily paid a month of rent to overlap as we were moving everything ourselves in just a Kia Rio and an odd trip where my BIL helped us with the bigger things, luckily my MIL looked after my lad through most of the moving. So took our time, tidying the new place, moved everything over and then scrubbed the old place top to bottom and dealt with anything cosmetic so that there would be no issues handing the keys back.
We just got a tiny live tree in a pot that came with lights, just so we had something and put some lights in the window.
We moved in on the 22nd December, so on Xmas day my at the time 5 year old lad was sleeping on a mattress in our room (which he loved) as we had just laid the carpet in his room but we had during the night set up the new bed my mum had got him for Xmas, to make it special.
We took Xmas day off and made it special (which almost did not happen as we had to have an electrician round on Xmas eve) then on boxing day we did some bits but it was more of a quiet setting up things in my son's room and putting some personal touches which he enjoyed, especially as his new bedroom was so much bigger.

I moved last year on the 16th of December with a two year old, we had everything unpacked and we hosted Christmas at ours nine days later. It’s definitely doable. After it taking a year and a half to sell my flat it was such a relief to finally be in my new home! My vote would be for moving before Christmas.

We just moved on Friday. House is chaos and will be for at least the next week. Absolute latest date we would have completed by was 1st December and we would have stayed where we were until the new year.

However, the other side of waiting until after Christmas is that packing up is a nightmare & you’ll be living out of boxes for weeks amidst chaos so it depends what sort of chaos you think is better.

i think it’d still wait until new year

we moved on 1st dec 2 years ago, was quite hectic but still plenty of time for Xmas. I would say it depends when in December personally. If anything after 16th I’d be saying new year x

Oh and I had a 3 year old and 1 year old. Priority was having childcare for them that day!

I moved on 22nd December. Ordered Christmas dinner from M&S and hosted family on Christmas Day. It was fine! Really good fun. Go for it!

We're moving on 15 December, but we have a week's overlap beforehand, thankfully. We'll get it cleaned and the bedrooms decorated, plus as much small stuff as possible moved in that week.

It would be slightly different if we didn't have that week, I think.

We're also moving on 15th December (or that's the plan at least, still waiting on mortgage approval 🙄). The date originally proposed was 18th Jan but tbh I think I'd sooner get it out the way and get settled in the new house ASAP.

I moved exactly a week before our wedding, my husband sorted the moving aspects as I was doing pretty much all the planning for the wedding. The reason he drove the move was that he didn't want to be paying both the mortgage and rent on the old place for an entire month. Your situation though is different, you wouldn't be paying twice. I found moving with a wedding looming stressful and there were still quite a few unpacked boxes everywhere on the wedding day. Probably not to be recommended. I also find Christmas quite stressful, the present buying/wrapping and meal planning load usually falls to me. My husband comes from an Asian culture where Christmas isn't much of a thing. Maybe it's different in your household. I agree if your off work over Christmas anyway, would definitely be useful to be able to spend that time sorting the new house.

If you can, get the packing service from your movers. We did that for the first time when we moved to our current house, and it was a lifesaver. DS was not quite 2 at the time and not having to (a) pack the boxes and (b) have to climb over a work around part filled boxes for a week before moving was fantastic. It’s amazing the speed they pack at!

Also second the PPs who’ve suggested getting cleaners in to deep clean before you unpack, and pre-prepared Christmas dinner (no finding pans when it comes in foil trays!). It’s a privilege, but worth every penny if you can afford to. And don’t forget to lower your standards for about a fortnight around moving 😉 even with all of these things in place, it’s stressful and you won’t be able to do everything you normally do, whether that’s cooking from scratch, crafting with the kids, etc. No harm will come from extra screen time and easy meals whilst you prepare, and then settle in (recover!). I’m not being patronising, just telling you what I wish someone had told me!!

Good luck OP!

Moved just before Xmas and we were completely unpacked within 48 hours! And that was with a 1 year old in tow who picked up a sickness bug on day 2. We did have movers who rebuilt stuff for us so it was just a case of us cleaning, unpacking and disposing of the boxes. No reason can’t get the new place all unpacked and sorted in time for Xmas if you need to and was really nice to be in the new place and feel all excited before Xmas. Go for it !

Just in case anyone remembers…. It didn’t happen. The first time buyer at the bottom of the chain has pulled out because it couldn’t all be done fast enough for her and she lost patience.

The rest of the chain is staying put in the hope of someone else coming in at the bottom, but it all feels a bit miserable at the moment.

Oh no sorry to read this!

I always think that’s such a strange reason to pull out- starting over from scratch isn’t going to be any quicker??

sorry OP, hope the chain reforms for you soon

Sorry to hear that. Rubbish for you.

Hopefully my final update on this thread!!

We are moving tomorrow!!!!! The house is packed, the dcs are wound up like coiled springs with excitement, it actually looks like it’s happening at last.

(We only exchanged contracts at 4.30pm today… I can’t believe the solicitors ran it to the wire - or that I had the nerve to fill the first van full without being sure it wasn’t about to all fall over; I should have insisted on exchanging last week)

Congratulations! The stress is so awful, waiting to exchange, waiting to complete and never knowing if it’s all going to fall apart, but you’ve done it. Tomorrow you’ll be in your new house. I hope you’ll be really happy.

Congratulations! Good luck with the move!

Good Luck for removals day @ditzzy !