Task 1: Secret Santa. (yes, you might have seen this paragraph last week. Sorry - really careless. This is the true place for it!) Amongst my in-laws we buy for all the children, but run a ‘Secret Santa’ so each adult receives just one gift costing up to £10. We drew these names this weekend, whilst sharing a post-Fireworks display curry, so that the girls can start shopping and the men have plenty of time to time to forget who they are meant to buy for! I have learnt to take charge of P’s slip of paper as well as my own for safekeeping! It’s also the girls’ job to make sure that everyone gets what they want, so non-subtle emails are sent soon after the name drawing saying, ‘whoever has me – I’d love a mini sewing machine – they’re£9.99 in Hobbycraft, and P has seen something he wants on Amazon, so vouchers would be good’. I know exactly what the person I've drawn wants. Easy!
It would, of course, be even easier to just go and buy ourselves what we want, but this is Christmas – it’s meant to be fun, not easy!
Task 2: Get those online orders out of the way. If you knwo you will be buying books / electronic gadgetry from Amazon, you might as well do them now so there is no worry about whether they will arrive or paying extra for express delivery. (Although I do acknowledge that January sales usually start before on the HIgh Street and you could wait if you are brave enough)
I have already ordered my printed Christmas cards. This week I placed orders for 4 postal cakes to family who I will probably not be seeing over the Christmas period. Although the Baker Days cakes which I reviewed recently are pricy, they are no more so than spending £5 on each of 3 children (children I see rarely and whose tastes I don't know) and then paying postage. This way I send a family gift which will be enjoyed by all of them, and rely on someone else to deliver them.
I've ordered wrapping paper and chocolate items (presents and for Advent Calendars) from catalogues which help raise funds for the children's schools.
It is worth remembering that you don't have to reinvent the wheel for every gift. I know 3 6 year-old boys and 3 11-year old girls. They don't know each other so they will get the same gift.
I have also booked a trip to the Harry Potter studio tour for the 4 of us, as the children's main present. I would much rather spend money on giving them experiences than on a gadget which is obsolete in 6 months or toys they will play with 3 times. They have grandparents to buy these things for them (and anyway, I have Harry Potter stickers burning a hole in my stash box, but don't tell enyone!)
For the aforementioned grandparents, I've created photo calendars on Photobox for the children to give them. I know both children will have school photos arriving before Christmas, so I can get some of those too to send with cards.
This ticks quite a lot of names off my list. And I don't even need to wrap them. I'm sure there are lots of other things I could order from Amazon, and I might, but I want to spend some time looking round the shops first.
Task 3: Start writing your cards. Half a dozen every evening in front of the TV makes this an (almost) pleasurable chore, and allows me to write a proper note instead of just scrawling my name.
Good luck. Wishing you a happy week on your laptop!
Kirsty
Task 2: Get those online orders out of the way. If you knwo you will be buying books / electronic gadgetry from Amazon, you might as well do them now so there is no worry about whether they will arrive or paying extra for express delivery. (Although I do acknowledge that January sales usually start before on the HIgh Street and you could wait if you are brave enough)
I have already ordered my printed Christmas cards. This week I placed orders for 4 postal cakes to family who I will probably not be seeing over the Christmas period. Although the Baker Days cakes which I reviewed recently are pricy, they are no more so than spending £5 on each of 3 children (children I see rarely and whose tastes I don't know) and then paying postage. This way I send a family gift which will be enjoyed by all of them, and rely on someone else to deliver them.
I've ordered wrapping paper and chocolate items (presents and for Advent Calendars) from catalogues which help raise funds for the children's schools.
It is worth remembering that you don't have to reinvent the wheel for every gift. I know 3 6 year-old boys and 3 11-year old girls. They don't know each other so they will get the same gift.
I have also booked a trip to the Harry Potter studio tour for the 4 of us, as the children's main present. I would much rather spend money on giving them experiences than on a gadget which is obsolete in 6 months or toys they will play with 3 times. They have grandparents to buy these things for them (and anyway, I have Harry Potter stickers burning a hole in my stash box, but don't tell enyone!)
For the aforementioned grandparents, I've created photo calendars on Photobox for the children to give them. I know both children will have school photos arriving before Christmas, so I can get some of those too to send with cards.
This ticks quite a lot of names off my list. And I don't even need to wrap them. I'm sure there are lots of other things I could order from Amazon, and I might, but I want to spend some time looking round the shops first.
Task 3: Start writing your cards. Half a dozen every evening in front of the TV makes this an (almost) pleasurable chore, and allows me to write a proper note instead of just scrawling my name.
Good luck. Wishing you a happy week on your laptop!
Kirsty
2 comments:
Sounds terribly organized. I like the secret santa idea - we're boring and anyone over 18 doesn't get a present usually - which hit my kids hard when they turned 18, the number of presents dropped so.
Enjoy writing those Christmas cards.
lol at the Harry Potter stickers!! The experience is a great gift idea, though :) I've been doing a lot of the online shopping, and now I'm getting a bit more mobile I might be able to make a start on Christmas cards this week - hooray!!
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