Nowdays I thank goodness for websites such as Tesco.Direct…… it’s that time of year again that I dread, where once I used to get excited. I used to have big plans. Now….. “Arghhh!”, is all I can say, but, I’m ashamed to admit that yes, not even the end of October…… barely the middle of it, in fact the apple bobbing hasn’t even started yet. The pumpkin carving not even thought about yet, nor a firework lit and yet the thought and even the actions have started to take place.
What am I talking about?
Christmas of course.
When I just had the boys, or even the oldest three, Christmas was such an exciting time…..I would plan for hours what they would be opening on Christmas morning….even then I scoured the internet, we would often travel far and wide to get the toy of the year. Actual purchase of said item wasn’t possible online in those days. You could look but you couldn’t buy. I remember us hunting the whole country for a rocking teddy for our newborn baby girl in 1998……now it’s sitting redundant in a room gathering dust and getting in the way. I need to sell it.
With five children present buying takes planning of military precision……my heart sinks even as I type this. It is so damn tiring!! It gets harder every year, and although the older children don’t necessary ‘play’ with toys now they still want to unwrap toys on the day! Can you imagine how many toys we have accumulated over sixteen years? Toys that can be passed down to the next one but the next one still requires toys of ‘their own’. I have lists, lists and more lists…..
Why does Christmas have to be in the depths of the UK winter? Wouldn’t it be more practical to have it in the summer….I don’t think you can ever have enough outdoor toys! I love toys that belong outside. 😉 One year the boys got bikes similar to the ones here and here. Father Christmas hid them in the dining room until all of the present unwrapping was over and then they were unveiled. I hope they have such fond memories of that day as I do…..I remember my best ever Christmas present. It was a blackboard…..I spent hours pretending to be teacher to my little brother, my dolls and my teddies with that blackboard.
I don’t know about you but my children are fickle…..they never really want anything so I can’t do too much too soon as they seem to change their minds at the last minute, letters often get written to Father Christmas about a week before the big day! Thank goodness for online shopping…..it is far too much to expect the man in red to sort that out at such short notice!
So….when do you start? In December the day the sales start? July? September? Or the week before? Do you have any tips to make it easier…..cancelling is not an option though!
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Fantastic post. I hate shopping, internet shopping is my kind of shopping. x
Thanks Susan, really glad you liked it. x
I don’t tend to think about Christmas until November. I like to get halloween, fireworks night and my now my daughter’s birthday out the way first.
Gulp……it’s November already!!! My daughter’s b’day is 1st Dec….it never seems right to do too much before then.
Usually I try to pick up a few things here and there throughout the year for those “random people” presents. For the family I usually try to start by now – sadly, I haven’t done any of it yet – so I’m sure I’ll be scrambling this year.
I am totally disorganised this year, partly due to obvious reasons…..not quite sure what I’m going to do. Sure it will turn out ok in the end though. x
So thats why i hated school so much.. because you were starting me too early!!!!!!!!!!! 😉
Great post.. , i hate christmas though! 🙁 bah humbug…
Thanks!! Oooops, I thought you enjoyed it! 😉
This is the second pre-Christmas post I’ve read and though I hate to think about it, reluctantly I must. All my extended family live in the UK. The postage is so expensive that I’ve started buying mostly online now – but do miss personally wrapping it.
For my children – well it’s summer here – so we do get some outdoor / shared sport toys usually. They always ‘think’ they would like ‘x, y and z’ but actually need very little to entertain and the best fun is when we play charades or have a day filled with fun activities and games. I might get lots of little ‘craft’ surprises so they have bundles to unwrap – that’s definitely their fav part – but not actually spend tons (I’m going to try – not to hubbie here!). Thanks for the reminder 🙂 Must get organised!
That is a shame isn’t it, although I have to admit when the children were younger I loved wrapping presents but now the stress of trying to do it secretly gets to me a bit! How lovely to be able to get the outdoor toys, I love the craft idea too. 🙂
I used to be a January sales shopper but since I had the kids I don’t get the chance to get out to the sales really. It’s all rather frantic and a bit last minute despite me asking everyone for wishlists which never materialise. I give out my wishlist but never get anything from it. Now that drives me nuts!
That’s not fair is it…..you run around and don’t get rewarded. How about buying little things from your wish list for others to give to you? 😉