Christmas in a Family of Seven
It’s less than 5 weeks to go til Christmas! Still got lots to organise? Let our BornFree Parent panelist and mum of 5 Amy take some of the stress out of it for you!
Christmas always starts in my household around October. I start thinking about what the children want and what Father Christmas is getting for them. I also start thinking about the presents that we get for the adults in our family. I like to get the adults gifts out of the way early and I tend to shop online for those presents especially if I am buying DVDs or other media related goods.
For presents I am a big fan of eBay and other selling sites and I have no issue with buying second hand gifts for someone as long as they are of a high quality and like new. I have bought the children second hand toys before and they have never known any difference. Shopping around for a bargain is always great fun, I love the thrill of the chase and I always feel good about grabbing a good bargain. I also always keep an eye out for toy offers that supermarkets can hold, you can pick up some great toys during those events and stash them away until Christmas.
The next thing on my list to buy is gift wrap and cards. I like to buy those super early too as they tend to be cheaper, this year I got my wrapping paper for a pound a roll and on a three for two offer aswell! I would say keep your mind on Christmas even when you do your weekly shop, try to buy at least one thing for Christmas every week so you don’t have a mad panic and rush when it comes to December.
Christmas food is always a big expense and I adopt the same approach as I do with the presents. I buy the Christmas chocolates, biscuits and mince pies early because as soon as they hit the supermarket shelves you can get a good price and offers on them.
For Christmas lunch we have a big chicken as I’m not a fan of turkey . I also always buy sausage meat, streaky bacon, a joint of meat for Christmas Eve dinner and a ham to boil. There is nothing nicer than having freshly cooking ham bubbling away on the stove on Christmas Eve, it’s a tradition in our house! So, to make sure I get everything I need, I buy all our meat from a local farm so I can order exactly what I want, knowing exactly how much it will cost and I can collect it on a day and time that suits me.
Once all that is out of the way I love getting ready for Christmas with the children. We love to make decorations out of salt dough, we love to cut snowflakes out of paper and hang them from the ceiling in the kitchen. We always go to town in the house with decorations and we put Christmas trees in the children’s bedrooms so they can decorate them themselves. Hubby and I do the main decorations downstairs at night whilst they are asleep so when they come down in the morning it is all festive and gorgeous.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I hope my ideas can help make the run up to Christmas less stressful and more fun.
Do you have any tips for making planning for a family Christmas that little bit easier? Share as a comment under this post and we will pick one person to win a Twist N’Pop on Friday 26 November.
UPDATE: Thanks for commenting Kerry F, you’ve won a Twist N’Pop Straw Cup!
We make our own christmas crackers! I tend to find that the prizes in a lot of crackers are wasteful and not used! Putting in something personal really adds to the day celebrations and does not need to be expensive. Also you can get the children to decorate the crackers which serves as a great activity whilst busy wrapping gifts!
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