What will you be doing differently for Christmas 2018?

Loughc

mano79 wrote: »

I will not go the Next sale on St Stephens morning - the size selection in my town was terrible, I didnt get the kids clothes I wanted so wont be doing it again. I was also wrecked for the rest of the day having to be up at 5am and q in the cold for dam all gain.

Spend less time jumping through hoops visiting everyone and just take more time to laze around the house in our pjs playing with the kids. Maybe if we dont arrive some of them might get up of their buts and come visit us!!

Make time to bake a bit more - I bought all the ingredients but never even managed to make a mince pie. I suppose I should have kept a day or two holidays and finished work a bit earlier to do more preparations.

Anyone who I know who's gone to the Next Sale have always complained about it being useless. I honestly believe half the bargains people claim they got are exaggerated to save face.

For me Stephens Day is Christmas Day part 2. I'm happy to stay at home.

I 100% agree with you about jumping through hoops visiting everyone, there's nothing like having some quality time in your own surroundings.

Baking is something I didn't get to do this Christmas at all, despite plenty of trial runs before Christmas.

I think this year Christmas calls for me lazing around and baking.

CheerLouth

gifted wrote: »

A few years ago I bought one of those savings tin from a €2 shop, the type that you have to use a tin opener to open. Told the missus that we'll put a tenner a week into it for Xmas. She told me it was a waste of time. 48 weeks later I opened it and €480 was counted out. Herself was delighted, she buys the tins now lol lol. Goes a long way towards the xmas food.

That's a great idea! I save all year round in the butchers. Every week, I just throw a few euro on - if I spend 15, I tell him to put 5 in the book etc and it all adds up! Haven't had to fork out for a turkey and ham in the last three years! Plus there is normally enough left to cover the meat for January too!

Anyone who does their shopping in Tesco - you can keep your clubcard points until Christmas! I did it this year for the first time and got nearly 60euro in vouchers! Was delighted with myself!

Loughc

CheerLouth wrote: »

Anyone who does their shopping in Tesco - you can keep your clubcard points until Christmas! I did it this year for the first time and got nearly 60euro in vouchers! Was delighted with myself!

Wow, i never thought of that! That's a really good idea. And makes sense as the vouchers have a good expiry date length on them.

CheerLouth

I only copped on to it this year. Think you have to ring up the clubcard people to ask them to hold the points but it was a really great help! I used mine for my big shop so was grand, only had to put like 50 quid towards it instead of the whole shebang! You can top it up with extra money too if you like! I kept meaning to do that, but never did! Will put it on the list for this year!

BuilderPlumber

Loughc wrote: »

Anyone who I know who's gone to the Next Sale have always complained about it being useless. I honestly believe half the bargains people claim they got are exaggerated to save face.

For me Stephens Day is Christmas Day part 2. I'm happy to stay at home.

I 100% agree with you about jumping through hoops visiting everyone, there's nothing like having some quality time in your own surroundings.

Baking is something I didn't get to do this Christmas at all, despite plenty of trial runs before Christmas.

I think this year Christmas calls for me lazing around and baking.

A lot of the commercial aspects of Christmas and post Christmas are a downer too. I always treat St Stephen's Day as Christmas Day part 2 as well. Nice dinner and wine. NYE, NYD and the 6th of January I also do similar. Going out for a nice meal is lovely around this time of year and one avoids all the mad parties.

The pushing of the sales and of diets and fitness are two downers and are the anti-Christmas. I ignore these and I have seen less in your face fitness promotion this year plus an extension of Christmas spirit instead. People are learning to acknowledge that Christmas lasts until at least January 6th again.

Loughc

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

The pushing of the sales and of diets and fitness are two downers and are the anti-Christmas. I ignore these and I have seen less in your face fitness promotion this year plus an extension of Christmas spirit instead. People are learning to acknowledge that Christmas lasts until at least January 6th again.

While I certainly agree with you on the fitness promotions, they've certainly seem more scaled back this year, I've only noticed the opposite issue about January 6th, less and less people seem to be keeping to that tradition.

DvB

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

People are learning to acknowledge that Christmas lasts until at least January 6th again.

Unfortunately I'd have to disagree with that.
As mentioned in another thread here with the Christmas season starting earlier & earlier I find that by the time January comes around people seem happy to get the tree & decorations down & get back to normal well before the 6th. I'd say that comfortably 80-90% of the decorations in our area were already down yesterday & there's little if any christmas feeling left anywhere I've gone since Tuesday. Not being bah humbug either, id love it to be the opposite.

IMO the commercialisation of the holidays which has driven the season starting earlier has most people fatigued by the whole thing by NYD & the religous/traditional aspect of the 12 days & little christmas appear to have been completely obliterated/forgotten by the overwhelming commercialisation juggernaut that is christmas nowdays.

Postgrad10

Noticed that the next sale wasn't up to scratch a few years ago. They actually bring in stock especially for the sale that never was in the store to begin with. The quality of clothes has deteriorated too.

freshpopcorn

On my drive into town and the walk I go on they are only two trees gone this year at the moment. Most people are traditional enough about it in my area about taking stuff down on the 6th/7th.
I do find people who might be into religion(even slightly) are more likely to keep them up.

BuilderPlumber

DvB wrote: »

Unfortunately I'd have to disagree with that.
As mentioned in another thread here with the Christmas season starting earlier & earlier I find that by the time January comes around people seem happy to get the tree & decorations down & get back to normal well before the 6th. I'd say that comfortably 80-90% of the decorations in our area were already down yesterday & there's little if any christmas feeling left anywhere I've gone since Tuesday. Not being bah humbug either, id love it to be the opposite.

IMO the commercialisation of the holidays which has driven the season starting earlier has most people fatigued by the whole thing by NYD & the religous/traditional aspect of the 12 days & little christmas appear to have been completely obliterated/forgotten by the overwhelming commercialisation juggernaut that is christmas nowdays.

The commercialisation has ruined a lot of things. I've noticed in the middle of October, there were Christmas related items and santas everywhere alongside Halloween stuff. Halloween too has been commercialised as have all major traditions.

It's a downer for many to hear all this talk of diets and fitness and thankfully there was less of it. I have thankfully seen some people willing to expand Christmas and hope the real spirit of Christmas will grow. A horrible overcommercialisation of Christmas and post Christmas has occurred and is turned on and off like a switch. I feel that nicer things should be done for the post Christmas period.

mitresize5

this year was our turn to go to the in laws for dinner. Everyone cooks something and brings it where it is all assembled.

Sister in law had a baby last Jan so she made a unilateral decision that dinner was brought forward from the usual time of 5pm to 2pm to fit in with the babies nap time, as obviously all our worlds have to shift to fit in with the 11 month old. Told us this too on Christmas eve which was nice.

So in and out of my parents in an hour missing a lot of siblings/cousins and dinner 4 hours after a breakfast fry up.

Never again

CheerLouth

Sounds stressful, Mitresize! My sister in law told me last year at my daughters birthday party on Dec 27th to give her kids water instead of diluted juice "because Christmas is over" :eek::mad: Think they are all crazy lol!

mano79

Ya thats me and the Next sale finished. I really love the 26th and actually enjoy it more than xmas day as its more relaxed so im not sacrificing it again. I used to go in with my sister to the sale years ago when it was on the 27th and she used to kit out 3 boys for the year at it and get good quality at a reasonable price. Those days seem to be gone. I returned a few bits today and the shop assistant asked me did I get on well at the sale. I said no but I dont know was it because there were too many ahead of me in the line or that the sizes I wanted were never there - she said straight out the sizes weren't there. Ill stay in my cosy bed any more and shop in Penneys!!

Postgrad10 wrote: »

Noticed that the next sale wasn't up to scratch a few years ago. They actually bring in stock especially for the sale that never was in the store to begin with. The quality of clothes has deteriorated too.

Posy

CheerLouth wrote: »

Ayone who does their shopping in Tesco - you can keep your clubcard points until Christmas! I did it this year for the first time and got nearly 60euro in vouchers! Was delighted with myself!

I might do that this year with my Boots card and keep any points earned to spend on beauty sets, make up, hand creams and other such stocking fillers.

freshpopcorn

We also did the Christmas thing with the Tesco Clubcard. I think we got €70 in vouchers and €50 in what we saved.

SarahLil

Christmas 2017 was a success I learned from 2016,
2016 was enjoyable on the day itself but I put myself into pieces for the whole season for no thanks trying to please others who were down right bad for my health and my mothers health
I decided to disconnect myself from them in 2017 and I haven’t looked back, obviously you lot don’t want to disconnect from family but circumstances differ
I am very happy with whom is in my circle now
2017 we had dinner in our home for the first time our 2nd time cooking Christmas dinner my mother came to stay for a week, we went to a hotel on the 28th for 2 nights my mother came along and my OH folks too we had a great time
In the whole run up to 2017 I did a lot that suited me I put the tree up the week before the Toyshow to take the pressure off, I went for afternoon tea, watched lots of movies each week just chilling with my mam or himself, had pals visit, met pals for dinner, went to town to soak up the athmosphere

We forgot to set crackers on the table over Christmas so I’ll keep them for this year
I’ll probably get the TV in the kitchen set up properly as there was too much sport on, himself loves every type of sport and he didn’t get a game of golf in over the break
myself and my mother are partial to watching kiddish family movies so I would like more of those memories
2018 I hope will pretty much be the same
The OH Folks want to come for dinner this year as there is only 4 in their house and only 3 of us including my mother I said ok so they are full of suggestions for us all to muck in I’m happy if they look after the ham and some starters or dessert we will do the rest
I’m starting earlier on my Dunnes Stores saving stamps, I’m going to pick up one of them savings boxes too I seen them in Dealz that would be handy to
have
Definitely we will book to go away on the 28th again it breaks it up nicely

Cherrycola

Not get sick! I’m going to load up on vitamins and echinacea next December so I don’t end up in bed sick for most of Christmas.
I started a new job in catering last October with a family member, it was meant to be a few hours here and there(as I have young kids) but due to unforeseen circumstances it ended up being 7-8hr days on my feet all day, and I worked myself into the ground, missed the whole run up to Christmas and then once we stopped for holidays I got sick. Only starting to feel normal today, still wrecked, but not starting back until Tuesday, taking Mondays off now, and only part time hours, thank god!
I won’t be running myself into the ground next Christmas!

OldMrBrennan83

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freshpopcorn

Patww79 wrote: »

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That would be fear as well regarding getting a Christmas dinner out. We got one a few days before Christmas last year and a ready meal from Aldi would have being better.

Loughc

freshpopcorn wrote: »

That would be fear as well regarding getting a Christmas dinner out. We got one a few days before Christmas last year and a ready meal from Aldi would have being better.

Same. I went to a hotel for Christmas Eve dinner last year and it was generic bland food. I was so disappointed I will be sticking to the tradition of the Christmas Eve take away in future.

Postgrad10

freshpopcorn wrote: »

We also did the Christmas thing with the Tesco Clubcard. I think we got €70 in vouchers and €50 in what we saved.

Same here. They reissued our forgotten / unused vouchers of their own accord. It was very useful for buying gifts for the neighbours. Wasn't expecting them at all.

thegreatgonzo

Hopefully I'll be doing a lot of things differently next Christmas because it will be my first one in my own house :-) Like a few of you mentioned I've joined a savings club at work which will be great because my car insurance and a few other things are also due in December. All going well I am going to be able to hold a NYE party in my house because for the last few years I've wanted to go to one but nobody I know seems to have them anymore.
This Christmas was quite nice though and I think I stumbled onto something that really helped. The TV which is usually blaring day and night in the corner without anyone really enjoying it was switched off early in the month and only put on for something we actually wanted to see. So no Christmas ads and no depressing soaps getting into our heads. It was actually lovely, I started playing Christmas songs on the radio instead for my dad who has alzheimers and listening to carols in the car on the way to work. Last year I was rushing off to Aldi to get the Christmas food but this year I didn't even look at a catalogue and just kept it simple.

ciara007

Next Christmas we will stay at home for the day no visiting (This year we went to visit his sisters and his dad plus my parents) We didnt get home till 2.30 and then I had to cook the turkey. Next year I will be cooking a duck and a chicken I am done with turkey mine is always dry. We have a tin upstairs that we are putting all are loose change into so that will be going towards my xmas fund next year but I think I will start buying a few presents throughout the year so that its not as expensive.

LoveBrowsing

Hi SarahLil - (or anyone else who uses them) are the Dunnes Stamps good? Is there groceries you can or cannot use them for and also do you have to use it all in one go? I think I'm going to start using them this year

ciara007

Oh I will also be either putting the tree up later (We put it up on black friday and it was dead on xmas day) It looked like something out of stranger things...

CheerLouth

That's why we have two trees, Ciara! First year, we had only one, a real one in the sitting room, by Christmas Day, it was terrible looking. Plus I then spent most of Christmas in the kitchen cooking and had no tree to look at so now we have two! I put an artificial tree in the kitchen (the Homestore & more Nebraska one), that goes up around the 8th of December & then the real one in the sitting room goes up a week before Christmas. We also modified our stand to have a small bowl on the bottom that I put some water in at night to try and stop the tree from wilting too soon.

chuckles30

I will be putting up my tree before the 1st of December.  This year I didn't even get started until the 8th and it took me a week to get it all done and all the boxes back up in the attic.  Love to feel organised and be able to enjoy December.

ciara007

CheerLouth wrote: »

That's why we have two trees, Ciara! First year, we had only one, a real one in the sitting room, by Christmas Day, it was terrible looking. Plus I then spent most of Christmas in the kitchen cooking and had no tree to look at so now we have two! I put an artificial tree in the kitchen (the Homestore & more Nebraska one), that goes up around the 8th of December & then the real one in the sitting room goes up a week before Christmas. We also modified our stand to have a small bowl on the bottom that I put some water in at night to try and stop the tree from wilting too soon.

That is a brilliant idea! I bet putting the real tree up so close to xmas felt really magical too.

CheerLouth

It was lovely alright! And I bought one of the Yankee Festive Tree candles for the kitchen so I still had the smell of a real tree in the kitchen. It was lovely!

SarahLil

LoveBrowsing wrote: »

Hi SarahLil - (or anyone else who uses them) are the Dunnes Stamps good? Is there groceries you can or cannot use them for and also do you have to use it all in one go? I think I'm going to start using them this year

Hi LoveBrowsing I’ve been off line for a couple of days the Dunnes savings stamps are great you fill a card and you get a free 2 euro stamp from Dunnes when we went sale agreed on our house in 2014 I even used them I was able to buy anything in homeware with them too for towels, candles, bed linen
Any spare 2 euros I have I just pop them in a money bag and get the stamps each week
When I get my voucher rewards in the post throughout the year I keep them with my stamps so I can use them at Christmas or Easter or if you have a bad week or month you’ve money there