General Chat

Agree with Sue that it is to commercial. I buy or make a few small presents for the close friends or relations (very few on the latter left) but always make them eatable or usable in someway. OH and I stopped presents two years ago. I usually bought my own and he wrapped them which somehow defeated the object and I have now given up trying to find the right railway book for him.

We have a smallholding so like Julia have much frozen veg/fruit plus our own meat and eggs. I think the freezer eliminates the need to stock in these days in the same way people used to but I suppose we are lucky. I do buy a small turkey, but ,after taking off one meal, I portion the rest for later in the year so there is never a glut.

The farm next door has hatched and reared Narragansett turkeys thought to be an Amercian descendant of the Norfolk Black turkey. They are beautiful birds and amazingly unflappable and friendly. I am very tempted to rear a pair next year so maybe this is the last year we eat a bird.

i wish, i have a boy with very expensive taste, iv spent more this year than i did last, and he doesn want a "big" present, but the price of toys is rediculious, altho there isnt much iv paid full price for as i started in june, and i have bargain hunted, i have cut down on what i spend on others tho x
:-D

food wise, i never buy anything different other than, a few tubs of posh biscults, mince pies, and a chrstmas cake bar lol,

No not so much cutting back but as they are older I dont feel the need to spend as much on them as I used too, but its not getting any cheaper as we have a new addition to the family... I buy what I want too no more or less I ve had my years cutting back couting the pennies planning worrying and stressing if I dont buy it tough luck, :-D

Sheila it is very commercialised now, I'm of an age when I remember when it wasn't.

Julia, garden centres are lovely, I'd love someone to give me seed potatoes for christmas lol, or anything for the garden, sadly the two 'best present givers' who would give me things like that are no longer with us. I'd much rather have one plant for a pound or two than something I'll never use.

Jude, you can have any after eights I get, and I always do lol, I can't stand them, I feel so bad when people buy me chocolates as they almost always get passed on, I like chocolate but the boxes are wasted on me as I only like some fillings...
but oh I would be friends for life with anyone who found me some coffee creams !

Well Yes and No...we are'nt buying each other a pressie this year, l've cut back on family but am looking for something expensive for my daugher cause she's wanted it for years, it will be christmas & birthday:)
Food...we just add a few extra's like mince pies, baileys, nuts...after 8's. This year we're at son's inlaws:) and will take what ever is needed:)

jude ;-)

I agree with Supercrutch, in that Christmas is far too commercialised these days, and the whole process starts far too early. But I do like the festivity of Christmas and all the baking and cooking.
As you know from my previous posts, I do all my own cooking, but ingredients are not cheap, and we have the allotment. So, four freezers are full most of the year.
I also only really cater for the two days, after that, we are ready for some homemade soups, or a fry of chips in the OH's case, but I will make another 'special dinner' for the New Year weekend.
As to presents, whilst I agree with Supercrutch that there is no enjoyment in just giving money, I find that my lot would sooner have this to get what they want themselves.
So, that only leaves my father and sister & husband to buy for. Dad is easy. A bottle of good Scotch, but I am also adding a few provisions this year, and resorted to getting my sister and husband a gift token for Lakeland, simply because I did not know what to get them.
Myself and the OH have stopped exchanging gifts, as he never know what to buy for me.!!!!!
We always say, our Christmas starts at the end of January, when the seed potatoes come into the garden centre. I can also be tempted to spend on other things whilst in there, and our favourite has some lovely clothes and gifts.
And of course we celebrate the Burns Night Supper in January, but just only us two.

Julia in Derbyshire

Sue, It always made me laugh when my brother told me how big a turkey they were buying, and then for days after Christmas telling me how fed up they were getting with turkey for every meal lol.

D doesn't want anything much, he's not a very typical teenager lol, so it's just stocking fillers really...though I was looking in a magazine the other day and the "stocking filler" suggestions were priced up to £50 each :-0

Yes, but not because of money worries. I became cheesed off long ago with the 'High Street' Christmas commercialised hype and now avoid it like the plague. I send cards, send money to my great-nephews, and buy a smallish present for OH, and that's it. I don't go mad with food, just a few extra treats and tipples, depending on who is visiting. On my brief foray to the city centre last week, there seemed to be lots of 'tat' for sale - how much will be bought and then thrown away a week later?

We cut back a couple of years ago because we were finding it more and more difficult to find presents that family would want and vice versa. The exchange of money is no fun! We now only give money to grandson.

We only buy Xmas type food for 2 days (and have no wastage) as OH is usually working. I feel embarrassed watching people pushing a huge trolley piled so high and wonder how much of that ends up in the bin.

Too damn commercial for me :-(

Sue

I sat having a coffee yesterday 'people watching' in the shopping centre, very busy, partly perhaps because of the strike, and noted that the three shops that were busiest in terms of actual buyers were the "99p shop", Poundland and Primark.

If you're not cutting back as such, are you spending differently? going for cheaper and more or quality and less? or just on food and drink rather than presents? Or are you doing 'home made' a la Kirsty ?