The Framers Forum

How do you do it?

Do you have lots of relatives and friends to buy for; do you enquire/know about what nephews and nieces etc are 'in to' and buy accordingly - or do you just buy stuff you like that you think and hope they will too?

When do you do it too? Are you anal about it and buy for next Christmas at the January sales, or leave it until the last possible day, or something imbetween?

We had one customer last week who bought a whole shedful of Christmas card-making stuff - but it was for NEXT Christmas - takes her the best part of a year to make them all! Gordon Bennet!

Normally I phone/email around to see what the kids are in to - the adults are either 'standing order' or 'a bit of fun' but this year we've said blow it and, starting two Sundays ago we've just bought stuff that's caught our eye with recipients only vaguely in mind, after today's expedition we now have a heap of stuff that we now have to decide how to distribute.

Two more Sundays to get it all sorted, well, only one for posting really.

We've done Portsmouth - I really like Porstmouth (Cascades centre/town centre and Gunwharf Quays which is mostly outlet stores) Horsham and Worthing - and what all 3 places have in common is a TK Max - man, you can kill a whole load of birds in THAT place. Also got seriously waylaid by a new Poundland in Worthing today - spent £69 there and way too much time!

What do you get too?

In the next few days I know we will receive a Sunday times wine box from my sister - 12 bottles of stuff I certainly won't appreciate and my wife is a teetotaller! Also a 4 tier box of extremely posh chocs from my brother; my wife hates cream or anything containing it, most do and/or alcohol - we tell them each year that they are only sending ME a gizzit, but each year the same boxes turn up.

Hate it , Hate it, hate it,.
Leave it to the wife , ignore it and hope it goes away. Bah Humbug.

My husband feels the same, leaves most of it to me too- but he does order the computer games, music,etc for our teenagers online which has always worked well.
Our family has 6 birthdays in the lead up to Christmas and New Year,including my own, so this makes it more difficult and this year has been
yet another year when my best laid plans of buying everything by the end of October have bitten the dust.
I just got most of them today in the nearest city and it was mayhem- couldn't wait to get out- and that on a Wednesday morning (my day off from the mayhem at work this time of year).Heaven knows what the weekend's going to be like.

Vouchers all round for most of the adults in the family was the only answer, which I hate doing as I like to be a bit inventive with presents.

I just get all my Christmas prezzies at one shop.

It's called Amazon.com.

The wife's getting a book and an electric parmesan grater!

How novel, what a cheesy present.

Well, at least it's not a cookery book.

And it case people think that an electric parmesan grater isn't that great as a prezzie consider that she always ends up grating the cheese when we have pasta for dinner. Having an electric grater will save her oodles of time and mean that she can listen to the Archers in peace. Alternatively she could use all that extra time reading her book.

Mmm... on second thoughts maybe I should have bought her a cookery book...

Like Mike, I’m doing most of my shopping on-line this year. I hate having to walk 2 miles through a parking lot in the bitter cold and having to take elbows to the ribs when I go to a shopping mall. It’s nice to be able to sit in the warm cozy confines of your living room sipping the beverage of your choice and peck away at a keyboard.

This year, I only have to buy for the wife – she feels the need to buy stuff for relatives to whom I wouldn’t give the time of day. Fine with me!

Some of my prize gifts this year …

My wife refills her “designer bottled water” from the tap, so
We have a running joke about the bandit squirrels at the bird feeder, so
And, as a change of pace from her usual breath mints,