The Enid Blyton Society

@Julie: You are so right!

@Courtenay: Yes, that's right! My mother used to have one full weekend reserved for baking Christmas cakes. And we would have so many of them that we could always give our friends some. And even by having tea time every day, we would not be able to eat them all up until New Year's Eve

floragord wrote:

Katharine wrote: I shall start a thread in February next year when the shops are selling off all their old stock.

Good timing to pick up 2016's Christmas presents

On the topic of Christmas I was fascinated with a news item today of a lady who buys each of her 3 children 100 gifts each, the top of the tree is barely visible with the stacks of gifts piled high, sadly it didn't say if they start opening on Christmas Eve and go steadily through to Boxing Day or if its a free for all on the 25th

floragord wrote: On the topic of Christmas I was fascinated with a news item today of a lady who buys each of her 3 children 100 gifts each, the top of the tree is barely visible with the stacks of gifts piled high, sadly it didn't say if they start opening on Christmas Eve and go steadily through to Boxing Day or if its a free for all on the 25th

That lady must be a millionaire then! Her children will never know the true meaning of Christmas. They'll always think that it means heaps of gifts and they'll expect it every year! She's made a rod for her own back it would seem!

I saw that and my thought was 'never mind the buying off 300 presents, just think about WRAPPING them all!!!!!'

I don't know about getting earlier, I seem to get less organised each year. I've only written about a quarter of my cards so far, although I did manage to be organised to send local ones via the Scout Post again this year - their last posting date was Wednesday. As for presents, well apart from a couple of stocking fillers, I haven't done much.

I do have the excuse of concentrating on organising my son's 18th birthday party the other week, then trying to get outfits organised for my sister's wedding which was the following weekend. Now I'm sorting out photos of my uncle for his funeral on Monday. After that, I can turn my full attention to Christmas.

I did hope to do some shopping in Cambridge yesterday, but despite trailing round for nearly 7 hours, all I came home with (apart from sore feet) was a card for my parents!!!!

Fiona1986 wrote:I saw that and my thought was 'never mind the buying off 300 presents, just think about WRAPPING them all!!!!!'

The shops here offer a service called "wrapped as present"...

I bought gifts for all my family a couple of months ago — not specifically for Christmas, just as a general present from Cornwall, where I was holidaying — and got my parents to take them back to Australia after their trip to Britain, so that lets me at least partly off the hook. For Christmas I've just bought charity gifts, where you make a donation to a specific good cause on behalf of a family member or friend and they get a card with details of what their gift is supporting. It's not always easy for me to find and buy "material" gifts that are really suitable for each family member AND can be easily posted to Australia, so everyone understands if I can't always give them something major for Christmas and birthdays. We're not that big on gift-giving, anyway... certainly not 100 presents per person, thank goodness!!

Fiona1986 wrote:...my thought was 'never mind the buying off 300 presents, just think about WRAPPING them all!!!!!'

My thought was that all that stuff will clutter up the house! Some items will probably be things like chocolate, bubble bath and notelets, which don't last too long, but some toys and games take up a lot of space.

I expect many of those presents will end up in a charity shop or school fete etc. within a year or two. I know someone who spends large sums of money on their children each year. One year it was about £1,000 each, although that did include new bedroom furniture. They also buy their children a gift every time they participate in an activity, so a toy for a rehearsal, another for the actual exam. Not just a small gift like a bar of chocolate, but a DS game, or a Barbie doll, which to me would be a main present.

I try not to judge, but I do find myself rather bewildered sometimes, firstly that they have that much disposable income, I couldn't spend £2,000 on my children at Christmas even if I wanted to, as I just don't have it, well I could, but we wouldn't have a holiday or days out during the year. Secondly, my children just simply couldn't play with that many toys/games, and so most of them would only be touched once, and to me that seems such a waste. Although I suppose at least charities benefit eventually as they must get lots of virtually brand new things donated.

This year I have bought charity vouchers for a couple of people. I'm hoping they won't be offended, but they really don't 'need' anything themselves, and I thought it would be a change from the usual cheque in their Christmas cards. Hopefully it's a cause they will approve of.

I was playing The Very Best of Slade compilation album yesterday - and you'll never guess what one of the songs on it was...

Wow!
May I be the first to wish you and your family a very happy Christmas and peaceful New Year floragord.