Christmas gift-buying tips

thegreysquirrel said:
I tried suggesting a secret santa for all the adults but this was shot down by some "needy" members of the family. I much prefer the idea of getting food and drink for a big party and forget gifts for each other.
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Certainly the way forward, i much preferred it when we did this amongst the adults. Although now we do nothing!
 
I dislike what xmas has become. My tips would be to buy early and get it done. If you see something cheap and in stock or on a deal. Get it. Use black friday.
 
cheesefest said:
Wish people either reduce the number of presents they need to buy - buying for nephew's fiancee's mum's cousin shouldn't be allowed. Immediate family and perhaps a couple of friends max.

My family stopped doing Christmas presents about 10 years ago and its a relief not to do it. We do presents for birthdays as more individual. My parents and myself have nice food, drink and dig out board games and DVDs for laughs.

When my family did Christmas presents, more relatives were alive and gave me toiletries I couldn't use as got very sensitive skin. Then there was the great aunt who knitted hideous mohair jumpers which I couldn't wear due to my skin. Mustard and bright blue harlequin pattern anyone?

Social media are causing the problems with people uploading photos of their trees with hundreds of presents under their trees. People feel pressured into buying more.

People should not go into debt for Christmas. There's no point going into debt for buying presents that people don't need, use and just get shoved in a cupboard, forgotten about. Shops are full of crap gift sets and scream out "I can't think of what to buy cousin Jamie, I just get him a Lynx gift set." Some toiletries gift sets are MORE expensive than buying the stuff individually. At work, I pointed out a Dove gift set for £9 to my colleague and asked him to add the prices of the products individually - £6.50. Why spend £2.50 for a bit of cardboard? Its like Easter eggs. My colleagues told me about the make up sets with 100 eye shadows and 10 blushers they got from relatives for Christmas as teens. Who can wear 100 different colours? They said they probably could wear a quarter max.

Then I have spent Christmas with kids before. Had Christmases with my ex's brother and his family. All the kids were opening their presents all at once. Kids had no idea who gave certain presents and parents didn't know who bought what, apart from what they bought themselves and what others have told them. Don't kids do thank you letters/emails/phone calls anymore? My friends send presents to their nephews. She receives not a thank you from either her brother or nephews. She finds that upsetting especially when she and her brother were drilled to spend time to write letters to relatives thanking them.

Then get people, like this lady I served a few years back.She went through my till buying 60-70 tins of Quality Street and she said, that's all my Christmas presents done in one shop. I'm glad that I'm not related to her as my parents and myself have got a tin each - three tins of inferior chocolate. Then throw in loads of toffee pennies. Don't want problems with fillings thanks.
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yes it is really sad, people do get into debt about christmas. It's always rather a costly time of year.
 
A lot of my family use Amazon wishlists. Enables people to buy something that person actually wants, or to get an idea of the sort of things they are after and at the very least get an Amazon voucher towards something. Mrs side of the family insist on buying tat for the sake of it that ends up in the bin, it's a massive waste of money and resources which I hate. I'd rather have nothing at all than crap.
 
arknor said:
why buy gift cards anyway.... didn;t loads of people get caught out the last time a bunch of companies went under
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Yep especially with the rocky economy i wouldn't dream of buying gift cards.

Actually i lie, the only one i would buy would be Amazon - lets face it, if Amazon went bust we'd all be stuffed.

The OPs question does reflect what's wrong with the world. I suspect that's where the majority of family/friends are at, and end up buying things that the receiver doesn't like or won't ever use, and it just gets binned.
 
Semple said:
The OPs question does reflect what's wrong with the world. I suspect that's where the majority of family/friends are at, and end up buying things that the receiver doesn't like or won't ever use, and it just gets binned.
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yea my parents are terrible for wasting when it comes to me :p

I tell them I'm pretty much a vegetarian and then they bring me tons of food at Christmas, meat flavour crisps , meat flavour pot noodles, soup with meat in it.......
they don't even eat meat themselves.... total vegans lol


I tell them I don't really drink as well and my dad will bring me like 20-40 cans of lager/cider...

Told my mum all I need is socks, tea towels and a kettle. I probably still get loads of food I don't like.

for the record I donated it to a local food bank every time but it's still annoying, they won't take alcohol I just leave it on my doorstep with a "steal me" note.

got loads of shirts and stuff I'll never wear too
 
arknor said:
yea my parents are terrible for wasting when it comes to me :p

I tell them I'm pretty much a vegetarian and then they bring me tons of food at Christmas, meat flavour crisps , meat flavour pot noodles, soup with meat in it.......
they don't even eat meat themselves.... total vegans lol


I tell them I don't really drink as well and my dad will bring me like 20-40 cans of lager/cider...

Told my mum all I need is socks, tea towels and a kettle. I probably still get loads of food I don't like.

for the record I donated it to a local food bank every time but it's still annoying, they won't take alcohol I just leave it on my doorstep with a "steal me" note.

got loads of shirts and stuff I'll never wear too
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:cry: Sounds like they're winding you up.

Yeah food banks/shelters etc won't take alcohol for the obvious. I suppose the only other alternative is to add it to the raffle for any local community clubs or schools etc. Although i'm not sure what someone would say if you donated 20 cans of lager :D.
 
What's wrong with the word 'hack'?
I use 'hack' in the same way of 'lifehacks'. Not literally IT.

lifehack
or life-hack, life hack
[ lahyf-hak ]


noun
Informal. a tip, trick, or efficient method for doing or managing a day-to-day task or activity; a hack:
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cheesefest said:
Love Christmas but the media and working in retail ruin some aspects.
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Christmas was one of the major factors that made me get off my bum and leave retail.

It was particularly bad for me because I was a baker, so over Christmas I had to work nights which completely ruined the whole period. Because apparently the people of a town with ~30,000 population need to buy 3,000 extra loaves per day over the entire two week period. Beggars belief.
 
tenofspades said:
I use 'hack' in the same way of 'lifehacks'. Not literally IT.
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most "lifehacks" seem to be common sense these days :p

has anyone ever said thanks for the hack? or is it thanks for the TIP

Did you know what the slots in an icecube tray were for? cos even your granny probably does but it went viral on tiktok apparently
 
bazzabear said:
Christmas was one of the major factors that made me get off my bum and leave retail.

It was particularly bad for me because I was a baker, so over Christmas I had to work nights which completely ruined the whole period. Because apparently the people of a town with ~30,000 population need to buy 3,000 extra loaves per day over the entire two week period. Beggars belief.
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Were they actually sold?
 
Yep, we got cleared out daily of every bread product we could make. And bear in mind that's just the store made bread. I would presume we sold even more of the brand name prepackaged stuff.
 
bazzabear said:
Christmas was one of the major factors that made me get off my bum and leave retail.

It was particularly bad for me because I was a baker, so over Christmas I had to work nights which completely ruined the whole period. Because apparently the people of a town with ~30,000 population need to buy 3,000 extra loaves per day over the entire two week period. Beggars belief.
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Never understood why people NEED to buy 12 loaves of bread and 18 pints of milk just in case. Just in case of what?

My parents only use a pint of milk over Christmas Day and Boxing Day for teas and coffees. Usually have double this.
 
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