Christmas shopping..

I have hopefully successfully posted a poll for Christmas shopping... where are all of you as far as x-mas shopping is concerned?

These surveys and stuff have been a Godsend to me because I am able to shop for Christmas throughout the year.

So far I have bought
-2 sets of nice fleece pajamas for Wynonna
-a cute pink canvas purse with bath pouf and PINK body wash for Wynonna
- fake troll bracelet with Murano glass beads and charms for Wynonna
-a Bath and Body Works set of Vanilla bean Noel body wash and antibac handsoap and a set of Warm vanilla sugarbody wash and hand soap (which I will put in cute tin buckets I got at the dollar store) these are for the SILs
-I just got those Hallmark Heart of Motherhood Keepsake charms, total of 3 boy, 2 Nov, and one Oct, which I can get engraved for pennies locally, with the boys names and Bdays (i just have to get the cheap sterling silver charm bracelets on amazon2 @ $6. each)again for SILs
- I bought Wild Planet Hyper Dash and Find It Red Ends for one nephew.
- Aquadoodle Mat and Educational Resources counting fun fruit and bowl for another nephew
- Crayola Color Explosion Glow Board and Find It Yellow Ends for another nephew
- and a watch (I haven't decided if that's for me, or for someone for x-mas... I usually give $$ to mom and dad and my brother, and I have my sisters 4 kids, but I usually get them one group gift to make it easier.. and I need to get hubby something...He will buy our kids big gifts...

What stage are you at right now? Have you gotten started, or do you wait until last minute?

I haven't even shopped, or thought about it. We are last minute shoppers, usually the weekend before.

I don't buy for SIL's or BIL's, or sisters and brothers. I buy for us, then my Dad/his wife, Nephew, MIL, and kristin and Xander. Less stress, less expense, and I don't like them anyway, so why buy them anything....LOL

I am planning on getting dh several things, Mostly stuff he lost. A table saw, a router, a welding machine......crap like that.

We don't buy for extended family either. The kids in our family are adults now.

I can't even say that I've really thought much about it yet. When I get stuff early I tend to give it right away. Gave my oldest DS one of the emergency kits I got really cheap and he's loving all over that. It made his day and he's still telling people about it.

Kelly, you are doing good so far. I think girls are easy to shop for, though. Do you have a son too, or just Wynonna?

Christmas presents simply are out of the question with my budget.

The most I might do is some baked items for a couple of neighbors. Everyone else lives too far away, so I might do long distance phone calls to a few distant friends around the holidays.

Back in the days when I was pulling down a good salary, I'd have most of my shopping done by October. I'd pick up stuff I'd see on sale that I thought friends would like and then store it away until December.

I'm sorry to hear that Nyssa. I've been there. But the thing to remember is that spending money is not what the holiday is about.

I've done some of my shopping. With 4 kids I have to spread it around because I just can't afford to have it all come out of one month's budget. I do shop for extended family, but on a strict budget. Last year the goal for my family was a $5 gift for kids and a $10 donation to charity for each set of adults (husband and wife). It was kind of fun because nobody knew which charity would be chosen for them. It was cool to try to find the perfect match for someone. For Scott's family we did give gifts, but not expensive ones. I gave gift baskets of toiletries bought free after rebate.

I've got the main presents for all 4 kids, but I'm still picking up stocking stuffers and extra do-dads just so each kid has more than one or two gifts under the tree. I'm spending about $15-$20 on each of them, not counting stocking stuffers. But I can usually pick those up pretty cheap. I haven't gotten Scott's gifts yet. But I did get one for myself.

I'm like Lori and have to fight hard to resist giving gifts early.

Erin, I think that's sweet that you are going to replace dhs stuff. I don't like buying for SILs either...and we used to not buy for anyone but the kids...until SIL insisted we atleast get small gifts for the adults. So to avoid the fight, what I did this year is to get what I could for free ( for example: BBW stuff purchased with GCs from MyPts) and only spend at the most $10-$15 per SIL...so, the charms, along with the $6. bracelets figure out to about $15, that's all they are getting, unless I can manage to get some more free stuff.


Lori, I do have a son..and I will be buying for him soon too, it's just I happened to find deals with the gifts I bought for Wynonna so far. I usually get him AXE or TAG, or Cool Water for Men mini cologne. I will also be looking for a video game or something. Hubby buys the kids big gift. What we get Wynonna will depend on where she is living at the time. She is still living at her boyfriends house, so it's not like we can get anything for an apartment, I refuse to give money because it will go to her boyfriend. So if she is still staying there I haven't given thought to what we will get her yet.
JJ, my son wants an Ipod touch mp3 player or a first or second generation Ipod (depending on which is cheaper). It's up to hubby whether we will get it for him or not, it's kind of expensive, but if we got it that would be the only thing he would get, besides the piddly gifts I would get him. He is a very good well behaved kid and never asks for anything all year long, so if it's within our power to be albe to do it we may just get it.
Nyssa, I do baked gifts too.. The last few years I make goodies for the mail carriers, (I have 2 regular mail carriers) the UPS guy, the garbage men, and my closest neighbors.. I make a few extra to give for gifts wherever we may go during the hoidays. I usually make my big fluffy sugar cookies and frost and decorate them really pretty. The dollar store has holiday wine gift boxes which i use to stack the cookies in in waxed or tissue paper. The boxes are already decorated and come with a bow. I try to catch them after Christmas so I can get the boxes 2 for $1. and have them for the next year. Everyone loves the sugar cookies and I can make 32 big ones from one batch of dough. I also did Divinity Fudge last year, all that takes is a few very cheap ingredients. You can leave it white, or use food color to make more festive fudge. You can add walnuts, sprinkles, candied cherries, or leave it plain. It makes a nice gift. I put a few pieces in a ziploc bag and put that in a brown paper lunch bag which I have decorated with stamps and ink, markers, ribbons etc.

I just realized that I forgot i have 2 credits for free photobooks from snapfish...that would make 2 more gifts somewhere..I would just have to upload photos and design the books. Then hope for a free shipping offer between now and x-mas.

I also forgot that I am going to have some 5X7 pic of Wynonna and JJ printed up and get frames from the Dollar store, those will go to my sisters families and brother, his sisters families, and the grandparents..

Photobooks are a lot of work (uploading and designing) but they are very, very nice gifts.

I agree Karen, they are...I gave some away last year for birthdays and Christmas and those were the gifts that I got the biggest oohhss and ahhhs about..

I really want to get my act together and put together some type of ancestral project by scanning old family photos. I just never get excited about scanning and uploading photos.

If you were patient and enjoyed the process it would make a great home business!

Because there is just my husband and I, christmas is not a big deal. All family lives miles away, I send money for the grandkids. The one thing I had done for years for my Dad was make a calendar including all family special occasions. After Dad passed away, I now do it for my oldest brother.

I also make christmas tags out of old christmas cards. Ribbon/sticker them up - they are cute.

I am doing pen holders out of pine beetle wood this year. I have the wood cut, need only the varnish.

I will be celebrating christmas in October this year with my Prinette friend from Wisconsin - you know when we go to see John Prine. I have some rodeo candles I made for her along with the gift tags and a pen holder. Geez, I best get wrapping, I only have 50 days left! Yikers!

Not done but I have started..2 kids I buy for recently received a Wii for their birthday so its fun to shop the sales and find some cool early gifts.

I really dont want to do Christmas. I havent started, and there is a chance I wont.

Chelle, I feel the same way.
My kids are older now, and all they really want is expensive electronics. I hate that. They don't seem to understand or care that the new model that comes out every year is a ploy to get them to upgrade. They all think I'm a cheap-ass, but I think they're all dumb lemmings. It doesn't matter if I say no, DH will go out and buy it anyhow. He's one of the lemmings. Tyhe king lemming. They are forever telling me I need a new _____. Fill in the blank with whatever electrical item you can think of. Doesn't matter if I've had it for 20 years but it still works just fine, they feel the need to have everything new and improved.

Put a photobook together for x-mas. If I can get some more pics I will design one more sometime soon. It's so much nicer now that we don't have dial up. The 4 or 5 photobooks I did before were all done on dial up, it took forever to upload each photo and then design, save, and view each one. This time it took less than 20 min do upload, arrange and design the whole book, compared to the almost 4 hour deal it took before.