Christmas Tip #4 - The Christmas Countdown
Here's our countdown to Christmas and what you should have done by when:1st November 2008
Spend part of this lazy Sunday working out who you've got to buy presents for, what sort of presents they'd like and what budget you're going to spend individually and collectively. If you want to be really clever you can do a spreedsheet with it all on. However, a notebook will do just fine - just keep it under lock and key.
3rd - 16th November
Start having a search around the internet for ideas of where the best places to buy are. You could try price comparison sites such as Kelkoo or Pricerunner so can get an idea of the prices - you may need adjust your budgets.
Typical presents are CDs, Chocolate, Games & Puzzles, Toys, Activity Gifts, Hampers,
Console Games, Clothes, Stocking Fillers, Naughty Gifts,
Personalised Gifts, DIY Tools, Booze,
stuff for the house, Cosmetics, Perfume, Pay As You Go Mobiles,
Football Kits, MP3 Players,
On this day newspapers.
That should be a good starting point but we're going to create our own Top Gifts section which will look at the top gifts for different age groups and people. The gifts we'll be covering are:
- Christmas gifts for babies
- Christmas presents for infants
- Xmas present ideas for Children
- Christmas presents for teenagers
- Christmas gifts for young men
- Christmas gifts for girls
- Christmas present ideas for girlfriends
- Christmas gifts for boyfriends
- Christmas presents for husbands
- Christmas gifts for wives
- Christmas ideas for my father
- Christmas present ideas for mothers
- Christmas presents for grand parents
- Amazon - books, cds, dvds, gifts and gadgets
- John Lewis - fine gifts for the home and other stuff
- Woolworths
- Dixons
- Currys
- PC World
- Zavvi - CDs, DVDs & Console games
- Boden - fine clothes for women, men, girls, boys and babies
- JD Sports - for sporty boys and girls (men and women too)
- eBags - for women or girlfriends love great handbags
- Top Brands Direct - if you want to buy designer clothing then try them out
- BeCheeky - lingerie for wives and girlfriends
- Designer Lingerie - lingerie from the well know fashion brands
- Dorothy Perkins - nice clothes for the lady in your life
- I Want One of Those - a great retailer of gifts and gadgets
- Toys R Us - great for kids toys and gadgets
- Find Me A Gift - perfect for stocking fillers (I usually get most of my gifts from there!)
- Activity Superstore - great if you're looking to give and activity gift
- Getting Personal - totally amazing for personalised Christmas gifts
- Firebox - no list of Christmas gifts could exclude Firebox!
- GadgetShop - they normally have the gifts and gadgets you're looking for
- Prezzy Box - my mate runs this shop and if I don't add it he'll make me watch the Villa - so here it is!
- Boys Stuff - Another absolutely fantastic gifts retailer!
- Early Learning Centre - gifts for kids and babies
- My Favourite Magazines - gift magazine subscriptions
- Chocolate Trading Co - they do great chocolate gifts and should be one of the first to look at
- Cadbury Gifts Direct - of course you couldn't have Christmas without Cadbury's!!
- Majestic Wine - perfect if you're buying for a wine lover or if you just want to stock up
- The Drink Shop - they've got bulk loads of drinks to buy so you don't have to carry them
- First 4 Hampers - A good call for Christmas hampers if you want to get someone a big present in one go
- Clearwater Hampers - another good Christmas hamper online shop
- Express Chemist - for perfumes and general cosmetics
- The Beauty Room - more great smelling and looking stuff for girls and girlfriends
- Cheap Smells - it does exactly what ... cheap perfumes
- Fragrance Direct - you'll find it hard to beat their prices
- Wickes - I'm sorry, but virtually everything I buy from B&Q is broken - so here's Wickes.
- Tooled Up - Also great for power tools
- DIY Supply - you can never have enough diy stuff!
- Screwfix - one of the industry leaders in DIY tools
- Gardening Direct - they'll have some great gifts for gardeners
- EvenGreener - more great gifts for gardeners
Right, so when you've found the right gifts for the right people you can either save the page as a favourite and look around the shops in your local town, or you could beat the crowds and the mad rush by getting the presents now. Remember to cross the buys off your list and mark down how much you've spent so far.
On that list you'll also need to note if you're getting the presents sent to yourself or direct to the recipient. If they're going straight there you'll have to try and find retailers that offer a gift wrapping service.
November 10th
Make sure you've worked out how many are coming for Christmas dinner and that you've got enough room. You may also like to think about booking Christmas dinner. They get booked up early so you'll need to get in before everyone else!
November 17th - December 1st
Now's the time to go through your list of friends that you want to send Christmas cards. You may like to go on to Facebook and see if you've missed anyone off. Then you should work out if you're going to buy Christmas cards and send them through the post or send them e-Christmas cards.
You'll also have to work out the last posting dates for various parts of the world. To be safe, I'd suggest you post all your non European cards by 1st December and the European ones by 7th December.
November 20th - 25th
Get your Christmas decorations out and work out if you need to buy any new ones. At this stage you should be choosing your colour scheme!
Make sure you've got all the advent calendars you need.
November 30th
Review your purchase list and see if you've missed anyone out and then get yourself online to complete your list. Also think about getting a couple of spare gifts because you're likely to forget of someone.
December 1st
Put up your Christmas decorations - my own view is that they shouldn't be put up before then, but it's entirely up to you!
December 2nd
Confirm your guest list, where they're sitting and sleeping.
Check you've got enough food on your list and booze stocked up
December 13th
You're getting close now, so triple check you've got everyone's presents, you've sent the Christmas cards, you've got your turkey (or alternative), you've got Christmas crackers and worked out what you want to watch on TV.
Also it may be a good idea to wrap the presents around now.
December 18th
Have a tidy up as you may be having guests arrive at the weekend and you'll be wanting to enjoy yourself!
December 21st
This will probably be the safest last posting date for Christmas Cards.
It'll also probably be the last order date for many presents you're getting delivered direct.
December 24th
It's not over yet. Make sure all the food is ready - you may want to prep some of it.
Go to Mass if you're a Catholic. Others may go down the pub and some will stay in and watch the box. But before you put your feet up, make sure everyone has got their presents. If not, put a label on your spare presents.
December 25th
Get up and enjoy the day - unless that is you're cooking. If you've followed these instructions it should be plain sailing!
Have I forgotten anything?
posted at @ 1:34 AM
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