A few more notable charity shop sourced outfits

 Angel costume! Soph grew out of the 'angel' costumes that most people wear for nativity shows, but we didn't let that stop us letting her be an angel in the church nativity. A top and skirt from the charity shop, along with tinsel pinned into her hair. Job done!

 This dress came from a charity shop, and all I had to do was shorten the shoulder straps a bit. Smart enough for a wedding, but without spending a million dollars. I believe it cost about £1.50 and she already owned the cardigan.
Likewise the jacket Jaiden is wearing. I found that in a charity shop for £5. And he loved it (It's always a bit hit and miss buying Jaiden clothes if he's not there, but at charity shop prices, it's worth the risk!)

 This was the Room on the Broom witch costume we made for World Book Day. The top was a red school cardigan she already owned, the skirt was made from a piece of purple cord material. I can't remember if I got this from a friend who was having a clear out, or from the charity shop. Either way, it was using what we had!
The hat and broom were borrowed from a friend, and the cat was cousin Phoebe's special Kitty, which was borrowed and carefully returned before she missed it too much! And the wand was Sophia's already too.

Finally, I have to mention some of our Christmas jumper finds. These were both acquired in charity shops, as have almost every Christmas jumper we've ever owned as a family. They cost between one and perhaps three pounds, and they've been passed on responsibly after we were done. This photo was from a few years ago, and Jaiden actually wore the penguin one this Christmas just gone. And I think the reindeer was passed on to a cousin. 

Homemade Christmas food gift type things

This year (as most years) there will be lots of homemade food-y things being given.

I may make lemon (or lime) curd again, especially if I get any more lemons from work!

Jam. There is always jam. I've not many any weird flavours lately, but my general rule for pretty much any sort of jam is using the same amount of fruit as sugar. Again, there are many other places who can give you much more information about making jam, but if you want to come make it with me in person, that's probably the best way for me to impart my knowledge and 'feeling' about making jam.

Chocolate bark. This is a fancy link to give you an idea, but I'll let you in to my little secret. Mine is almost always made with super cheap chocolate, and I'm probably more likely to use smarties on the top than any of the fancy things they suggest, but I've not had any complaints about it yet!
A silicone mat is very useful for doing the flat pieces to break up, and I've also got a growing selection of different shaped silicone moulds in a variety of shapes (like Christmas trees, circles, and Father Christmas)

These are my go to ideas, I'll let you know if I branch out and try anything else this year.

Homemade Christmas gift related ideas

Working with little kids, and planning Christmas activities with them, I've spent a fair amount of time on google (I hate pinterest, so don't suggest it!) and have found a fair number of fun projects.

Christmas cards or wrapping paper made with hand prints. I'm not including a link, but there are sooo many ideas. At my work we did cards with Rudolph (hand fingers down for the face, two hands fingers up to be the antlers). Father Christmas, I think the hand was the beard? And Christmas trees, where the hand with fingers pointing up was the tree, then finger prints on top added decorations on the tree.

Salt dough decorations. There are many places more experienced with these. I will let you google. We are hoping to do initials of the children on a background piece, which will allow there to be enough dough to make a hole through for the twine. You can also do hand prints and paint them to be similar things to what I said above. I'm going to experiment with making coloured salt dough, to save making (then drying) then painting. I'll let you know how it goes!

Decorations/present tags with photos on. Over the weekend we watched a lot of Christmas films cos I was too tired to do much else, and I saw this cute idea in one of the films which had a little snowman with a photo of the child in the family as the head of the snowman. I'm probably not describing that well. The head of the snowman was a photo of a child. It looked very cute. I might have stolen it for work, had my colleague not already made snow globes with a photo of each child inside a laminating pocket, along with some confetti/sequins, and sealed around the edges with a pair of straighteners.

Apparently these are all craft-y ideas, so maybe I'll do another post with food ideas!

Christmas Presents

One of the things I hate about Christmas is the hype and the money spending. We had a wander around The Range the other day. If you don't know it,  it's one of those shops where you can buy anything and everything. Craft stuff, sewing, hardware and building bits, kitchen stuff, furniture, food and more!

We had a wander around looking at things for present ideas for the kids. OK, this may shock people, but while we were there we allowed them to pick something each that they wanted to be their Christmas present. And then we bought them, with them right there with us. And brought them home and put them away. I expect we will get a few little bits and pieces for them that will be a surprise, but right now they both have a big ish item, that they know about, and that cost around £15.
Yes, that's it. £15 is all I spent on each of my children for Christmas.  As I said, we may get a couple of other things, but I very much doubt we will spend much more than £5 or £10 on each of them beyond that initial spend.

We will read books during December about the story of the Christmas nativity (more about that idea in another post, maybe). Each of those books came from the charity shop and cost 20p or 50p. They sit in a basket that cost about a quid, also from the charity shop.
We have a tree we bought last year from tesco, and the box was a bit battered, so it was reduced. I forget what to, but I think it was under ten pounds. We have a bunch of Christmas decorations. There are the ones the kids made, like the angel that sits at the top of the tree. We have a lot that we found in charity shops for a small amount of money.

I bought presents in Sainsburys the other day with some of my nectar card points. I've done the same with amazon cards I earned doing swagbucks and an online market research website.

Other presents we give will be homemade - jams and chutneys, most likely homemade chocolates and maybe biscuits.

I share these facts from our little world, to perhaps inspire, maybe make you stop and think. Perhaps you'll just think that I'm a cheapskate and leave it at that. But I'd like to inspire people to not just think about spending lots of money, not to think that is has to cost the earth. But instead, perhaps Christmas could be something different and something more than that.