I live abroad and each year Im visiting the uk around the Christmas period. Love the culture and how you guys celebrate it.

However one thing I never understood. Why are Christmas crackers so bloody expensive? And why?

It only contains a paper crown and in most cases a simple novelty. Why would someone pay so much money. Even the luxury crackers seem to be over-prized for what you receive.

I know this isn’t entirely christmas related but will I be able to do pick up an order at The Range which includes some christmas stuff despite only being 17?

I don’t want to get there and be refused my order while having the order confirmation email and identification because of not being 18+

Hello! We are hosting Christmas this year for the first time & looking for tips and ideas to make it special.

It'll be me and my husband (31), our two year old daughter, my parents in their 60s, 2 grandparents in late 80s & potentially a close family friend (also 31). Grandparents are staying in a nearby hotel & are both still mentally able (quiz etc would be very doable).

I would love ideas of fun group games, food, traditions, activities, treats etc. I want to start special traditions with my daughter but also want to plan things in which everyone can enjoy together.

Ideas so far are:

hot chocolate & night before Xmas book before my daughter goes to bed on Xmas eve champagne toast and cheese once she's in bed on Xmas eve worldle on the wall / large group worldle game joint quiz where every adult brings a short round each family walk on Xmas day for those keen

Please let me know how you all make Christmas special :)

Bit of lunchtime reading!

Planning on building up a garland for around the outside of the front door.

Bought a 9ft green bushy garland, similar to a green Christmas tree with a wire frame. It comes with some fitted pine cones too.

Planning on wrapping it with warm white multi function warm white LEDs and some red berry LEDs.

Finally, will embellish it with some red ribbons, but not sure what else as yet.

Does anyone else have any specific decisions they plan to put up?

Hi everyone! I have three children and we've always had to budget very strictly for Santa Visits. This is the first year of their lives that I will have a budget of more than £50 to spend on a trip and I'm so excited to make it really magical for them. My eldest is also 9 so I'm aware it may be her last year believing and I want to make it one she'll have lovely memories of. Can anyone please recommend any really special Santa visits for us to look at booking? We are in the Midlands but can travel. Thank you!

How I Learned To Love Christmas Again

As a child, my Christmases were magical. So many happy memories. Growing up, the wonder and joy naturally faded to some extent, although I still enjoyed the festive season. That is, until I reached my early twenties. At one point in my life Christmas was just too much - if I could have pressed a button to make the whole thing go away, I would have. I was rather depressed for some time leading up to this state of affairs, which obviously did not help. This post is not about depression so I will not dwell on the subject (but please try to remember there is always hope even when you feel utterly hopeless). The depression certainly coincided with and compounded the rock bottom attitude I had towards Christmas but my love for it had been in decline for several years previously and took several more years to recover. Nowadays, I love it! I look forward to it every year and it seems to get better and better. The process of rediscovering my love for Christmas was gradual, and I would like to share it here. Essentially, the problem - and the solution - originated in my mind: in my attitude, my feelings and my approach to the situation. Once I understood this I began to make small changes, which produced encouraging (although minor) results. The transformation did not occur overnight, nor over the course of one Christmas season. I noticed an improvement the first year and built on it the next. As each Christmas rolled around once more I continued to feel the benefit, and the rest is history!

Humbug!

What a position in which to find myself! A steady job, good friends, a caring family, no money worries, youth, the festive season getting into full swing...and I just couldn't stand it. Every glittering tree, every Christmas song, every waft of mincemeat - I was surrounded by constant reminders of the season I was unable to enjoy. I was struggling with a conflict between obligation and anticipation: so much to do, so much stress and yet I felt deep down that I was supposed to be enjoying every minute. I wonder if the feeling was rooted in my wonderful childhood Christmases. Back then, Christmas just happened to me. I didn't need to do anything to bring it about. As an adult, the memories of festive joy lingered - the ubiquitous reminders in every house, shop and public place triggering a sense of building excitement - but tainted by the underlying awareness that I had a responsibility to help it happen, a burden of tasks to complete at an already hectic time. All a touch melodramatic, but that's how it felt. Not that I really felt burdened - it was my pleasure to give presents which would hopefully give those closest to me some happiness - but the task of arranging everything, thinking up great ideas, getting it all together and managing to keep all the other appointments caused me a lot of stress. As a young man I had people to see, events to attend. As much as I tried to look forward to all of this and enjoy it there remained throughout a similar feeling to that which I experienced when trying to relax during a serious spell of exams - as soon as I began to enjoy myself my brain would shout at me: YOU SHOULD BE WORKING!

Perspective

There are far worse problems to have. I never lost sight of the fact that there were probably hundreds of millions of people on the planet who would gladly have swapped their woes - poverty, disease, war - for my superficial first-world trivialities. And yet...appreciating such a perspective was not going to get my Christmas shopping done, wrapped and delivered. In my house growing up, Christmas never really got going until after my birthday at the beginning of December. For my parents this helped prevent it creeping earlier each year and allowed them to concentrate on other things without feeling the need to "do Christmas" on top of everything else. For me, it allowed me to enjoy my birthday as its own event without it being swept up and diluted in the festive tide. For all of us, having the "not until after his birthday” rule brought a welcome sense of routine which actually helped make it more special - the building excitement all around, on TV and in the shops, the public decorations, it all helped to get us looking forward to it until...my birthday was out the way and the Christmas floodgates were opened! All of a sudden it was time to indulge, and it was better for the wait. The "not until December" thing stuck with me, and many people also think November is too soon. The thought of getting started earlier seemed ridiculous to me. So each year I would wait, put all thoughts of Christmas out of my mind, try to ignore the festive signs all around me until my birthday was over. Eventually I had to face facts - it was time.

No time in December!

December. A whole month. Plenty of time. Starting before was obviously, unquestionably, TOO EARLY. Only - it wasn't. The moment I took a step back and thought about the pattern of my Christmas activity every single year was the moment things started to change. In my mind, December stretched on for the whole festive season leading up to the 25th. I realised the blindingly obvious: Christmas day is the end. By then, it's all over. Certainly it's too late to be still getting ready! I had been blinded by my own fallacy that once November was out the way I had a whole month to "do Christmas". It all seems so obvious now, but I needed to spell it out to myself before really grasping it. Christmas day until New Year's Eve - that's a whole week out of my month. I couldn't do a lot during the week because of work. That only left the weekends. If we're lucky we will get four whole weekends in December before Christmas. More than likely there will only be three, or Christmas day will fall on the fourth. As a young man - and I'm sure it's true for most people of any age - the majority of festive fun, engagements, parties, catching up with friends before the big day, family get-togethers, all fell on weekends. Plus, my birthday may also have taken up the first weekend. Basically, my presumed "month of preparation" was in reality at best only a few days.

Starting early...?

Rather than waiting for Christmas time to begin before starting my preparations I wanted, in an ideal world, to have finished by the first week or two in December. Then - so I imagined that year, drowning in my annual stress - I could actually enjoy the season. Really enjoy it. Instead of every festive assault on my senses serving only as a reminder of my failure to prepare, I could actually take it all in and savour the whole experience. I fantasised about being in that situation, allowed myself to pretend temporarily that I had achieved such a feat. It felt wonderful. The same situations, sounds, smells and sights kindled a sense of long lost joy. I imagined going to late-night shopping, with no intention of buying anything. Ordinarily I avoided going since the crowds and queues made any actual "shopping" unbearable. The thought of going purely to soak up the atmosphere was very appealing - I could enjoy it as I has done as a child. It was too late for that year, however.

Theory into Practice

That Christmas passed. I was glad. Back to normal. This time, I started the new year with a slightly different attitude. I made a New Year's resolution for the first time, albeit one with a delayed start: this year, I would start thinking about Christmas early. I wasn't going to get ahead of myself. I had made the same half-hearted promise to myself before and it hadn't happened. This time I had more of an understanding why I wanted to - not just for the organisational convenience but for the true benefit this would bring: a psychological improvement, hopefully bringing some degree of calmness and happiness. I knew that if I went in too strong - if I set myself overly optimistic goals - I would likely begin to stress about failing to achieve them. This wasn't supposed to be about moving the goalposts, it was about widening them. A large part of the problem each year was getting to the point of beginning preparations without any forethought. I would decide "now is the time to buy presents" but would then have to rack my brains to come up with ideas for everyone. My first days off would arrive and I would head out with no plan, risking wasting the whole day or getting poorly chosen presents I would later regret buying (this was during the earlier days of the internet, before online shopping made everything much more convenient and we couldn't avoid having to actually go to the places we wanted to buy things from!) My plan: during the autumn months, I would give some thought to Christmas. Nothing more. Just an occasional contemplation - while in the shower or cooking the dinner - about what needed doing, who I had to buy for and what I could get for them. Any firm ideas I had, if I happened to be in a convenient position to pick them up I would, but I wasn't to go out of my way. As Christmas time drew near I would be mentally prepared to go and get everything, making the whole process less stressful.

Christmas in August?

With these thoughts at the back of my mind I carried on with my year. Little was I expecting to put my plan into action at the height of summer - but the universe conspired to make it so! In July my parents, my sister and I went for a photo shoot at a local photography studio. My parents had received a voucher offering a free session and one complementary picture. Of course, the idea was to entice people who would not otherwise have considered paying for professional photography and hope that they were so pleased with the results that they decided to purchase more of the images. Sure enough, the session was lots of fun and the pictures were great. We returned a week or so later to see the final, touched-up images. My parents decided to purchase a small set of pictures on top of the free one. We spent a long time narrowing down the selection, my parents keen to get a good balance of group and individual shots to display at home. This inevitably meant having to turn down some really good pictures. It was a shame, but choices had to be made. There was one image in particular that we all loved but which had to be sacrificed for the good of the overall set. We pondered the decision long and hard, but in the end it had to go. It was possible to purchase additional images but they were very expensive. All the photos would, however, be kept for several weeks should we decide to go back for more. At some point during the week that followed, the idea occurred to me - completely out of the blue - why not get that picture for my parents for Christmas? It was expensive, yes, but no more than I was happy to spend on them for a Christmas present. When I started thinking about it, it seemed more and more like a good idea, although it felt very strange indeed to be having such thoughts in what was now a scorching August! Was I really going to buy my first gift? In August?! It took a few days to decide but in the end I went for it. This was something they wanted, but were not going to buy for themselves - the perfect gift. Also, if I didn't act quickly enough the image would be deleted and lost forever. The following Saturday - a beautiful, hot summer's day - I walked into town and ordered the framed print. I picked it up the following weekend.

And So It Begins...

I felt strange. I had done something almost unthinkable. It was oddly exciting, as though I had misbehaved and gotten away scot-free. The Christmas police did not kick down my door. There was no thunderbolt. I mentioned to a friend that I had just picked up my first of that year's Christmas presents. She smiled and said something about it being quite early but did not keel over or physically attack me. It was fine. I gave some thought to other gifts over the following months, as I had promised myself, but did not otherwise make any further progress. December arrived. The annual realisation dawned - time was running out. I had done it again - almost. Yes, I cursed myself as the big day approached for not having done more. Yes, I felt the familiar stresses of the festive season. And yet, this time, there was a silver lining. Throughout the whole process I was able to constantly remind myself - congratulate myself - for having taken care of Mum and Dad's present early on. Every time I went over my mental "to do" list I was delighted to remember that two people were already ticked off. It might not seem a lot, but when you head into town on a cold, wet Saturday in December it can give you such a boost to realise that your forward planning has taken away the effort you would otherwise need to put into thinking up ideas, not to mention the physical task of actually sorting them out. Having two fewer people to plan for actually gave my spirits a surprisingly large lift. Partly it was the recognition of the easier time I could now have. I could relax more, take more time, enjoy the atmosphere (to some extent). Any unforeseen problems - and they always choose the least convenient times to arise - would be less of a crisis and could be handled with greater calm and clarity (for example, the item you need is sold out in all stores and you have to decide whether to order it in, try again another day, go to a different town or come up with something different). I also took comfort in simply imaging my "other" self, the one in the parallel universe who hadn't bought the picture in August. At every turn, however fed up I found myself getting, I just had to imagine that other poor bloke with two extra people still to buy for and thank my lucky stars I wasn't him. When I was back home, or in the pub, warm, relaxing, maybe tucking into a mince pie with loads of clotted cream, he would still be out there searching, stressing, queuing, freezing, wishing he had thought about it sooner.

Onwards and Upwards

It wasn't much, but it helped a lot. I appreciated the help I had given myself throughout the festive season and imagined how much more happy and calm I would feel if I made a bit more of an effort next year. Sure enough, the following August I began thinking about Christmas. I wasn't so early to acquire my first gifts, but I was more prepared mentally. I managed to get a bit more ready before December, and I enjoyed that month more than I had for many years. Every year since I have built upon that foundation. The change has been gradual, so as not to create a new stress to take the place of the old one. Each year I have enjoyed Christmas a little more, and this has helped me to look forward to the next one with ever growing excitement. The "jobs" that I used to put off are now tasks I either look forward to or don't mind doing. Even buying and writing Christmas cards - the most boring activity of the season - is a small source of pleasure! When they appear in the shops it means it's getting closer! As I write each one I realise I am one step closer to finishing, and more importantly: I will have written and sent them all by the end of November (apart from the ones I will be hand delivering when I see them in person). Sitting back and seeing the pile of sealed, addressed envelopes, knowing that I can embrace the festive spirit without that particular job hanging over me really puts me in the mood for a mince pie and celebratory drink. Christmas is a pleasure for me now. When it's over, I feel a warm afterglow and try to keep the feeling of Christmas spirit alive in my heart for as long as possible. As it approaches I get increasingly excited as I tick things off my "to do" list, while signs of winter fun spring up all around. I try to avoid peaking too soon with the music - I have numerous Christmas albums which I can start listening to in late November, saving the big Christmas hits until December arrives. In summary, by changing the way I think about and approach the festive season I have enabled myself to rediscover the joy of this time of year. As cheesy as it sounds: I have given myself the gift of Christmas.

Final Thoughts

I have also helped those around me, if only by improving my own mood! Nowadays i am much more likely to be full of festive cheer, or at least not completely miserable. Surely that must have a positive impact on the people in my life. One final tip regarding presents, which I have made use of so many times: tickets. If, like me, you struggle to think of gifts and if you also consider the perfect present to be something the recipient would probably not buy for themselves and which also does not take up any space, consider tickets for a show or performance and/or vouchers for a restaurant. I have treated my parents to these many times. At any time I could pick up a brochure for the local theatre and see many shows - especially stand up comedy - that I would love to attend. I almost never actually go, because I can't justify spending the ticket price on myself. It feels like an unnecessary extravagance. If I received a ticket to the show as a gift I would be over the moon. Not only are tickets great gifts that give the recipient something to look forward to (especially if it's there's a restaurant voucher too so they can really make a night of it), they are a perfect excuse for getting started early. Next year's big shows often release tickets the previous summer/autumn, and if you don't get in there quickly enough you may well miss out (or be left with the worst seats in the house). Whatever time of year you happen to be reading this: Merry Christmas one and all!