Christmas 2011 shopping

[gracie1]

I am working on my list today. Have some really good ideas.

If any one has ideas on what their getting their fathers please post!! He is the hardest to buy for. Has no interest in technology or anythin!

 

[mommy2_3]

lol! i have also started shopping for christmas and DS4 birthday (which is end of Sept.)
i have been hitting Jcpenny for clothes. so far i have spent about $55 on clothes for my 4 kids and have about 20+ items of clothing! i also got socks for my DD's on clearance at walmart. $6.50 for 2 packs of sock (12 in each pack). me and my kids dont like long sleeves so i grab as much t-shirts when they are marked down for chirstmas. i have been getting alot of disney ones lol!

 

[gracie1]

What kind of gift cards go with the Nook Color? I am getting that for my mom for Christmas, but wondering what gift cards go with it.

I am actually going to order a couple more things tonight I believe,and then my furpuppies are done! Yay!

And I am going to order a gift for my dad, which is a light on a tripod so now he can't complain that he can't fix something because no one was there to hold the flashlight

 

[mmaikisch]

I've got most of it done except my kids & the grandparents. We did some overseas travel this year & I bought gifts from there. My DS has asked for a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas & they are NOT cheap ($250). If we decide to get it I'll have a nice budget for DD.

Just wanted to let you know if you haven't heard the news already that these will only be $169 starting on August 12th =) My dd wants one too, and I almost bought it before I heard the news. I'm so glad I waited...lol

 

[mrssmith06]

I haven't purchased anything for Christmas but I have been saving up for a couple of months now! I have a SmartyPig account that I have a little direct deposit into every month. Hoping it will help with Christmas shopping this year and I won't have to worry about charging anything to credit cards!!!
The one thing I know I want to buy for DD is the Cinderella castle play set from Disney! She seen it in the World of Disney store in DTD when we were there and LOVED it (of course!)... so I really want to get it for her!

 

[maciec]

I am getting my list together, but boy is it hard.

DS (8) wants a Dsi XL - which he will get
DD (11) wants an iPod 4g - dh doesn't want to buy it for her because she has
regular iPod touch. She will probably get it though. She is sooooo hard to buy
for. I have no other ideas

We aren't going hog wild this year because they just don't need anything. We decided to surprise them with a trip to Mexico in January instead of buying them "stuff"

 

[DawnM]

I am doing very little shopping this year.

I have a bunch of nicer/more expensive scrapbook type photo books that I plan to fill for the grandparents.

I am making several items (I sew and have an embroidery machine) for others. I need to get hopping with sewing though. Last year I had all sorts of plans to sew and got Pneumonia in mid November and was down until almost Christmas time.

Dawn

 

[mjantz]

Just wanted to let you know if you haven't heard the news already that these will only be $169 starting on August 12th =) My dd wants one too, and I almost bought it before I heard the news. I'm so glad I waited...lol

No I didn't know that. Thank you!! That gives us a bit more wiggle room as we could get him a case & maybe a game for about $200. I've told him if he received this as a gift it would be his only gift so I could mess with his mind by wrapping up accessories & putting them under the tree.

I'm going to try to buy before the end of September. I hate fighting other people for gifts. Plus our DD does Nutcracker every year so our December is booked. There's not a lot of time for shopping or anything else for that matter!

 

[mjmartin01]

I'm actually done Christmas shopping for our two kids never been done this early!! It feels good... bought some toys at kmart clearance and a while back there was a great deal on a nintendo ds that I couldn't pass up for dd

 

[smillerguy]

Going to work on my list this week. Great news o the lower price for the DS.

 

[diznee25]

What kind of gift cards go with the Nook Color? I am getting that for my mom for Christmas, but wondering what gift cards go with it.

I am actually going to order a couple more things tonight I believe,and then my furpuppies are done! Yay!

And I am going to order a gift for my dad, which is a light on a tripod so now he can't complain that he can't fix something because no one was there to hold the flashlight

I have a Nook Color and buy just regular Barnes and Nobel gift cards. (You can choose any design. They do have gift cards that say Nook Color or e-reading....something like that, but you can buy any gift card with any design.) Also you can purchase e-cards from their website.

diznee25

 

[gracie1]

I have a Nook Color and buy just regular Barnes and Nobel gift cards. (You can choose any design. They do have gift cards that say Nook Color or e-reading....something like that, but you can buy any gift card with any design.) Also you can purchase e-cards from their website.

diznee25

Thank you! I wanted to make sure I got the right things!

And to the other poster, congrats on getting your shopping completely done
I can't wait to decorate the house for christmas. I am already running it through my brain!

 

[delmar411]

I'm done for the little kids' Christmas and the 2 with Oct b-days.

I won't shop for ODD until nearly Christmas as she'll change her mind a million times. But I do have (2) $15 Itunes GC's put back for her as they were on sale for 10% off a couple weeks ago. I know she wants a bigger TV for her room so maybe I'll look for a good deal on a big TV.

I also have teacher gifts done (digital picture frame keychains) and I'll also give those to the IL's with pics of the kids pre-loaded. Dh also has some book on CD thing for FIL. Not sure what else I'll do for the IL's.

No idea what to do for my parents or DH.

 

[mjantz]

For those wondering about what to get grandparents & others like that, last year I made a calendar with pictures from the previous year. I tried to line them up according to the month so January was DD with a snowman & October had the kids dressed up. Everyone LOVED it & it was so easy. I ordered from Vistaprint & did them all the same so it was just a matter of selecting the photos. I think they came out to less than $20 per calendar. I tried to do a mix of DD, DS & both kids along with a few of the entire family. As I said, highly recommended as a great personal gift.

 

[mhawk4]

I usually start early but this year I have not done anything yet. My DDs already know what they are getting for Christmas - netbooks. So mostly they will get stocking stuffers, maybe a few other small things as the netbooks are expensive, although not as expensive as last year's trip to Disney! We are going to watch for them to go on sale although I am not sure they can go much lower than the $229 ones which are at Best Buy.

For my parents, grandmother, and MIL the girls will be making mugs at a pottery place near our house. I will make my "famous" peanut brittle. I also make a Snapfish calendar every year too. For our nieces we will probably make a bead bracelet, nephews a books or Barnes and Noble gift card, and our 2 year old niece a cute ballet outfit that we found at TJ Maxx on clearance (wahoo).

So hopefully it will be a relatively low cost, low stress Christmas.

 

[mjantz]

Another budget saver: I ordered some makeup today from Sephora.com & added a few things to get free shipping. They had Harajuku bags for $5-$10, Sephora brand makeup starting at $1 & really nice Stilla kits for $10-$14. I got DD a Harajuku bag & a headband hair bow for $5 each. For me I got a great kit of Sephora brand makeup that includes eyeshadow, blush & lipgloss for $7. Perfect for traveling. Poke around on the website & online and you can find codes for other freebies plus they give you 3 free samples with every order. Poke around & you might find a lot to stuff stockings.

 

[PigletsPal2]

DH spends about 8 month a year (off and on) working in Washington DC and stays at a long-term hotel where he earns points. Last year he earned enough points that I was able to "buy" $600 worth of gift cards for free.

for DH: $100 Macy's gc, $50 AMC movie card
for DD#1: $100 JC Penney, $50 CVS
for DD#2: $100 Target, $50 B&N
for DGD: $50 H&M, $50 Target, $50 B&N

All this cost me 158,000 points; I already have 263,000 points banked to be spent in October. He'll earn another 200,000 for his current stay, but that doesn't end until mid-December, too late to spend for Christmas. We can also use the points for free hotel rooms (usually 25,000 points per night for an InterContinental Hotel), which we have done, and for flights, which we haven't done (yet).

All this leaves more REAL money for HIM to spend on ME! LOL!

Queen Colleen

 

[budafam]

I did all my Christmas shopping on Thursday. Finished. Bring it on!

 

[heartsy77]

I've made my list and got 1 large thing off the list: free xbox 360 w/ the purchase of dd laptop!

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

I haven't started shopping yet, but I have started planning what I am going to get. I figure this way I can start looking for the sale prices on the specific items I want to get.

I usually shop the Target Toy Clearance that is going on but found that I was buying just to buy and items weren't getting playing with as much as I would like. So this year we are going to buy less but get specific items that I know DD will love. So here is my shopping list....

DD (will be 4 at Xmas): Playmobil Dinosaur sets, Dinosaur Train train with extra cars and characters, Dinosaur Train Boris figure case, iXL games, Tag books, Cars 2 Blu-Ray/DVD combo (hoping this is out by then), Cars 2 Finn McMissile changing spy car, Playmobil Dinosaur Advent Calendar, (maybe) Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer, books.

Stocking: Small Playmobil Dinosaur sets,

DH: Keurig coffee maker, coffee cups, coffee cups stand

Everyone else.....NO IDEA!