I have:

to finish a waldorf doll
to make clothes and rucksack for said doll plus another doll
to knit a warm coat for said doll
to sew some “wheels” onto a felt baby in a felt carriage

some felt brooches to sew backs onto

I need to dye up some yarn for dd1’s Christmas present (she is getting craft stuff and I plan to make her some rainbow yarn)

To make some beeswax modelling clay

To make something to put in jars for presents

To make 2x crocheted cafetiere warmers

I also have 2 essays to finish, due the week after christmas

wonder how much will get done….

oh Edith sounds like you need another month before Christmas !!! I have to sort out some food for Christmas dinner, jaz wants meat balls, Bailey a roast dinner , as Oz wants crackers and cheese !!!! so some how I am going have to help them make a decision !!
presents to organise, pick up and wrap,

things I would like to do ....
make mince pies
have a Yule fire
make some decorations
get on top of washing pile
see my grandma

Erm, do you really want to know? 

Can’t work out how to do a weekly food shop for the 7 of us, plus Christmas food shop for 12,  but it has got to be done,
Still got some presents to buy
Crocheted blanket to be finished off
Sort out a faulty toilet
Finish gifts for children to give to their friends
Make up hampers for presents to our friends
Ice the cake
Make the brandy butter
Opticians appointment
Work out where in the world we can put all the cr*p we accumulate so we can accommodate an extra 5 people
If I get a spare moment I would like to make a gingerbread house with the children
Wrap presents
Post cards (please tell me I haven’t left it too late)
And then of course there is the general living, which tends to take up all my time anyway!

Feeling a tad overwhelmed?  Definitely!

But it will be worth it in the end.

Claire, last posting date is tomorrow for first class - you have missed 2nd class

Have a baby!!!

No, seriously, we have some presents to wrap for extended family and a Christmas pudding to make for the big Boxing Day gathering,  but as we are not doing Christmas ourselves, it’s fairly low key. The main thing is to get the baby out by then, as I have borrowed the most fabulously hard cushion from my MIL which is helping me enormously on sofas, and is allowing me to still use the car, but she will need it back for her mum if I haven’t given birth by Christmas!

Angie

Surprisingly (for me) not too much!

A little bit of tidying - had a major tackle of it on Friday in advance of decking the halls,
Make a victorian-style apron
Tittivate a pair of pyjamas (we have pjs hidden by the fairies on Christmas Eve)
Finish knitting a pair of slippers
Few more cards that need delivering by hand
Have a rehearsal for Christmas morning music group this evening
Some wrapping left to do

find my list that had the other things left to do on it!

Hope everyone has an enjoyable week of busyness, and I guess at least I have a couple of extra days to those who are celebrating mostly on Thursday for Yule!

Nelly x

p.s. this was the talk from church yesterday, which I think is worth sharing, hope you like it:

So, are you all ready?  Everything bought, and wrapped, and labelled?  All the food ordered and planned and prepared and soaking and whatever?  I’m going to assume not, not quite.

But here’s a hint.  It doesn’t matter.  It Doesn’t Matter.  Don’t worry about what the recipe books and housekeeping books and Nigella and Delia tell you.  You know, you all know, that it doesn’t matter.

I’m not here to say that Christmas, the Solstice, Hannukah, call it what you will, isn’t important.  It is.  And we’re coming to that later.  But all that stuff – the glitter, the bows, the proper tablecloth, the stuffing, the stockings, even the big family gathering, if that’s what you’re doing – does not matter.

When I was checking my emails the other morning, there was a link on the Yahoo site to some hints and tips on wrapping gifts.  It was headlined “biggest gift-wrapping blunders you can make”.  What??  The big blunders in my life aren’t about gift=wrapping, I’m quite sure.  The two biggies, by the way, are using too much paper and not creasing it firmly enough.  I hope you don’t care.  But if you do, there was a link on the site to an instructional DVD reduced from £15 to £10.

Because whatever all those magazines and the TV tell you, what you actually need to get through Christmas Day is hardly anything.  Really.  Certainly, there are probably things you need if you’re going to make it the day you want, but any need which is followed by the word “if” is probably not a need at all.

What you need for Christmas Day is enough food to get through the day, and some shelter.  That’s it.

Everything else is just trimming.

If you have enough food, and somewhere to live, then you are very, very lucky.  And as I think – I hope – that that goes for all of us here, then I hope we’re all very aware of how lucky and how blessed we are.

You may be irritated or concerned because you couldn’t get someone the one gift you know they particularly want, or because you’ve lost that perfect recipe from last year, or because someone who sent you a card last year hasn’t this year.  You may well be sad because you can’t spend Christmas with the people you want to, for whatever reason.  You may be feeling a little lost and lonely because your Christmas won’t be as you’d wish it to be, but you don’t feel able to tell anyone that.  You may be, frankly, dreading the day, and planning to spend it in a haze of bad TV and sherry.

But let yourself off some of the pressure.  You almost certainly already have what you need.

Next Sunday – Christmas day, the day on which Christians celebrate the birth of their saviour, and the day on which most of us, here, celebrate the birth of Jesus the prophet, is going to happen.  You can’t do anything about that.  I can tell you this with some certainty, because, being a bit of a seer myself, I’ve been spotting the signs for several weeks now.  They’re subtle, but they’re there.

The pressures are huge, and please don’t think that I’m advocating some sort of pared down, anti-consumerist Christmas here.  I’m not.  If that’s what you want – good.  I actually admire you, but as I’m someone who has five things to do each night of advent (two calendars, a candle, a row of fabric hearts and a dracaena plant full of paper stars), I’m not one to get all moralistic about that.

And yes, I absolutely mean it when I say all you need next week is enough food, but again, I have several to-do lists on the go and will get at least one tummy ache between now and then.  But I’m hoping that when I lose a list, or realise I’ve forgotten a present, or am disappointed in what someone else has got me, that I’m going to have the presence of mind to tell myself that, actually, I have everything I need.

The biggest disasters that are likely to happen are unlikely to see me without enough food or without shelter.  Anything else just isn’t a disaster.  And living in the wealthy and cosseted west, and being blessed with friends, and family, and a loving church community and the remnants of a Welfare State, even those disasters aren’t disasters in real terms.  I’m sure none of us have forgotten the tsunami of 7 years ago.  Whatever is likely to go wrong with your plans, you need to keep a sense of perspective.

Someone is always on hand round about now to tell us not to buy into the materialism of Christmas.  And of course I agree.  It’s not about the stuff.  But I think, almost more insidious than the tyranny of materialism, is the tyranny of having to having a good and loving and perfect time.

You need to let go of that expectation too.  I love Christmas, I really do – but it becomes much easier to love Christmas when what you aim for is a nice time.  Not the perfect time, not a glowing, splendid, squabble-free time, but a nice time.  A Good Enough Day.  Whether you’re spending Christmas alone, with a partner, with family, with friends, or with strangers, you need to let go of the idea that you’re going to like that person or those people any more just because it’s Christmas.

I don’t like committing lists to paper, it is my inner procrastinator, but here goes .....

Wrap all the presents under the bed
Mop kitchen floor
Clean oven
Dust shelves that haven’t been dusted for a while (half a year), oh and the top of picture frames (my mother is coming to visit!)
Sort out bag or box for charity (getting rid of the old to make room for the new)
Finish supermarket order, doing it online is the easiest way
Buy something lovely and meaningful for DH (we said no presents and yesterday I found out he has bought me 5)
Sort out guest room so it is a nice place to sleep for my mum and dad
Make mince pies (is it too late to make my own mince - does it have to brew for a while?)
Ice christmas cake
Take DD1 to opticians for new glasses
Write final batch of Christmas cards
Sort out last minute Christmas presents for the girls teachers (hoping I have got something in the cupboard)
Arrange to see friends before they go away for Christmas

Tom Lehrer – who summed most things up brilliantly – sums it up brilliantly in his Christmas Carol:  “At Christmastime, you can’t be sore, your fellow man you must adore.  There’s time to rob him all the more the other three hundred and sixty-four”.  Love your fellow man, your in-laws, your neighbours, your parents, your distant relatives, and youself, just enough at Christmas, and don’t set yourself the aim of doing better.

It’s sometimes considered bad form to illustrate things with your own story.  I don’t fully subscribe to that theory, but just in case you do, this is a story about a friend of a friend.  Just before Christmas, this friend’s mother was admitted into hospital, as an emergency.  And everything just seemed ghastly.  Neither this friend nor her brother could drive, her father was also very ill and on drugs which meant he couldn’t drive either.  There was no way Christmas that year was going to be anything other than absolutely hideous.  Complete disaster.  Life in tatters.  No presents, no food, no company, nothing.

Did I mention this friend of a friend can, on occasion, be prone to catastrophizing?

Of course, it didn’t turn out like that.  Someone – one of several people who offered – gave up huge amounts of their Christmas day to ferry this friend of a friend, and her father and brother, around, crisscrossing the city and not being able to have a glass of wine with their Christmas dinner, and doing it with such grace and generosity that it felt easy for them to accept.

Christmas dinner was in the hospital restaurant.  The presents exchanged on the day were small, and really only tokens.  The customary Christmas afternoon activity of sitting round reading Christmas presents – it’s that sort of family, the only guessing about what’s in the parcels is which book it is – was interrupted every so often by hospital staff.

But Christmas happened.  The day was survived – and more than survived:  it was enjoyed, though it was nothing that had been planned.

Enough food.  Shelter.  The rest is trimmings.

So.  We’ve covered the fact that, almost certainly, we all have everything we absolutely need for Christmas.  Whatever else we think is necessary, probably comes with the word ‘if’ after it, and probably therefore isn’t necessary.  If the people you’re spending Christmas with are going to love you less because the sprouts are overcooked or you got them the wrong mobile phone, then you may want to consider whether they’re people you want to spend much time with at all.

But having pared Christmas day down to the bare essentials we also need to be very mindful that not everyone has even that.  I’m not even talking about globally here.  Next Sunday, not twenty minutes walk from my own home, and five minutes walk from the Octagon Chapel, Norwich Open Christmas are providing at least 400 people with Christmas lunch, entertainment, warmth, company, and clothing.  Some of those people – even in Norwich, which is neither terribly big nor terribly deprived – would otherwise not have enough food for the day, and some would not have shelter.

And here’s something that really moved me about the Open Christmas:  they get more volunteers than they can use.  I think that’s fairly amazing.  I would like to think I’m someone who would give up my own small family Christmas to spend the time helping people who need Christmas much more than I do – but I know that I’m not.  I have many excuses I give myself about that.  But at least I know that’s what they are.

But what strikes me as one of the biggest acts of compassion about the organisation of the Open Christmas is that, although towards the back end of last week their website said they didn’t have room for any more volunteers, they made an exception for three groups of people:  those who were willing to offer lifts to clients, those who are qualified Social Workers and – and this is the bit which struck me – those who would otherwise be alone themselves for the day.  Enterprises like Open Christmas don’t only provide a service for those who most obviously benefit from it.

Perhaps that’s what we need to bear in mind.  Things will probably not go according to plan for any of us this week.  You won’t have the perfect Christmas.  There’s no such thing.

But my wish for all of us is that we have a nice enough week, and a nice enough Christmas.  My wish is that we all bear in mind that by this time next week the days will be longer – whether we make the ideal stuffing or not, whether our presents are wrapped in carefully creased paper, we will be beyond the darkest, if not the coldest, bit of the winter.

We all need to celebrate and mark these dark days, whatever it is we think brings the light back.

And about those wrapping paper blunders.  If you were tempted by the instructional DVD, I think the people using the services of the Open Christmas can probably think of something far better you can do with the money.

yeah, best not to get stressed by Christmas, totally agree. I love all the crafting at this time of year, and for me, the great unyielding pressure of Christmas means that I have absolutely no choice today but to sit by the fire knitting and sewing, and listening to kate rusby’s christmas carols. Seriously, having a couple of days dedicated to nothing but making things for people I love is one of my big Christmas treats. In the evenings, dp and I have been making stuff too (accompanied by wine and tv)

I dunno, I do think, for me at least, its nice to have a few special days which we gear up for. This year feels like such a sea change for us in so many ways: we don’t have any really little kids (my youngest is nearly 4), and so its totally possible to just sit and make things, with them sometimes joining in, sometimes not. Right now my 6 year old is designing some wooden animals, and my 8 year old is plotting the presents he plans to make. Christmas has changed so much too, its about seeing family, nice food, playing games together, making stuff, reading, playing music together-totally different even to last year. Life is so much easier when the kids are a little older. Most of our presents are family ones-a new game, new crafting supplies, a stack of new chapter books.

Also, we do a very pared down christmas present-wise anyway-hence the last minute crafting rush, and this allows us to give money to charity (normally one domestic, eg shelter, and one overseas, eg wateraid)

- Make the house look a bit more festive (almost wrote fertive, not going for that look at all this year ;p), we have big holly bushes in the garden of this house so might have a bash at making a wreath. Did make a nice paperchain with eldest DS yesterday, nice and quick and effective!
- Finish knitting a hat for my Dad
- Knit a tie and hat for boy’s Godfather
- Make a lemon meringue pie and some chocolate loaf cakes for the weekend, I have been very lax on the baking these last few months, feel like I need to make an effort!
- Sew felt crown for smallest son in time for Nativity service at local church, where all the children can dress up. Re-appropriating birthday crown for eldest DS, need to add some jewels to make it look more king-like What to dress them in, in leiu of dressing gowns (we only have one of them) I have no idea!
- Make playdough for eldest DS, to go with lovely tools and stamps I’ve had gifted to me by wonderful GP mama’s!
- Wrap little pile of presents sitting looking accusingly at me.

I don’t feel the pressure this year to have a perfect Christmas…so long as we have a nice time together as a family I think all will be good. Liked the piece you put in Nelly, so true!

Hope we all get done what we would like to in good time - so we get to enjoy a bit of relaxing too xxx

Wise words, Nelly! Very true. Thank you for sharing. It’s easy to get carried away by all the things we feel we should do, but in the end of the day, they’re not what it’s really about. So I’m going to try to enjoy the things I do, and not do the things I don’t enjoy, or that don’t give true enjoyment to others. It’s not about the wrapping and the presents, but about being together and enjoying each other’s company. At least for me. I’m sure my girls would love some presents as well, but when it came to it, even they would probably make the right choices. I hope!

Love, SunshineXX

I’ve only got 3 days till Yule eeek..and I’ve still to do:

More fudge
Muffins
bath salts
glass jars
finish pot holders (crochet)
Redo a mitten
roll beeswax candles (with rye plus the glass jars)
Make playdough and buy the scents I want to use.
Put together a bed for Rye - this might not happen, I’m just not finding the time.
Cookies
Popcorn garlands
decorate clay decs…
Pick up the Winter King’s gift to Rye without him seeing it.

The overnight minding has really bit into the time I planned to use to make things.
Eeek.

Mind, thinking on the bath salts, jar, and beeswax candles will be given at christmas, so I suppose I have a few days longer.

thing is tho, I’ve got a day at a friend’s house on Wed, was planning on taking the kids to a HE party tomorrow (not sure I’ll have time now), ritual wed evening and party afterwards.
Then back home to get Rye into bed and set up his gifts for Yule morning.

Eeeek.

Not a lot here, and not stressing about the things not done so far either - they either get done or they don’t. Everything for dd is is in order, just need to get the fabrics and ribbons out to wrap it all - one of my favourite parts is doing this and seeing such beautiful fabric parcels waiting to be opened. I do need to just put together the sewing box for dd which has been great fun gathering bits and pieces for - especially the fabrics from john lewis’s - got her som lovely pieces including some Cath Kidston and Amy Butlers amongst others. She is going to love her sewing box, I think I want one too!

Still to finish some knitted socks from my handspun for dh but they should get done and he’s not worried if they aren’t - maybe I will still be knitting them on Christmas Eve. Also knitting some novelty stuff of which at least one will be finished for Christmas day, no promises on the others.

Everything else is in hand, having some of dd’s friends around on Wednesday morning for some felt crafting fun and teaching a mama to knit so looking forward to that. Tomorrow will be a tidying, baking and getting felt and wool ready for Wednesday.

Just relaxing and enjoying the week x

Lots to do here, but some is general and not just because its Christmas

Bake mince pies (Christmas eve)
Bake ginger & orange cake (Christmas eve)
Bake brownies (Christmas eve)
Make chilli jelly - today
Bake Yule log
Finish Roos scarf
Finish Mums dresser embroidered bunting
Finish a special bag
Mop the darn kitchen floor
clean the oven - it stinks and sets the smoke alarm off!
Make holly table decorations
Sort Roo’s clothes that are piled up on the bed. She is in 6-9 and even some 9 - 12 month things already. We cant keep up - roll on the sales and new year nct sales!
Wrap a couple of pressies
Finish felt garland for friends hamper
Help hubby make Roo’s stocking tonight
Make hubbys stocking
Visit work tomorrow and talk redundancy or the dreaded return :(
Go to Lichfield for the day with my mum for a chilly walk around and a coffee
Visit the lady in the street who’s hubby passed away and take her a gift
Make cupcakes on xmas eve for mum to give to neighbours
Have friends around on Friday night

oh, and sleep. If I can cross that one off my list Ill be happy!

Wow, these lists are HUGE. I’d love to throw a question into the mix and please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve been intrigued since reading an article in the Mail (I know, groan; it’s my guilty pleasure) about how Christmas would look if men were in charge.

Soooo, my big question is, after reading all your lists; is it worth it?

I mean, are you feeling stressed by your lists or do you love all the prep? Do you really love all the festivities and the look on everyone’s faces as you echange gifts / eat together or are you exhausted by the thought of it and do things through duty or obligation?

Please understand I am in no way pissing on anyone’s bonfire, if you love it - stand tall and tell me, but would love to know if any of you secretly harbour resentment / stress too…

Would you wish it all away if Santa stuck a magic wand in your stocking?

<slopes off into the corner>

Im quite enjoying getting ready for Christmas, but then I have my parents and their partners and my brother here for Christmas Day so they can just take it as it comes! I dont really feel under too much pressure. I will do what I can to make it a nice day, whilsy enjoying the school holidays and having dd around, but if I dont get some things done Im sure it wont really matter My Mum is the biggest nightmare, she is already phoning to check I am doing lots of cleaning, I have a good enough table cloth and candles and that me and dd will be dressed up!!! Ha, I dont really listen and will not feel under pressure from her I think becasue my Dad and Stepmother live overseas and my brother has also been working overseas for the last few months, Christmas is always special as it is the one time of year I see everyone and that is always the main feature of the day rather than anything else. Sad that it doesnt happen any other time, but lovely that it does happen almost every Christmas

I have a mixture of homemade and bought gifts, I love making things and have also bought things made by friends, but have also bought a few things for dd and books for others. We only have a tree not other decorations so that was done last weekend. Any other decorations we feel like making, or things we collect on walks will be a bonus.

I still have to finish one knitted flannel and maybe make one more
Shop at the market tomorrow for veg, cake, pudding….Cockerel ordered at the butcher and bread/mince pies ordered from the bakery so I dont have to worry about making any, if I feel like it there is always the freezer or neighbours.
Wrap everything up and just check I havnt forgotten any gifts/bought too many
Have a bit of a tidy up and make sure I have spare bedding ready and enough plates/glasses etc.
Buy dog food, alcohol, tin foil….maybe I will make a list tonight.
Go to the theatre on Wednesday…Robin Hood at Stratford, cant wait
Maybe go to a christingle service on Christmas eve, or more likely a long dog walk and have a drink at the pub on the way home

We both have stinking colds so just going slowly and mostly enjoying the school holidays We are 10 days into the holidays so have had time to chill out properly. Although Christmas can be a busy time, I love having dd home and we spend a lot of time at home and I dont rush around too much.