Tag: Christmas preparation

It's Never Too Early To Start Planning For Christmas

It’s Never Too Early To Start Planning For Christmas

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

It’s getting on the the end of October but some people think it’s still too early to talk about Christmas. When you have your child’s birthday only 7 days after Christmas Day, it really is never too early to start planning. If I left everything until November or December I would end up in a mass state of panic and there’s no way I’d be able to afford everything. I know I might seem a bit crazy but I actually start Christmas and birthday shopping even before Christmas Day has come around. You see, I

The Pre-Christmas Declutter

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

We’re now at the end of November and I don’t really know where the month has gone if I’m honest. It seems like Halloween was only a few days ago and now I need to be thinking towards getting the Christmas tree out of the loft ready to put up and to decorate the house on the first weekend in December. I think writing that has only just made me realise that it’s actually next weekend and I’m in a bit of a panic about it now. Every year before Christmas I like to have

The Christmas Organisation Fail

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

Usually by this time of the year I feel pretty smug. This year I feel whatever the opposite of smug is. You see, for as long as I can remember I have been the most organised person when it comes to Christmas. With the exception of 1 year where I thought I would try doing all of my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve (I don’t know what I was thinking), I have always been done before December. My shopping is usually done, all of my wrapping is done and usually all of my Christmas cards

5 Ways To Save Money When Buying Presents

5 Ways To Save Money When Buying Presents

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

Speaking from personal experience, it is really easy to over spend or go over the top when it comes to buying presents for others. If you’re anything like me, and pick things up all through the year when I see them, the loft becomes a great hiding place but it always means I tend to forget what I’ve already bought. This means I end up with more presents than I need and spending more money than I should have. With Christmas in less than 100 days it’s really time to start thinking about ways to

The Post Christmas Toy Cull

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

In any normal family with children you know that you’re going to end up with way more toys than you have room for. We’re lucky to have a fairly nice sized house, not massive by any means but probably bigger than we really need. However, when your child’s birthday is on New Year’s Day, you end up with a crazy amount of toys in a very short space of time. Although I cleared out some before we still needed a post Christmas toy cull! Erin received some wonderful toys as presents this year for both

The Post Christmas Clean

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

This Christmas just gone was fantastic and for me, it was one of the best I have had in years. Well, best is probably not the right word because this last Christmas has been very different from the others we have had recently. Instead of it being just me, John and Erin we had my mum, sister and her fiance to stay for about a week. This meant having 5 adults and 1 toddler in the house with a lot of excitement going on. After it was all over, I was really looking forward to

Decorating The Christmas Tree

Decorating The Christmas Tree

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

With Erin now being nearly 2 this is the first year that she has really gotten into the idea of Christmas. She started getting excited about seeing the lights and the decorations in the shops as soon as they were put out even if she didn’t know what they were for. So, this year I decided that although I would put up all of the house decorations I would let Erin help us decorate the Christmas tree. I had already put the tree up the night before as I knew that this was something Erin

Christmas Day Breakfast Ideas

Christmas Day Breakfast Ideas

By : Lyndsey OHalloran

This Christmas Erin will be nearly 2 and I know that as soon as she wakes up and comes downstairs she’s going to be majorly excited. I know how tempting it will be to forget about breakfast but Erin, as well as me, John and the rest of my family have a very long day ahead of us. Last Christmas Erin took a couple of days to open her presents, which then merged into her birthday on New Year’s Day and it was never ending. Christmas Day was so exhausting that I think Erin had