Deb3m's Profile

We tackled this issue a couple of years ago. our children were all late teenagers or older. We all agreed no-one needed anymore 'stuff' and we were always disappointed with the traditional 'gift sets', mugs, unwanted perfumes and so on which lacked a personal touch. So we set up a challenge (i am a UK reader so i apologise to my global friends here if what i say is not clear!). the challenge was to provide two gifts for everyone, one had to be free i.e the giver could not buy anything, and one had to be less than 99 pence! everyone was very enthusiastic and took the challenge very seriously, we made our own wrapping paper (and still do) from newspapers, takeaway menus, magazines - my best friend re-used part of her paper christmas day tablecloth after the meal to wrap her presents to give to us on Boxing Day. We scoured our lofts and cupboards for 'free' things to give and local charity shops (thrift stores?) for items below 99p. a sense of humour became pervasive but it also became apparent that an incredible amount of thought had to go into it. when the exchanges of gifts came they ranged from free items such as birdfeeders made of milk cartons, matchstick models, chinese takeaway calendars, old paintings and mirrors, hand me down clothes with fond memories pinned to them, logs, melted down candles, poetry and recipes, free pens indeed any freebies that were around!. The 99p items were far more eclectic ranging from cowboy boot ornaments, to ship lights, outrageous clothing, egg cups rope (you never know when you may need some rope) - you get the idea. Everyone was very excited to see what they would get as the only limit was the imagination. it is a habit that has stuck now and even though we now have grandchildren we still do this - and save any money that we wish to spend on toys and so on for the New Year Sales. So my advice is - don't buy into that the commercialisation of christmas - make kitchen furniture toys from cardboard boxes, spend time with the kids - ( we once had a BBQ in the snow with grandchildren and they loved it), write out IOU gifts - book reading, back rubbing and so on. My inspiration for all this came from Buy Nothing Day, my motivation was committing to a frugal life and trying to create new family traditions for our blended family. we do of course buy gifts for our grandchildren for christmas as to do otherwise in our culture would be unfair but they actually like the alternatives much more!

the folkemuseum is fab. just get a day pass for transport and travel around, oslo is small but fab. To eat out go to Dovrehallen - they have a set menu and the mutton & cabbage stew is sublime!