LOVE these stockings from So Indigo.

Really.

LOVE them.

So bright, so cheerful – and so unfussy.

Brilliant!

Available in an array of colours from the reliably-cheerful So Indigo for a toe under £21.

Gorgeous isn’t it? Nice, simple, fun yet stylish.

I love the pockets that are big enough to hold something yummy, and the fabric candy cane day marker is an added touch of fabness to aid the countdown to the Big Day…

Reduced to £21 from GLTC – there’s limited stock, so hurry!

I am partial to a really nice wooden Nativity set.

And this IS a really nice wooden nativity set.

Handmade in Indonesia from Albasia wood, it consists of a beautiful stable with opening doors, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, The Three Kings, Two Shepherds, a sheep, a donkey, and a supply of paper straw to finish the look (I’d probably steal some from next door’s rabbit and use the real thing myself)

Available from Born Gifted for a lamb’s nose less than £38.

Fab fab fab.

I want him in MY hall in December. I might even throw a bit of tinsel on his antlers.

That’s it really.

Gisela Graham’s Advent Reindeer calendar is available from Mollie & Fred for a nose under £25.

I just couldn’t resist it! Isn’t it fab?

Now, I know that Grandin Road is an American site, but they DO ship to the UK, there IS still time, and they will let you know postage costs before they send.

And really, looking at that stocking, why wouldn’t you?

Currently converts from dollars to a toe under £25.

(Massive thanks to Anne at the Beach Factory for waving these under my nose!)

How lovely?

Yes.

Quite.

These lovely stockings are handmade, and would look fabulous hung on the mantelpiece or bedpost – whilst still looking bright and fun enough for children to clap hands at when they are retrieved from the cupboard on the Night Before Christmas.

You can have them Personalised, and there’s even a pocket on the front to hold small gifts and to place your ‘letter to santa’ in.

Please note: Last order date for these Christmas delivery is 30th November.

Available from Milly & Pip’s shop on Not On The High Street for a ribbon under £34

Oh I LOVE this idea! 24 little wooden houses, each with a number on the door.

You can either keep them in the shelving they come in – or else scatter them around the house for small people to find.

Each has a lift-off roof, so you can stash the usual treat inside.

Traditional, yet quirkily different – and another one that will join the family traditions and be used year after year after year.

Available for a snowflake under £50 from The Contemporary Home.

Gorgeous, aren't they? £3.99 from Amanti

And Before Christmas Shopping too.

For the next week or so we’re talking about Pre-Christmas Christmas Shopping. You know, the stuff you need BEFORE you get on with the other stuff. Advent calendars, stockings, decorations…

You can see what we talked about last year if you visit our Pre-Christmas Christmas Shopping page – there’s stacks of lovelies in there to get your seasonal teeth into.

Once we’ve shown you some of those, then next week we’ll start on the 2011 Bestest Christmas Gift Guide. Stand by – it’s going to be a good one.

I don’t know about you, but personally I (and all my children) LOVE the fact that we have the same advent calendars which come out each year.

Sometimes in the pockets they find chocolates from the advent fairy, sometimes they find lego or playmobil. But whatever she brings them overnight, the finding and putting up of the calendars is one of our many Christmas traditions.

And of all the fillable advent calendars I’ve seen – these are my tip top favourites. I can imagine these lasting throughout your child’s advent days, and probably on to the grandchildren too.

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous – definitely a family Christmas heirloom in the making.

Available from the unfailingly brilliant Armstrong Ward for £75

Oh oh OH! I was going to add these hampers to the Gift Guide anyway – such a brilliant last minute present for that family you simply don’t know what to get.

And then – and THEN – I saw Thorntons have reduced them to HALF PRICE!

Oh yes, my fine friends, That great big enormous pile of Thorntons fine chocolates, all presented in a really very very pretty box, can be yours for a mere £17.50!

£17.50!

And with milk and white chocolate lollies in fun Santa, reindeer and snowman shapes through to the Dark Chocolate Brazils (hands off, those are MINE) this really is a hamper for the whole family.

To be honest, I’ve ordered another for myself – I’d far rather have this than the obligatory couple of tins of Quality Street when we all sit round playing PIT…

I don’t know about you, but I do always feel that a you-know-what needs to be filled up with nonsensical small things. I do HATE seeing a £50 MP3 touted as a ‘stocking filler’. Yes, it might fit in there, so technically they’re right… but, really?

So it was a joy to poddle over to Frog in the Fields always-happy site recently and see a who-o-ole gurt big long list of SMALL STUFF. Fabulous, thoughtful, good quality (on the other end of the scale I hate tat almost as much as I hate lavishness in stockings) items which will be used, crowed over, coveted, played with and actually last for a while. I have my eye on the utterly brilliant £5.50 Baking Kit, 99p Design a Butterfly kits, along with the must-have and always-popular wind up dinosaur,  jumping beans, Splat frogs and wooden cars.

Personalised Hessian Christmas Sacks from Tillie Mint

Okay, so the Pre-Christmas-Christmas shopping was supposed to be finished. But what are we supposed to do? See something and NOT tell you? No, I think not. So here’s no.12 on our pre-Christmas shopping ideas: the most bee-yoo-tiful of children’s gift sacks.

I know they’re simple, plain and rather quiet-looking.

But.

Quiet feels rather good in the bedlam that is the pre-Christmas run in, no? Quiet is calm, peaceful and rather Scandinavian in its bare-faced chic.

And can’t you just imagine them loaded up, with colourfully wrapped presents and toys spilling out of the top on Christmas morning?

Gorgeous, I just love them.

At £20 each they’re an inexpensive investment which will last for years and years. And with the stylish personalisation, there’ll be no mixing up whose is whose each year when you pull them our of the loft. *cough*

Oh I LOVE this! I know we’ve done our top ten Pre-Christmas Chrsitmas Shopping tips, but I had to slip this in!

Spin Collective do a fabulous array of wall stickers, but this one is EXACTLY what I’m looking for to fill a blank wall. At 120cm long it’s Gorgeous! And it comes in a huge choice of 20 colours, so you’re not stuck with a clashing red either.

If you prefer something a  little different, take a look at the Christmas page – I’m thinking I would LOVE the teapot chalkboard in my kitchen, and the Robot Mini Pack would be fab in a certain small boys bedroom.

Well, you’re cutting it fine, now, aren’t you?

It’s the end of November, and you’re STILL looking for something different? Tsk.

Well – never fear, help is at hand.

Probably all you need to do is take a look at this page on NotOnTheHighStreet – if you can’t find one there then I throw my hands in the air and give up. As a quick pointer, here’s our pick of our own favourite advent calendars:

*want* LOVE this. That is all.

Rusty buckets for an advent calendar. Bonkers, I know. But LOOK how brilliant they are! And so flippin easy to fill, which is ALWAYS good.

Oh! Look! not only is a pocket advent (our very favourite kind), but they come ready filled with gorgeous felt tree decorations. PLUS - the sack makes a fab stocking. Genius!

The traditional route - gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Okay, if you MUST - here's far and away the nicest chocolate one I could find. AND it's refillable - how brilliant is THAT?

There – how’s that? You asked for advent calendars  with a difference, something traditional, something contemporary – and yes, something chocolate. I believe my work here is done.

If you’re quick, you still have time. NO, not to pop out and grab a cardboard box filled with yukky cheap chocolate. Tsk.

No, to order this gorgeous Maileg pocket advent calendar from the always-lovely Armstrong Ward.

We make no bones about the fact that we love Maileg. The mice are major hits, but I’ve yet to see a Maileg product I don’t adore and *want* – and this calendar is no different. Simple, stylish, but fun enough to appeal to small excited morning people.

Your only problem is what to put in it. We’re going with the Playmobil nativity pieces, but the choices are endless.

Or maybe you should just…

Add.

The.

Chocolate.

It may be £45, but enduring and delightful as it is, this is an advent I’d be happy to see year after year after year.

Just plain beautiful, no?

Well, not plain, obviously. But beautiful, definitely.

We’re huge fans of the Love Mae wall stickers, and when the Quick Brown Fox of Dulwich showed us these, we squeaked a bit.

Sooo pretty, and endlessly versatile aorund your festive home (with not a garish shiny tinsel flutter in sight).

Best of all? On twelfth night you can simply (but a bit gently) peel them off, put them back on the sheet, and tuck them away in your Chsritmas box ready for next year.

I can see already this would become a traditional decoration to match the ‘family history through the baubles we remember’ ritual. And knowing that it will be endlessly enjoyed over the years actually makes the £45 price tag very reasonable indeed.

Peanut & Pip have done it again. Every time I visit their (just plain gorgeous) site I find a little “oooh!” Moment Of Wanting. But these stockings really are very very special. Would you just LOOK at them?

Sort of a contemporary traditional stocking, these most gorgeous of childrens stockings are handmade, sewn and beaded from layers of high quality wool felt.

The simple, but oh-so-very appealing decorations mean they’ll be much-loved, and treasured over the years – and will work for your one year old just as well as for a ten year old. Because I don’t know about you, but I just don’t want to buy new stockings. I like to use the same one each and every year, as yet one more part of our Christmas Traditions.

Each stocking measures a generous 8 inches wide by 18 inches long (from bell to big toe) leaving Father Christmas plenty of room to fill them with lots of goodies. Handmade and gorgeous, warmly endearing without any schmaltz – what more could you ask?

But not just any old Happy Families. Oh no. I simply whooped for joy when I saw that Gibsons have re-released Racey Helps oh-so-charmingly illustrated Woodland Happy Families. I just ADORE this set of cards – the illustrations step straight our of my magical childhood imaginings of real animal families (so much nicer than the uber-scary-weird-looking Jaques people variety). The game itself I’m sure everyone knows – a deceptively simply trading game, where you attempt to collect a complete ‘family’. I never fail to be surprised at how quickly young children pick up the complex logic behind the simple rules, working out that if Granny is asking for Mrs Robin, and I saw her already get Mr Robin, and I myself have Miss Robin, then she must hold Master Robin too (you have to hold one of a family to ask for others y’see).

But any game of Happy Families will give you that. This set is just that little bit more special. Having fallen in love with my Mother-in-Laws 1950′s original set which comes out every Christmas, I searched eBay a few years after my first son was born, and happily found a whole heap of the original version. I picked one up in like-new condition for a mere £3.50. But one of the boys tore the box a little, and the new puppy just last weekend nabbed one of the cards and tore poor Mr Rabbits ear. So I returned confidently to eBay… only to find them not only scarce but three times the price!

But what was this? A new, sealed one? How can that be?

And then I understood. My favourite Woodland Happy Families card game all shiny and new but with original Racey Helps illustrations beautifully intact. Like I said – “whoop, whoop!”.

At just over £5, this one isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command. Go. Purchase a pack. Shed a little magical beauty on your family games night, and enjoy the sweet silly fun of Woodland Happy Families.

This one is another family games recommendations. PIT. But… hands up, who’s heard of it? Mmm, exactly.

Twenty *cough* years ago, when I was a mere wee teen, and visiting my brand shiny new fiances house for the first Boxing Day together, the family gathered expectantly around the table after tea, and reverently placed a pack of cards on the table.

“WHAT? You’ve never played PIT? Oh, well, not to worry, we’ll soon teach you”.

The cards were OLD – my now-mother-in-law remembers playing them when she was small – and I had no idea what kind of game this would be. The table was crowded with a grandparent and two great aunts, fiances parents, himself and his brother. Almost half the room was over 70 – how much fun was I honestly about to have?

Well. The cards were dealt, the (basic, simple) rules were explained, and someone shouted “Pit’s open!”.

The NOISE!

Instantaneous shouts, hollers, shrieks and roars hit me from all sides as everyone tried to deal, swap, exchange (and, quite frankly, CHEAT) their way into a full set of their chosen cereal. It’s just a swapping game – trading cards with everyone in a desperate bid to ‘corner the market’ in your chosen cereal. Easy, simple, loud and raucously funny.

I’m happy to say that ‘Pit’ is still being made, 106 years later. It’s a mere £5.50, and if you have a few noisy guests this year, I promise you will not regret it. Age 6+ is recommended, and it’s a maximum of 8 players at one time – we rotate turns if we have more, as it’s almost as fun to watch!

Now – here’s a thing. Playmobil advent calendars. One thing is for SURE – your child will love it forever. There’s not a child of my acquaintance who doesn’t love Playmobil, it’s simply a fact. So a Playmobil Advent Calendar – what could go wrong? Well, that depends on your point of view. If you’re a child… Absolutely Not. One. Thing.

But… as a grown up, I mind a le-e-etle bit that their advent calendars aren’t more… Christmassy. I know my boy would LOVE the police one. or the Dragons Land. And if the girl came across the Unicorn in Fairy World version next Wednesday she would be most squealsome in her joy.

But… I’m not so easily pleased. I DO think the Christmas in the Forest set is charming, and I know that Pink is going to love it. Thankfully the calendars no longer take an hours construction BEFORE the 1st to make them ready – you simply need to set up the backdrop, and away you go (I can’t say the same for all the sets, but the Forest one is certainly like that).

But my nearly-8 boy is not going to adore it.. much as Playmobil is the love of his life, this set is just too young  for him. I’ll admit I was tempted to dip towards the knights, against my Christmas principles though it is.

But then.

I had a Huge and Brilliant Brain Flash.

We usually have a large wall-hanging pocket advent, which we fill with small and nice things.

What if, this year, I filled it with Playmobil bits instead?

And what if those Playmobil bits added together made their proper, real, and truly Christmassy nativity scene?

GENIUS!

So, I also have the Nativity Manger set (3996) and the Three Wise Men set (3997). Together, over the 24 days of advent, they will help my boy create a very special advent scene (to include the oh-so-brilliant Camel, I might add…). One which after Christmas we can put away and wait for next year – and which will become a much-loved Christmas tradition, I have no doubt.

Hoorah for Playmobil!

The sets are very reasonably priced – the Playmobil advent calendars are £13-£18, and the Playmobil nativity scenes are £18 for the manger scene, with the wise men an additional £7. I have linked to Amazon, as I know they are in stock and have fast delivery, but do shop around as there are possibly better prices to be found!