The best of......

Whispered

When stocking up your Christmas supplies, Sometimes we can buy things with the best of intentions, but they come up lacking something, a bit of a disappointment. So What items and brands would you happily recommend?

I'd like recommendations for the following:

Tasty mince pies, nothing gourmet required, available in boxes but better than the generic ones I bought last year.

Sweets and biscuits, every year I'm disappointed by the boxes of quality street and roses. It doesn't have to be a big box, but something you'd happily serve guests.

Wrapping paper and ribbons. It's so cheap these days, what is the best brand easily available?

Finally a movie streaming service. We don't have a TV in the house and watch everything online. For the month of December is like to buy a subscription to the best movie service online. Any recommendations?

And also tell me what one single item you couldn't do without at Christmas.

baby and crumble

Whispered wrote: »

Tasty mince pies, nothing gourmet required, available in boxes but better than the generic ones I bought last year.

Either M&S or Tesco Finest range. Really nice. I'm also a fan of Mr. Kipling in general.

Whispered wrote: »

Sweets and biscuits, every year I'm disappointed by the boxes of quality street and roses. It doesn't have to be a big box, but something you'd happily serve guests.

Sweets: those chocolate seashells you can get for like, €3 in Lidl. SO. GOOD. I also like Celebrations. They feel festive, even the name!!!!

Whispered wrote: »

Wrapping paper and ribbons. It's so cheap these days, what is the best brand easily available?

I always buy my paper in IKEA now. It's very good value, and they have lovely themes every year. They do a great line in stickers that I use to label my homemade jams that I give as presents too. I actually bought 3 rolls of paper there for Christmas the other day, they aren't strictly Christmas paper but they're white and silver dots and stripes and I'm going to accessorise with red ribbon I'll buy in one of the haberdashery places around the time. I hate the plasticy "ribbon" you get as part of those wrapping sets. You can't tie a decent bow with them at all at all!!!

Whispered wrote: »

Finally a movie streaming service. We don't have a TV in the house and watch everything online. For the month of December is like to buy a subscription to the best movie service online. Any recommendations?

Netflix is usually great- it's the only streaming service I use. You can get a free one month trial wh oh might suit you perfect. They usually start adding extra holiday stuff just after Thanksgiving in the states.

Whispered wrote: »

And also tell me what one single item you couldn't do without at Christmas.

Well I don't know if my family counts as an item but them! But actual items would probably be the decorations and tree I've built up over the last few years with my GF. We have some gorgeous stuff we've found, and she's gotten on board with my Mums old tradition of buying one new fancy bauble every year. So that's been fun.

Toto Wolfcastle

I bought the Ikea wrapping paper a few years ago but it was so thin. A couple of the gifts ripped open a bit before I had a chance to give them to people. I buy M&S paper now. The quality is excellent and they do 3 for 2.

For biscuits, the M&S Belgian Chocolate Biscuit Tin is lovely.

Glitzgirl

Hmm for biscuits and sweets because I have been unhappy with the tins of roses and quality street over the last few years I have to say I do stock up on tins of celebrations and hero's (bar the odd tin of roses for visitors ).

Only tried the wrapping paper from ikea once found it ripped quiet easily. M&S wrapping paper I do use quiet a lot.

Aside from my family I Absaloutely couldn't live without my decorations. They are all themed and colour coded per room and so elegant looking. My MIL puts up no decorations bar a 3 ft tree and it makes me want to cry when I see it. Just so sad looking all by itself !

Cherrycola

We have an android media box, droidbox I think it's called, but we use the app Showbox to watch movies and TV shows. It goes on the blink every now and then though but overall it's good. As long as you have a good internet speed you are sorted. I think there is a pc download for it too.

Wanderer78

Cherrycola wrote: »

We have an android media box, droidbox I think it's called, but we use the app Showbox to watch movies and TV shows. It goes on the blink every now and then though but overall it's good. As long as you have a good internet speed you are sorted. I think there is a pc download for it too.

grey area. be careful chatting about this on an open forum!

Cherrycola

Wanderer78 wrote: »

grey area. be careful chatting about this on an open forum!

Why?! It's an app that's freely available in the Google Playstore, nothing jail broken about it at all, provides a streaming service which the OP asked about.
But hey, feel free to delete Mods if it's not allowed.

TrafficBug

you need a box of TAYTO