I'll give it to someone special....

Can you believe it's just fifteen days until Christmas? I can't! It feels like time has ticked away so quickly over the last few months; wasn't it just August five minutes ago??

 I'm beginning to really get in to the Christmas spirit now, which believe me is hard to do when you're not out and about soaking up the festive atmosphere. Under more normal circumstances, I would get excited about Christmas as early as September and have my shopping finished by November. Life is a little different now, but I've finally finished my present shopping (apart from gifts for two close friends).

Would you like to see what I've been buying? If so, read on! Friends and family, look away now...

Older Sister

My older Sister is getting a big bag full of beauty products, as I wanted to give her lots of presents to open on Christmas Day. She really love berry scented toiletries, especially strawberry, so she'll be overdosing on these come Christmas! This will actually be her first full Christmas at home in over a decade, as her husband is away on a detachment for six months, so I want to make it a good one for her.

Younger Sister

For my younger Sister, I've also collected lots of beauty products together to make a beauty bag. She's got a trip to Paris planned for January, so I decided to make a Paris survival kit, featuring lots of miniature toiletries that she'll be able to take with her to use there.

I've added this Anatomicals body cleanser to her bag of goodies now, too, as the name of the product made me laugh. It smells of aloe vera and peppermint.

Best Friend

My best friend shall be receiving a box full of beauty products, chocolates, mix CDs, and a hand-written letter. I featured her gift in my Christmas Beauty Box post two weeks ago, which you can read here.

Best Friend's 3 Year Old Son

My best friend's son will be three years old on Christmas Eve, and I like to buy him presents for both birthday and Christmas. This year I've bought him a couple of Melissa and Doug wooden toys from Amazon; a set of dinosaur puzzles, and a shape sorting clock which helps kids learn shapes, colours, numbers, and time. Melissa and Doug have such an extensive range of wooden toys, and they're reasonably priced, too.

Mum

Christmas Day also happens to be my Mum's birthday, which means I have the challenge of finding gifts for both occasions at once. She isn't difficult to buy for, but it can be tricky ensuring my Dad, Sisters, and I each buy her different presents.

I decided to get her a set of The Body Shop's lovely festive cranberry bath products as the scent is delectable. I also bought a set of three Cath Kidston hand creams for her in classic floral scents. She'll be able to carry those around in her handbag.

I then found these Cath Kidston gifts, the Wild Rose shower set and bath melt bar, over on the ASOS website last weekend.

My Mum requested a cross-body bag this year, so when I saw this stunning little Liquorish bag over on ASOS this week, I knew it was the one. Problem was, when it arrived on Friday, I fell hopelessly in love with it, and had to order it in dark brown, too. I'm not sure which will be my Mum's birthday present and which mine, but I'm smitten with the oxblood variation. The bag looks and feels like leather, although it's faux, and it has beautiful paisley detail to the front. I adore the vintage appearance, and can see this being ones of those bags that's kept hold of for life. I can't believe they were on sale for just £16 down from £40!

Just look at that beautiful paisley detail!

Dad

My Dad is so difficult to buy for. He's not materialistic, and he doesn't have time for many hobbies. His birthday is also at the end of November, which makes present buying twice as hard. This year I'll be giving him a Dad's Army mug and flask. I grew up watching the show on Saturday evenings with him; he loves classic comedies. Retirement worries are the topic of conversation of late, so I bought the flask to tease him about his rationing plans. Hopefully he'll see the funny side.

Brother-in-law

Another person with a birthday in December...

He's also away on a detachment for six months, so he received these before he left last week.

For Christmas I got him a box of mint chocolates from Thorntons, and this gorgeous fairisle striped t-shirt from ASOS. I've never seen a fairisle print in these Autumnal colours before, and it will look great with his pale, freckled colouring. Thankfully he loved it!

Look at that great print!

For my brother-in-law's birthday, I gave a gift bag full of some of his favourite American sweets. Living in England, these are sweets that can only be found in specialist sweet shops, so this little goodie bag went down a treat!

Relatives

My Grandad and my Nana will be receiving a big tin or barrel of fancy Border biscuits each, which I bought in Debenhams because the flavours sounded delicious. I may supplement these with a bottle of wine, too. My Grandad's almost 94, and doesn't want to accumulate keep sakes, so I thought edible gifts were the way forward this year.

I'm giving boxes or tins of chocolates to the relatives on my Dad's side. I don't have a lot of money to spare, but I still like to give them all a little something.

And a couple that didn't quite work out...

You may remember I mentioned purchasing a pair of fairisle slippers from Accessorize for my Mum for Christmas? Well, they were delivered last week, and let's just say they weren't as great as I'd hoped. The fairisle print is absolutely lovely, there's no denying that, but the slippers are so thin and flimsy. They felt cheap, like something you would pick up in Primark for a couple of pounds. I was expecting thick, cushy, and durable, but sadly these slippers were not. The sizing was also tiny. I ordered a size eight, but they weren't quite long enough for my size six and a half feet. Needless to say I sent them back.

And, finally, this scarf-print quilted chain bag jumped out at me online as a possible present for my Mum, and although it's a lovely bag, when it arrived I wasn't so sure my Mum was going to like it, so I chose to send it back. It was a risk I didn't want to take. It's a shame, really, as this bag was quite pretty, but the Liquorish one is prettier, and I'm confident it'll be a winner!

And, there you have it, that's everything I've been buying for my loved ones. I did the bulk of it via ASOS and The Body Shop this year.

Now there's just the problem of wrapping all these presents up!

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?