Where would you buy your Christmas gear?

So now that this year's Christmas is over, I'm already planning next year's! :lol:

It will be the first time we're hosting it at our place, and I want it to be great. But, seeing as we've never had it here before, we don't have much stuff. So now that stores are usually trying to get rid of their Christmas stock and selling it off cheap, I'm gonna make the most of it! I want a new big tree, lights, decorations etc. I just don't know which store would be best!

Near-ish to us is Target, Big W, K-Mart & Spotlight. Which is likely to have the best stuff? K-Mart & Spotlight are close together so I'm thinking of maybe going to those two. I can always 'top-up' with anything else later next year.

My tree is from Target and decorations are a mixture of target, kmart, myers and reject shop!

Lights are target, lots or ornaments from a number of places and lots of gifts so best to just check out sales in gift shops as well.

Got my tree one year from Target for 50% off. It's a great tree, looks real enough to be able to replace the real thing.
I scour boutique chrissy decoration places, as they usually have all their stuff half price at least.
I got to a shop that sells gorgeous Polish decorations..perhaps you could even get these sorts online.

There is also an online shop called ChristmasWarehouse that you could look up they trade all year round.

There is even a Christmas shop somewhere in Adelaide :) I can't remember exactly where :doh: but I know I've driven past it relatively recently (ie in past 3 mths) - I think it's western suburbs :think:

Ooh thanks for that site Nae! I signed up immediately lol :) I haven't actually been in to Adelaide in ages, next time I'm there I'll look up the Christmas shop and see if I can find it - I'll drag my brother along lol.

Feeb & Heather, my parents got their tree from Target, it's fantastic! They got it on special and it's huge and looks fantastic. I think I might check out what they have for trees, then head on to K-Mart & Spotlight. Anything else I can't find I'll check out online. Can't believe Im so excited for next year already!

Check out Bunnings and Mitre 10. My Dad & his wife got this awesome outdoor Reindeer light set for $30 last year

I was at Ikea today, and they had Christmas trees from about $5!!! and decorations etc too, of course :)

They also had stuff at Sam's warehouse very cheap.

Tree - Big W. 225cm one or something
Tree Decorations - Big W glass baubles and Woolworths plastic ones as "fillers" between the spesh ones, which are primarily from Bradford Exchange/Franklin Mint - some bought direct, but a lot via ebay US early in the year (they are significantly cheaper going the US option)
Lights - Kmart primarily. Checked Big W and Target and was really underwhelmed by their collections. For the tree (in particular) i wanted green wire so it wasn't obvious reasons, and i was happy with the quality of those lights and keep going back. i have checked ebay, and i think you have to know your prices vs size of item vs postage amounts to really get a bargain. rope lights (for instance) really weren't that cheap. Dealsdirect website does have some cheap bargains through the year if you subscribe to their website

plates etc we tend to use our normal every day stuff - and just grab red and green serviettes (or gold and silver depending on the color theme that year). you can pick up table setting pieces lots of places - or you can make them yourself (check out scrapbooking pages for ideas on handmade serviette rings/place card holders etc)

other decorations - bradford exchange, partylite, ebay ebay EBAY! you can buy some awesome things on ebay all year round, but there are some bargains to be had if you look around all the time.

i'd suggest having an idea in mind as to what you want to do decoration wise. it's awesome to shop, but always better to have an idea in mind so you don't get 30 things from 10 places and then wonder how you'll get them to work together. we tend to pick a color theme now for next christmas for wrapping paper if we can, and pick up paper that works with that at the sales. in the past it's been silver and white or red and gold. the decisions mostly comes about when we hit the first shop with decent sales and see what they have lol

Thanks for the tips everyone :)

Peanutter, I wish I lived closer to IKEA!! I bet they'd have loads of great stuff. Next time I'm nearby I might pick up stuff for table settings, that doesn't have to be strictly Christmas.

Thanks for the hints BG. We already decided on a red & gold theme, as it matches our house and it seems pretty easy to get stuff in those colours. I have a good idea of how I want things to be - we'll have two tables outside and I've got in my mind how they'll look, and how the room with the tree will be. I can't wait!

I remembered this morning that I have a $30 voucher for Target from Nana from this Christmas, so went there first. So disappointing! They were packing away all their Christmas gear, and the stuff they had out wasn't very discounted. Still managed to spend my $30 though :lol: So then I took off to where the Kmart is, and popped into the Go Lo & Cheap As Chips that are there. I wound up with a huge pile of stuff that all goes together, and will look great when I can set it all up next year!

I'm going to start decorating as soon as my birthday's over (26/11) so if there's anything I think is missing I have plenty of time to go get it :) Can't wait for next year already!

nice work!!

:dance: :clap:

wow, Kaytee, you are so organised, good on you. Esp with your birthday so close to Xmas, i get that, as my DD's birthday is mid Nov, and two events like that, within a month, was "big" for me. (and i didn't even host a xmas day).

Lol Gigi, our November has: 16th - DH's b'day, 19th - dog's b'day (we kinda celebrate with him lol), 26th - my b'day, 28th - wedding anniversary. We just lump it all together! It's usually not so bad, I don't even start to consider Christmas til mid-December. But if we host next year I figured our house better look the part! We've never hosted before so have almost zero decorations and just a tiny tree (til today, the new one is 7.5ft hehehe :D).

sounds like our tree! we used to put it in the lounge room that we use all the time, but now last year realised DD was very mobile, and moved it into our rumpus/bar room with gates to keep her out! that's a whole lotta tree if she dragged it down on herself!! i'd suggest (if you can) to get out the base of the tree and let it fall open so you can see how much room it takes up so that you can make sure you reorganise things enough to fit it in. if your tree is that tall, it's likely to have a fairly big base to it and you want to make sure you can put it somewhere safe and still have the house functional! mum's tree is similar size to ours, and she has to move furniture out of her lounge room to fit it in. thankfully it's just her and dad at home, so she can do that, but once everyone is in the house, it's really not functional for a tree that size! if you've got an idea of size, you can plan ahead as to what may need to be changed around to fit it in. having had an 18/19 month old last year for Christmas, i'd suggest making sure that your tree is somewhere that bub can visit, but doesn't have everyday access to (if possible) - they are AMAZINGLY quick at getting into things at that age!

i think i have you on FB for GOT stuff - if i do but you don't have access to photos, let me know and i'll change the settings so you can see our Christmas stuff

Yeah, you're on my fb for games :) That'd be great to see how you've done your tree if it's similar to ours!

We've got a room at the front of the house set up for a formal lounge/home theatre type thing, and we don't spend much time in there so that's where the tree will go. If it's too huge the only thing it will be in the way of is the TV lol. I figured we'd put it there because DD is mobile enough just with rolling, I can't imagine next year at 18 months how she'll go around all that stuff when she's walking/running! Going to be very exciting :)

It does say on the box that the base has a 119cm girth - is that around or across? I dunno. There was one set up in the store and it's pretty big! I might get it out when DH gets home for a look, any excuse hey? :lol:

yeah any excuse is a good excuse. be prepared for a biiiiiiiiiiiiig day when you set it up too. you have to "foof" (as mum puts it) all the tips to fill in the gaps and things. very exhausting job! and decorate the top/put the star on before it goes on the tree if you can - unless your DH is like mine and tall enough to reach (it's not just the height - it's the height plus the lean over the base of the tree to decorate). biiiiiiiiig job but awesome fun once it gets going. can't wait for DD to be a little more aware next year to help us decorate. she kinda got it this year but kept taking things off the tree and rearranging them and losing the hooks!

Haha my Mum calls it 'foofing' too. They have a huge tree so she gets it out for a 'foof' while he's still at work, then he can help her put it together and decorate when he gets home. I'll check it out tonight, but hopefully DH will be able to reach easily enough.

Thanks for the access to the Christmas album - you have beautiful decorations, your place looked great! Wasn't til I saw a pic of your DD standing by the tree that I thought "Hmmm, that is quite big!" lol. Sounds like your next Christmas will be wonderful, I can only imagine how it'll be with a littley that really 'gets' it :D

the decorations were our presents to each other before DD came along. we had only my brothers kids to buy for, and going through IVF and stuff, we wanted to still make is special for us while we waited for a special bub to join us - so we went for a very grown up set of decorations - thankfully DD loves them so it doesn't feel like we've gone TOO grown up with all the hand painted stuff!