Charity Shopping For Christmas Gifts? Not Just for Scrooges & Weirdos- I Promise

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Even I feel slightly dubious about the ideal of gifting something from a charity shop. It's okay spending an hour hoking through my local haunts to find myself something to wear or adorn the already strange looking home I have, but it's not my first choice for gifts to give to others.

NOW Pensions have asked bloggers to think of ways their readers could save money this Christmas, and I thought maybe a trip to your local Hospice Shop could be the answer. 
I visited my local stores in Bangor, Northern Ireland & found some lovely bits and pieces. A vintage picnic basket, a classic Paddington Bear and many new items that could be perfect for teacher gifts.

Charity Shops also stock new goods, and you would be surprised by the quality & style of the items they have in their online stores. Not just goats! The prices are very reasonable too.

This post is part of a project with pensions provider and auto-enrolment expert NOW: Pensions and Best British Bloggers, encouraging us to think of how to save money now, and for the future.

Titanic Belfast's Victorian Christmas Wonderland

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The Smyth family are now feeling super Christmassy, after our visit to www.TitanicBelfast.com this afternoon. Santa arrived with his reindeer, accompanied by the Salvation Army Band.

We feasted on candy canes.

And mingled with Victorian ladies and gents.
We then were very lucky to be some of the first families to visit Titanic Belfast's Victorian Christmas Experience, where Mister Claus has taken up residence in his Curiosity Shop from now until 23rd December. 

The adults are greeted with hot punch & mince pies, the children with cookies.

Amongst the cobbled street a Victorian lady reads The Night Before Christmas to the gathered children.

Next stop is snowflake making for the children, and Mum & Dad can relax with their hot punch.

With Santa living in the Curiosity Shop over the next few weeks, the trinkets & treasures have moved to the cobbled streets. There's time to buy some stocking fillers while you wait for your turn to visit Santa.

Then, when Santa's helper calls your child's name, you walk up the Victorian street to Scrooge, who checks to see if you are on the naughty or nice list!

Stand on the footprints outside Santa's Shop for a magical surprise.

I won't spoil your own visit to Santa by showing you the inside of his shop, but as a grown up it really is the perfect Santa experience.

The Titanic Victorian Christmas Experience is open every day from 26th Nov to 23rd Dec. It costs £15 per child which includes the visit to Santa, a photo and a gift. Adult price (13+) is £4 which includes Christmas punch and a mince pie or shortbread. 

For more details and to book, visit www.TitanicBelfast.com or call +44(0)289076 6399

Have a Free Snack Box Delivered to Your Door, love from The World of Kitsch- Graze.com

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Today the postman brought me popcorn, apple with toffee dipping sauce & two other lovely snacks in the form of my Graze.com box.

I've been a Graze.com subscriber for years now, back from the days when they used to include fresh fruit (which in the end proved tricky if your box got delayed in the post, as it wasn't fresh for too long)

The Graze Box has always been a healthy, natural alternative snack and its evolved into a something which is really my cup of tea. Literally, as one of the snacks you can receive is a lemon & poppy seed sponge with a tea bag for your afternoon break.

The Graze box system is straight forward. Pick which days you want a box delivered, choose your delivery point, work or even your office, and that's it.

If like me you love curry crackers with Indian chutney dipping sauce, but recoil in horror at the though of receiving a little pouch of chocolate raisins, that's not a problem either. When you sign up you can go through and rate the various treats, 'binning' the ones you definitely never want to receive. 

You can also rate the foods you 'love', 'like' or would wish were 'sent soon', although which four items you receive is always a little surprise (excluding the binned items, they will never send you those).

Want to try it for yourself? I have a code for you all to receive one free box, with free shipping. What have you got to lose? 

And if you like what you nibble, you can sign up to continue to receive daily, weekly, biweekly deliveries. A gift voucher for Graze could also make a novel Christmas gift for someone who is tricky to buy for. The novelty alone is great for big kids like me. Everyone likes getting post!

Graze.com code for one free box

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