Most Children will be so excited about Christmas, so the festive lights, decorations, Christmas carols, the hoards of frantic last minute Christmas shoppers and crowded shops can be a recipe for disaster!  If you really can’t find what you want online or have left it too late for delivery, then you need to have a plan of attack before you head out of your front door. 

1. Good idea to get organised the night before, have your list ready!

2. Try to get to the shops ready for opening time and before the crowds descend. Not easy with a baby or toddler but worth the extra effort.

3. Give your toddler or small child snacks in their buggy if you didn’t have time for breakfast. Who cares if they end up wearing most of it or feeding it to the birds or the floor.

4. Be clear on whom you are buying for, which shops you need to look in and DON’T get distracted by bargains or pretty displays.

5. If you get stuck at the pay point behind somebody paying in gift vouchers and pennies, try to keep calm. Take the time to point out the lights to your little ones or distract them by looking for how many Santa decorations they can see. They will be as fed-up and bored as you are, at having to wait in the queue.

6. Try and have a break, stop for lunch, let them get out of their buggy and have a run around, even if it is just for half an hour. It will do you all good, even if it means sitting on a bench outside in the cold!

Try not to get too stressed, it’s not easy shopping with children and most people will understand and just remember if it all gets too much there’s always a 24 hour garage where you could be creative. Get everyone a gift bag, fill it with headache tablets, cold and flu remedies and tissues ….they’ll thank you in the New Year when they are nursing a hangover or cold!