What the Debenhams Secret Santa brought me for Christmas

When I was asked if I wanted to take part in a Christmas Secret Santa with a group of other bloggers for Debenhams I jumped at the idea. Firstly the idea of being able to buy something for one of my blogging friends was lovely – these were a group of women that I chat to daily on twitter and Facebook. We share all life’s up and downs and see crazy numbers of photos of each others lives every week. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of them in person and without exception they’re all as lovely in person as they are online. And secondly – I was being given money to buy someone a Christmas gift. How can you not like that idea?!?

So, off I went to the Debenhams website with a budget of £80 and instructions to buy my Santee (the “official” name for the person you are Secret Santa for) something from their gifts section. It sounded so easy, so one evening I poured myself a glass of wine and sat down on the sofa with my laptop and the “about me” page of my Santee’s blog open and started shopping. An hour later and I had nearly three hundred pounds worth of gifts in an online shopping basket and I realised that I still had a fair chunk of their site still to go through!

The range of gifts was amazing and I kept finding plenty of things that I liked the look of for me too. It was easy to navigate through and there was huge amounts of choice for my Santee and all the members of her family. Finally my choices were made and then there was the excitement of waiting for the gifts to arrive with my Santee and also for my gifts to arrive.

A couple of days later and I was delighted to have seen my Santee’s reaction to what I had bought (phew!), but also equally excited to have received a couple of parcels of my own. There’s something extra special about opening something when you’ve no idea who sent it. 

So, two parcels led to three gifts – all of them delightful.

First up was a lovely new purse with an owl on the front and a sweet scalloped edge. What amazed me about this is that just the day before my own purse has started to come to pieces and I’d found myself thinking that I’d need to buy a new one. To have known this Santa must have noticed before it even happened. Now that takes skill!

The second package I opened intrigued me somewhat as it was rather large and came inside a fabric Designers at Debenhams fabric bag. I pulled out this most amazing bright red Jasper Conran handbag. Now this is the sort of handbag that I’ve always wanted to buy for myself, but somehow haven’t had the guts to do so. Silly that may seem, but I’ve just never really mastered fashion and always worried about what really looks good and doesn’t. It’s something I need more confidence in for the new year I think. I’m keeping this as my “grown up” handbag. One that doesn’t get filled with nappy changing paraphernalia or open packets of rice cakes – although I should add that it has plenty of room should you want to put that kind of thing in there!

And finally there was this beauty in there – an incredibly soft, fleecy Betty Jackson scarf. As soon as I unwrapped this it went around my neck and it’s spent rather a lot of time there since. It’s one of the softest, warmest scaves I own – and that’s coming from a knitter! 

So, it leads to the question of who was my secret Santa? I’ve been baffled by this one for a while and madly looking at other blogs for clues. I’m guessing it’s someone with a bit of a fashion focus and came down to a shortlist of two possible people. I may of course be totally wrong, but I think my secret Santa may have been Alison from Not Another Mummy Blog. Whoever it was though – thank you ever so much! You’ve made this particular Mummy feel loved and a bit more glamorous this Christmas.]

Of all the blogging work that I’ve ever done with companies I have to say that this has been the most fun. The excitement of seeing everyone receive their gifts and all the wondering about who sent what has been great. So, huge thanks also to Debenhams and Kelly from iCrossing for choosing me to be involved with this.

Disclaimer: I was given a budget of £80 to choose things from Debenhams website for my Santee. I also in turn received gifts from my Secret Santa. All views and opinions are my own.