This year I have done a lot of my Christmas shopping online, to save money and to avoid the long queues and busy shops. These are some of the websites I have used this year and in previous years.

The Book People

I have reviewed this site previously and it's a great site for getting books cheaply. They offer a selection of books suitable for all ages at really competitive prices. They don't have a huge selection and can't rival the likes of Amazon for choice but for prices they often are much cheaper. I usually put an order in every year and this years order just arrived yesterday. I got my dad a set of 9 Alexander McCall smith books for about £10, a set of 3 Cecelia Ahern paperbacks for my husband's grandmother for only £5, a recipe book, and some books for my brother too. As I spent over £25 postage was free. You also earn book points for each book you buy which you can then save up and get a free book.

Mypix.com

For the last 2 years we have used Mypix to get photo calendars for our families. It all began when trying to think of ideas for my husband's 89 year old grandmother that I thought of a photo calendar. So we put together a photo calendar of our dog Oscar who she is very fond of. We then ended up getting a calendar for us and for our parents too. Its something that we now do every year and Oscar has kindly allowed us to feature in the calendar alongside him although he is the most photogenic it has to be said! It's a really nice gift for people, if you don't have a photogenic dog then sending grandparents a calendar of the grandchildren is also a really nice idea. They usually have some good offers coming up to Christmas where you can get 25% off or 3 for the price of 2 so I havent ordered yet but hoping they have the offer soon.

Amazon.co.uk

I love Amazon for its wide selection of books, games and DVDs at competitive prices. This Christmas I am placing an order for wii games for my sister and my husband, a book for my mother-in-law and a DS game for my sister. The price I am paying is cheaper than the high street and I don't have to stand in a queue. An extra bonus is being able to use some of the Amazon vouchers I have earned from Dooyoo. I have also sneaked a little music album in for myself as a reward for all my dooyoo reviews!

John Lewis

I love John Lewis the shop and the website. They offer a great selection of gifts and it's easy to find what you are looking for. If you don't have any idea what you want to buy you can use their gift guide and search under gifts for him, her, kids and then look for under a certain price etc. You can also compare gifts for example if you want to buy a camera it will show them side by side and you can compare the amount of pixels, the size of the camera, the weight etc. Postage is free and you can return items back to the shop if they aren't what you want. Our nearest John Lewis gets really busy at Christmas so again this is a good way to miss the queues.

Marks and Spencer

I didn't use Marks and Spencer for Christmas shopping last year but on hearing that they had a 20% off day recently thought I would take a look. Not wanting to fight against the hoards of people in the shop I decided I would look online. From not really looking for anything in particular I ended up spending quite a lot! For this I got some presents for my mum (cant say anymore as she uses this site!), a cute topiary rabbit for my aunt and uncle who are always very difficult to find a present for, a polo shirt for my dad, new bedding for my new bed, a DK guide book for London (we are going in January) and some new underwear (cant shop in marks without stocking up on some!). Not only did I get 20% off but the Christmas gift shop were offering 3 for 2 so I also saved money with that and on top of that I had a voucher for free postage. So all in all it was a pretty good Christmas shop.

Boots

Just went on this site for a quick look and discovered that in some areas they were cheaper than Amazon. So I have ordered quite a few things for my in-laws and my family as well as stocking up on some essentials for myself. I like the fact that you can earn advantage points for what you buy and then often give you bonus points if you spend a certain amount. They also have a great selection of 3 for 2 offers on a wide range of products. You can get free delivery to your house if you spend over £45 or you can arrange delivery to many stores and pick it up from there if you are going to be at work and miss the delivery.


Hawkins Bazaar

This is an amazing site full of some really fun gifts. There is actually now a store near us so sometimes I will pop into the shop rather than using the website but if you don't have a store near you the site is worth a look. There are various gifts most of which are fairly cheap and many are under £5. It is the ideal place for stocking filler gifts or for Secret Santa presents. I have found a great secret Santa present for a dog lover, it's an IQ test for your dog and includes a book and stopwatch to time your dog doing various tests. There are also lots of retro gifts to remind people of their childhood and it's also a great place for jokes and tricks too.

I want one of those

I haven't used this site this year but have done in previous years. It is a website full of things you don't really need but really want! Some of the things are very silly and others are actually quite handy. There is such a wide range of things and prices from 99p up to things that are several thousand pounds. One year I got some very funny racing grannies with their zimmers for two of my friends, they were very appropriate as we all work as physiotherapists. I also got my brother a talking Yoda, not very useful but quite fun to play with!

Gamestation

I used this site for the first time this year and it was in fact to buy my own Christmas present. I decided that this Christmas I really wanted the DS game "Professor Layton and the curious village" I had seen it on an advert and thought it looked good so asked my husband for it for Christmas. We were in town shopping and thought we would go and buy it, we visited Game, Gamestation, HMV but none of them had it in stock. So we went online and neither Amazon or Game had it but Gamestation did so I acted quickly and bought it. The website was easy to use and it was simple to find the game I was looking for. Postage was free and the game arrived really quickly only problem now is I can't wait till Christmas to start playing it!

Tesco

If there is one thing I hate at Christmas it is doing the Christmas food shop in the supermarkets. It is always so busy and people have trolleys piled up with food so it takes forever to get through the checkouts. I try to solve this problem by doing the Christmas shop online. Now although this is quick and easy and you can do it from the comfort and warmth of your own home you do run the risk that they are more likely to run out of things at this time of the year so there might be a few more substitutions than normal. However as I don't cook the Christmas dinner but go to my parents on Christmas day and the in-laws on boxing day it's a risk I am willing to take, anything to beat the Christmas queues. I love getting the Christmas order as I usually put in lots of treats like nice big bags of crisps and some cakes and nice drinks too. Yum Yum.

I seem to have done most of my shopping online this year and it's been relatively hassle free and I have saved lots of money which means I can buy more gifts for people.