I’m a mother of 12, here are my top Christmas stocking fillers for kids in Home Bargains
A SUPERMUM with 12 children has shared her best Home Bargains buys for stocking stuffers – and prices start at just 70p.
Zoe Sullivan, 46, husband Ben, 49, and their dozens of children make up one of the largest families in the country.
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The couple are parents to Elisabeth, 19, Olivia, 18, Noah, 14, Evangeline, 12, Tobias, 11, Agnes, seven, Joseph, six, Florence, two, and two twins: Charlotte and Isabelle, 16, and Leah and Erin, eight.
The bumper brood live in a six-bedroom house in Burghead, Moray, where they regularly document their hectic lives their YouTube channel.
And Zoe announced that Christmas arrived at the Sullivan household this week, with the children making festive crafts.
In an Instagram post she said: “Is it too early for Christmas? Not in this house, not anyway!!
“Today was all about Christmas crafts.
“I started my spring cleaning before Christmas and realized how dusty part of my house is. I swear I clean and the next day it’s dusty again!!!”
With 12 children, the busy mom also has to be very organized when it comes to Christmas gifts.
So the weekend called for early shopping at Home Bargains, with stocking stuffers in mind.
Zoe said: “So it’s Saturday night and what are you doing on Saturday night? You go shopping.
“I like to come to Thuiskoopjes on Saturday evenings because it is quite quiet at the moment. It will of course be much busier in the run-up to Christmas, but at the moment it is quite quiet.”
“As soon as you enter, there are lots of decorations. I immediately get into the Christmas spirit.”
The savvy mom then revealed some of her best stocking stuffer tips and purchases she swears by for her brood.
She stressed that bad fizzers are a ‘great idea’ for small gifts, with prices starting from just 59p. ‘Surprise bath bombs in the shape of dinosaur eggs also offer a fun alternative for younger children for €1.49.
Zoe was also impressed with “really, really nice” 99p hair gems for younger girls.
And no stocking filler collection would be complete without toiletry gift sets – with prices starting from £3.99.
“I always try to get a gift set for the girls and the boys. They’re just fun,” Zoë said.
For beauty-loving teens, she pointed out there are also St Moriz fake tan gift sets for £4.99.
She quickly picked up a pack of 12 hand creams for £4.99 and shared a clever hack.
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She said: “We actually have one for the younger girls [Leah, Erin and Agnes] because they use a lot of hand cream.
“But I didn’t buy three. I just bought one and split it between the three as I don’t need that many hand creams, but I thought twelve tubes of hand cream for £4.99 was quite good.”
Hand creams aren’t the only thing she distributes to children either.
She added: “Face mask kits are great for teenagers. If you have several like us, you can always split the pack and put one in each. They are not overly expensive.”
She’s also packed £2.99 Squishmallow lip balm sets for the youngest girls and a £3.99 Spiderman bath and shower set for Joseph.
The mum then stressed that old-fashioned puzzles and games, from £1.49, are “always great fun and good to throw in”.
And she revealed that kids could “have fun with that stuff for hours” as she showed how to make your own bath bomb, soap and lip balm kits.
Zoe also said she likes to make sure there’s something crafty in her brood’s stockings so they have “something to do with, rather than just play with” – with a £2.49 pencil case that you can color in, which is a perfect example.
Meanwhile, she praised a £2.99 fidget popping game she bought for the boys last year, adding: “I’ll have to go back in and buy some for the girls.”
Zoe rounded out her recommendations with the essentials: socks, gloves and hats.
“These always make good stocking stuffers,” she said.
On the way home she added: ‘I came out with a little more than I went in for, but it’s all in good fun.
“They actually have a lot of stuff.
“How long things will last, I don’t know. I’ve made the mistake before of not getting things when I’ve seen lip balms, especially for some reason, and then they’re sold out and that’s why I got some tonight grabbed things I saw.
“But it’s all reasonably priced stocking stuffers and little gifts, you don’t have to spend a fortune.
“It’s mainly some stuff for the little ones, but it’s all reasonably priced stocking fillers and little gifts for people, you don’t have to spend a fortune.”
