Reading regularjen.com today, Jen was blogging about the problems of giving and recieving Christmas presents to and from the other side of the pond, something that Beth and myself have discovered over the past few years. I guess it’s one of the things that doesn’t really come up in those living abroad guides – but maybe it should.
Ourselves and our Canadian relations have tried various different things when it comes to Christmas and birthdays. On one occasion Beth bought presents for Canadian friends and relations over here, but then ended up spending almost as much again in postage. On another occasion a Christmas present from Canada has been three times over the Atlantic when the post office in Canada made a mistake on the parcel, and the British Post Office sent it back return-to-sender, by sea. We eventually got it just before Easter!
The method that worked best was of course the year we went to Canada for New Year, so we packed all the presents in the suitcase. However, second best is using the wonders of Internet shopping. We have accounts on a selection of big Canadian online retailers, all of whom are quite happy to take our UK credit card.
The key thing to remember though is to use the local site for the destination, so in our case amazon.ca for sending to Canadian relations.
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