How do British immigrants send presents to family back in the UK and visa versa? We live in BC and the postage and packaging from BC to Uk is horrific. Can family from back home set up bank accounts here? Does anyone else have this dilemma also. Coming up to christmas, it is a very real issue. Any advice or ideas?

Yes, the best idea is not to do it.

Far too much money gets wasted on mostly-unwanted Christmas presents anyway, even without the postage. (IMHO)

My aunt came to Canada whan I was about 8, and for years sent everybody presents. Lord knows what she spent on postage, and the gifts, though well-meant, were usually clothes that never fit (cos she hadn't seen us for years) or toys that were too young/too old for us or otherwise unsuitable, or we had them already.

I'm sorry to be a bit bah-humbug on this.

We have do a bank account left open in the UK, which has a trickle of money in and out, and grandparents have the bank details if they want to give cash for the kids, or they tell us how much to spend and we go buy presents so there is something to put under the tree.

I am getting more of the idea of sending money to one of those charities at Christmas and telling my sister-in-law (who thinks we should "do" Christmas) that I have bought her a "gift goat" to Afghanistan this year!

My mum sends regular Canadian "care packs" from home.. mostly KD.. she uses Canada Post standard to send her packages and they usually arrive about a week after she sends them. As far as I know, they are the cheapest, Purolator, Fed Ex & UPS will cost more.. if its an expensive item probably best going with those guys as the insurance is better with them then Canada Post.

Thats my experience anyway

My Mum sent a care parcel in the opposite direction. It took 6 weeks to get here. Found out it probably spent several of those weeks in the local Canadian Post parcel office. I think the guy who owns the franchise around here saves them all up and delivers them on a set day - his day, his choice. Don't get me started on the crappy post service in this town. Mumble mumble

We are getting presents online from Tesco and Debenhams etc. They will wrap and deliver and you cut out the dreadful delivery times and potential breakages. Already done this for OH's sister and it worked great.

If you have an active account still in the UK then yeah, I agree thats probably the best way to go. UK shop online websites are alot more "international friendly" then Canadian websites to UK/Europe.

Oh that's actually a great idea. I didn't think of Debenhams or Tesco online. I would think that you wouldn't even need a UK account would you?..... if you pay by credit card??

I know the parents, especially mum-in-law, would appreciate a gift.

Thanks for that ..... I may even take my Scrooge cap off while I do it!

Yes, we use our UK credit card to pay. Ask Mrs Madmac for more details. Like most men, I don't do present sending well. Personally I'd send them all an e-card and be done with it.

What a great idea. The wrapping and delivery too, as I wouldn't want a gift arriving in a Tesco's carrier bag !
I do send gifts from here to the UK, and don't find postage too bad actually. You learn as you go on.
Last yr it cost me an arm and a leg, but this yr, I keep them small, lightweight and pack in Jiffy Bags and send early BY SEA, not airmail. They say, give it 4-6 weeks to get there, but mine must have caught the boat straight away as they got there in 2 weeks.

What family back in the Uk tend to do for my kids, is pay cheques into our UK account and we then buy on their behalf, wrap it for them, and my kids are non the wiser.

We keep a UK credit card running and I order from UK shops online and get stuff delivered straight to the people direct.

Amazon - to name one - will gift wrap and put a gift tag on it for you, for a charge of course!

If you want to send music or DVD's you could use CD Wow because they ship internationally, i.e. I get stuff sent here to Canada because I can't find what I want in the Canadian shops.

There are also lots and lots of gift and hamper web sites in the UK where you can tailor your gifts etc.

I anticipate much online shopping!!

We do all of our gift shopping online too, Amazon, play.com, debenhams, Thorntons, Interflora etc. Everyone gift wraps, you just lose the handwritten gift cards, they are printed stickers.

I also have a credit card on my dad's account and he has one on mine meaning for the odd item we can pay in our respective countries with the other's money. Exchange is usually okay.

We decided a long time ago not to do it anymore and we treat each other when we see eachother. Even this year with me going over for xmas, we decided that everyones pressence was present enough

But online shopping is great too and you can pay with you canadian credit card, if you still cant get credit then get a pre paid credit card.

Oh that reminds me - not only did we keep the UK credit card running so that we could buy stuff in the UK BUT it also offers the best exchange rate...... so I use it here too. Nationwide card gives you the actual rate and no charges, whereas if I use my Canadian card it give a very poor rate and they lump a charge on top of it for the currency conversion....... a real pain when you see that most of the stuff to buy online is American "$" and not Canadian "$".

(The credit card we have here, is effective a pre-paid one, i.e. we put up security and that amount is the credit limit we were given. We had to agree to lock the money with the bank for a set period in order to do that! Not great when you consider you have just given them all your cash and they want even more out of you - but that is the Canadian banking system.)

Try Marks & Spencer -they have a good online site and every order over 30 pounds has free delivery- 3 for 2 on the inexpensive little gifts right now or send their gift vouchers and they will gift wrap if you wish. Thorntons chocolates website are good for gifts too. Amazon.co.uk is also good for gifts and they will gift wrap also.
I can't believe how, since the democratic Europe seems to have expanded to include old communist countries, the posting dates for surface mail has become earlier- always used to be just after Remembrance Day for UK now it is defined as Europe and this years posting date was 28 October- not much later than posting to Australia - I have missed it so will have to order on line too.

Oh the post is poor - both sending and receiving stuff have proved to be difficult. Things I send do get there, it is just usually late and as for stuff sent here..... well two parcels posted 2 weeks apart arrived here on the same day!

Oh I do miss my own letterbox!

We chose gifts wisely to keep them small and under the punative 500g limit, and we do it well in advance.

One particular favourite is I put togeter a short DVD from our home movies for the year. Its personal, cheap, and easy to mail, and it keeps people in the UK up to date with us...and my changing accent :scared:

Really though we just live with it, its just one of the things that goes with living over here. I imagine that as the kids get older we will just end up sending money by paypal or whatever for the people "over there" to buy stuff in our name, but for the time being they still get that personal service