Christmas Misery!

mandi

Hya Rach ,

I apologise but only read your post , and the title of your thread " christmas misery "..

In my opinion, christmas is an excuse for the retailers, to make you feel " guilty" for not spending loads of money ... When in fact its supposed to be, a celebration of the birth of Jesus........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas....

Some how along the way , weve been put on a " guilt trip " if we dont give often usless gifts to those , who already know we love them

If you cant afford it, than you cant ,, so why worry .. Just tell every one that your staying at home with your family , and dont stress .

Its really not worth the worry ,and I bet all your Nieces, and nephews get so many presents, they wont even notice (trust me )

moo2moo

Its really not the end of the world. Invite the rellies to stay with you or see if you can get an advance deal on a train ticket or coach. You might find that works out cheaper than petrol.

Try The Book People for pressies for nieces and nephews and go through Quidco for cash back. At the mo. they have 20 big Usbourne Farmyard sticker stories books (age 3-6) for £9.99 they're usually £4 each, split them between a few children. They'll be over the moon. Horrid Henry books (age 6-9) are £12.99 for 15 books and all kids (me included) think they're fab. Postage is free over £25 and they usually throw in a few freebies over X-mas too.

moo2moo

Tis the season of school fairs. They usually have tons and tons of new unwanted stuff donated which is sold on for peanuts. Last year I picked up a Champneys gift set with a £20 price ticket on it for 50p. Might be worth a try for a few gifts. The toy stalls are also fabulous. You might find something for your son there, a lot of it tends to be new or barely used, especially if you have an affluent school nearby. Most of them advertise dates in the local paper.

milliemonster

Hi Rach, I hope you are feeling more positive after some of the excellent ideas on here, I have a similar problem in that we tend to spend £15 - £20 on our nieces and nephews each year but I have decided this year that ,my own kids are coming first, and I'm cutting it down a bit, I am not buying for my oh's family anymore as we never see them at all during the year anyway so it seems a bit of a waste of time!, also, my brothers kids (who are now in their late teens and early twenties) never speak to us or say thanks for any presents we give them so I am cuttting down significantly what I spend on them.

If your nieces and nephews are 6months - 4yrs, to be honest you can get away with small presents for them as they really won't care anyway, if their parents have a problem with that then, that's their problem and not yours.

It really brought it home to me yesterday, I was in BHS picking up a xmas present for my daughter and the queues were unbelieveable! and it's not even near xmas yet!

Regarding the driving up to oh's parents, can't they come to you this year? or just spend the time at home this year with your little one

mummytofour

I try really really hard not to stress about xmas. This yr will be a very lean one but not because of our lack of money ( altho a factor). I decided last yr after most of the kids present were lost or broken within a week that, was enough.
The out laws and my folks have given me £300 for the kids presents ( we have 5 kidst) so with that we have brought a wii for them to share. Each child will get a max of £20 for a gift and a stocking. We have never spent much more than this but the last 2 yrs we have combined all the kids money together and got a family present something that normally we could not afford. Last yr it was a PC. The differanc ethis year is I will not be doing a pile of shopping and wrapping over 100 gifts! One gift each, something special for them and the wii plus their stockings and IMHO they are still very very lucky! Nobody else buys for the children just us.

Xmas food this yr will really be trimmed down, a roast dinner and a few bottles of wine for us. We used to entertain and would spend 200-300 on food and drink, no more is that happening. I dont want to spend our money like that anymore!

We dont buy for anybody but our kids and 6 other family members who will get something small, £5 maybe? You can have a good time on a lot less money, its state of mind not amount spent. I know we will still be spending but we used to spend out of our own pockets about £700 on everything even tho our children only got £40 each the rest was food and presents for others.

Triggles

Rach - boy can we relate! We're not on a DMP, but money is soooo tight for us! We have family in the states, and I had to bite the bullet and simply tell them that this year it's just Christmas cards, as we simply cannot afford sending gifts (buying a gift and then adding postage to it is sooo expensive!!). We have two grandchildren, plus two adult children and our own toddler, plus ourselves, and one grandchild's birthday to buy for, not to mention parents, adult siblings, adult nieces and nephews and their partners and children. It just gets crazy!

First and foremost - if someone in my family came to me and said "look money is tight this year, we're just going to stick with Christmas cards this year" I'd be the first to say "great idea!" I would hate the idea that someone is shorting themselves or their kids for Christmas to buy us something.

Secondly, if you absolutely feel you must buy the little nieces and nephews a gift, consider checking Poundland or other discount shops. So many of them have lovely board books and such for very very inexpensive prices - that's perfectly fine for a gift!

I personally would have no qualms at all about staying home and having a family Christmas at home. I agree with the previous poster that if you don't want to mention the petrol money, just say "look we're getting over colds and don't want to spread our germs" or tell them you're a bit under the weather and are concerned you "might" be coming down with something so are staying close to home. Me, I'd just say "Sorry, but we don't have the extra money to come up, but we'll try to come up another time instead in a few months when money is not quite so tight." Family should understand these things.

Hope everything goes well for you. Please take the time to visit the special occasions part of the forum - all sorts of good ideas for inexpensive gifts!