Is Anyone Else Going to have a No Presents Christmas?

Penny2myName

JES_F1 wrote: »

Even before I had my lightbulb moment and discovered the wonders of MSE, adverts for CDs, DVDs, and books as stocking fillers made me mad! I've always been delighted with any of these as a *main* present!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas meal with your family and can enjoy the day.

Have to agree with you here. I am a real book worm, and one year EVERYONE got a book from me for Xmas. To help my mum, I searched for a particuler CD for my son, at cheapest price possible, found it for £4.99 plus free postage instead of the £11.99 that its advertised at in local shops. That is his only gift from my mum, which is how it should be.
Also to me 'stocking' fillers are for children not adults. An old sock filled with fruits, nuts, coloured pencils, bubbles, and small colouring books and a hand full of sweets. (Old fashioned but more traditional) AND I LOVED MY STOCKING AS A KID.

nmm

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

I never have decorations, and I don't give or receive presents. I don't send cards, nor do I do a mad dash to see relatives that couldn't give a stuff at any other time of year. What a waste of time, stress and money!

I'm not religious, I don't believe in the religious festival, and I have no need for the tat that people buy you just because it's xmas.

So I'm with you all the way! And I promise you'll enjoy it just as much this way

Totally agree, christmas day is the same as any other day in this house. I don't understand how people can spend a fortune on christmas, i bet lots are still paying for last christmas :rolleyes: Well done for choosing not to get into more debt for one silly day. Thankfully i don't own a TV so i don't have to watch the endless "buy this, that and the other for christmas" adverts.

Dizzeepixie

meerkat2007 wrote: »

The decorations are ones we've had for years - we have a matching pair of "candles" made from tinsel-like material that were the pride and joy of my maternal grandmother, and she passed away over 26 years ago, but these decorations are still like new. There are others that aren't quite as old, but are getting there - again, they are in excellent condition, so why buy more?

I use decorations from years ago - they all have nice memories for the children as they chose one new one each every year when they were little. I also use the little paper decorations they made in Nursery and Reception - the children are 15 & 16 years old now!!! :rotfl:We pack them carefully away each year and out they come the following year....and cost nothing!

Hang all your xmas cards over picures around the room or from a string across the room and the room looks really festive.

Keep any Xmas cards from this year (somewhere where you won't forget them!!) and cut them up & reuse them for label tags next year.

Also - look in the library for books on wrapping pressies and making cards - I've seen newspaper used as wrapping paper with a fancy homemade label and a bit of ribbon & it looks really effective and a bit different!!!:o

jacklink

we have no money this Christmas and funnily enough i feel some what relieved, the kids (older now but still live at home) understand we cant afford anything this year. as for presents for others hubby has just learnt to bake biscuits, so i will be finding 2 nice cardboard boxes to buy (which wont cost much) and hubby is going to bake biscuits, one box for his parents and one for mine . and that is all we will be doing.

yes the tree along with the decorations will be going up, we make sure we have a nice dinner and do you know what, i really do feel ok about it, stress free Christmas and im looking forward to it .

cw18

We haven't had decorations up for years -- the kids weren't bothered about them, and it was me had to get them down from the loft, sort them, put them up, take them down, pack them away and put them back in the loft every year. And this on top of the present shopping, wrapping and delivery, and the food shopping, preparation and cooking. About the only thing I didn't do was wash up the plates and cutlery from Christmas dinner -- but I always got left the pans and everything else :eek:

I've had a couple of comments about the lack of decorations -- but nothing extreme, so I plan to keep it the same this year.

Money is tight this year, but last year was tougher as I'd dropped from full pay plus out of hours payments, to basic full pay only, to half pay, and then to IB only from the October. We had sausage meat and chips on Christmas Day (cheap, q&e to cook, and everyone likes it), and my younger son (then 16+) said it was the best Christmas Dinner he'd ever had

Presents are still very restricted this year, and I'm already looking for things I can make for next year :eek: But I think we may revert back to a 'more traditional' meal, albeit a large chicken instead of a whopping huge turkey that used to feed 5 of us for a week (and then some :rotfl:)

115K

Sorry to all that have lost their jobs.

I think there are some very good MSE ideas for a present free Christmas on this thread, great stuff. I used to love making decorative paper chains when I was a child.

We didn't have much money last X-mas because of our debts but things are a bit better this year but I'm not going to go crazy spending lots of money just for one day. I think some people go over the top and end up being in debt in January.

halight

Hi all,

We like most people will be spending a lot less this year.
The twins are 5 months old now so my wife has not worked in 5 months. so we have a lot less money coming in.
We have talked about it and all we are going to buy each other is a book each (we both like reading) We also are not going to buy the twin anything as only being 5 months old thay wont notice!!!! Plus the Granparnts seem to be buying them stuff on a weekley bacies at the moment and our thinking is that thay are going to be given that many prents by everyone else that we wont know what to do with evrything!!!
So insted of buying them somthing we are going to put £20 each into there saving account.
we will still have the best of times at xhristmas as we have the twins this year. but it will be a lot cheeper!!

Good luck evryone and enjoy your christmas

cw18

jaja wrote: »

Lost my job yesterday.

Wednesday was my last day of employment too -- but I'd seen it coming since the middle of May, and had 12 weeks notice of the date so not a huge shock.

Turned out to be really lousy timing though, as I lost my DH on Tuesday of last week - so my first day of unemployment also turned out to be the day of his funeral service

This is one reason I'm not planning on doing things any differently this year compared to the last few years -- I think the kids (17, 19 and 25) would see it as a "kick in the teeth". I have asked the younger two what they want to do (the youngest still lives at home, the other will be home on leave, the eldest will come and visit for part of the day with my GDs) and they really couldn't care less -- think it's a case of not wanting to think about it really

jaja_3

Hugs to you cw18, very sorry to hear that.


Thank you to others for tips on the photographs for Christmas, this is something I am already working on as it happens. I am training (myself) in photo restoration, so working on restoring some old photographs for the family to frame.

As this site has been a god send to me of late. If I can help anyone with this idea I would be happy too. So if anyone would like an old photograph restored as a christmas present, drop me a pm and I will have a go - I am only training but enjoy the practice. (no charge obviously).

edinburgher

meerkat2007 wrote: »

So now, it's Christmas cards to friends and neighbours, and those members of the family who haven't taken umbrage at our lack of largesse.QUOTE]

Absolutely loved this line - thanks for giving me a chuckle on a wet November evening :T