The Christmas Thread

gingernutbizkit

Asda have put their mobility aids on sale at the weekend. I picked up some tap turners for my Nan who is struggling with her arthritus. Reduced down to £1 each

UnderPressure

Do you know this is the first year we are NOT going to go daft with the Christmas shopping, first year in a long time..............................

I am sick to the back teeth of how much Christmas costs, I am 32, my partner 36 we have 3 young children and every year the last 3 months are dominated with buy buy buy buy all for what is essentially 1 day, 1 day that is supposed to signify (apart from the religious aspect of course) families being together and enjoying each others company yet all it seems to boil down to today is spend spend spend, and putting families and especially adults under huge amounts of pressure trying to provide everything they think they have to....................

DONT DO IT, dont put yourselves under all this pressure, especially this year with all the financial uncertainty and pressure people are already finding themselves under.

OK rant over

I accept children will always cost an arm and a leg, fact of life sure we can tell ourselves they dont have to and of course people spend what they can afford, some more than they can afford but there is always an element of "keeping up with the Jones's" not only for kids but it seems some parent in this day and age have a similar mentality, I am not saying dont spend and dont enjoy your christmas but if you are starting 2011 with huge overdrafts and credit card debt thanks to not only presents but the humongous amount of money we all send to MR T and co really is not essential.

I am not talking about the Christmas "essentials" such as the turkey etc etc its the other stuff for instance we have some friend who like to think they are "keeping up with the jones's", incidently last time I checked Peter Jones was worth about 200 million so its a game Im not going to even try and play anyhow.................. they are good friends and what I am about to say is nothing I did not say to them last year. Last year we went to their house for the usual exchange of card and presents for the children on Christmas Eve, while we were there and this is no joke, a Tesco home delivery appeared the poor delivery driver looked hounded to death as he carried in 7 blue boxes full of carrier bags, I though great idea get Mr T to bring it all job well done, half an hour later an Asda delivery arrived with at least another 12 carrier bags, I was at this stage curious so after an hour it took for my friends wife to put all of this away I asked her why 2 deliveries this is something along the lines of what she said to me

" Oh thats nothing I have been stocking up for weeks, we did a big shop at Morrisons yesterday, then these 2 deliveries plus the other stuff I have bought over the last couple of months, oh and we are off the M&S this afternoon for more.........."

Flabbergasted I asked what they had been buying, then I got the guided tour of the kitchen and garage, my giddy aunt they must have had as much stuff as Tesco, the kitchen was literally crammed full of what I can only describe as rubbish, the fridge the freezer another fridge and chest freezer in the garage, they had enough booze to literally sink a ship and I mean at least 1 bottle of every spirit I could think of with enough wine, lager and bitter to open a corner shop. They had 1 kitchen cupboard crammed to busting full of biscuits, literally every kind of biscuit you could ever imagine, 4 tins of chocolates pork pies, the big melton mowbray one 3 of them why would anyone need 3 family size pork pies in the fridge for Christmas, a Hugeeeeeeeee turkey they got from the local butcher that was so big it cost them £90!!!!!!! along with a huge leg of lamb, a huge piece of beef and a FULL bone in gammon!!! This was all fro 2 adults and 3 small children.

We have always been the same, if I did not start the years absolutely skint I used to wonder what I had scrimpped on lol absolute bonkers.
It was seeing all of this food and beer that got me thinking about it all, both families sat down in January and worked out what they had spent on food and beer over Christmas, it was depressing it really was especially when you remember how much of it got threw in the bin or threw at the dog! We spent a total of about £400, our friends had spent double that and a bit more!

This year it all stops, I am planning on doing a normal weekly shop for everyday apart from Christmas Day, this day will be shopped for seperatley, you know I hardly drink anything through the year the odd bottle of wine or the odd JD or brandy thats about it maybe 4 drinks a month, so why at Christmas do I see it as tradition to drink enough to make me ill? And although only 32 I have already figured out that hangovers get worst the older you get!

Our Christmas Day shop will of course involve turkey and all the trimmings, but instead of having 2 of everything this year we are focusing on quality, so a decent fresh turkey size appropriate for a family of 5 that want 1 or 2 turkey sandwiches after, a nice small piece of gammon, enough potatoes and veg to feed a family of 5 not 50, a tin of choc, a bottle or 2 of wine, Christmas cake and pudding are home made and funnily enough I got my recipes out yesterday to figure out what I needed to buy. You get my drift a decent quality Christmas Dinner that lasts for 1 day and not a month!

Do what you feel happy doing, it is not a competition to see who can spend the most its about what makes you and your family happy, if you must insist on spending hundreds of pounds then at least keep an eye on the use by dates, if you have stuff ready to go off why not have a look and see if there is a local food charity nearby that you can donate it to the amount of food that gets simply thrown away at Christmas is ridiculous especially when there are so many that have nothing.

The children of course will have what they want, we are guilty of spending far too much money on CHristmas presents for the children but again this is something that is down to personal choice.

I guess what I am trying to say is take it easy, yeah Christmas is great especially if your a kid but dont be putting yourselves in debt for something that essentially last 1 day

Sorry for the long post just wanted to share my thoughts..............

sock-knitter

my two teenage children have got a new notebook for xmas, rest of their presents will be clothes, toiletries, books etc, most of which i've already bought
also got xmas pudding as an extra, will buy meat and veg nearer time.
this year not going mad on sweet stuff, chocs etc, same with alcohol, too much makes me ill

katskorner

We have two guests less this Christmas as they are going on hols instead so I will only buy what we need. We do get a good size turkey as we want sandwiches and I make a huge pan of soup that lasts all of the next week. We also get Gammon but first I may have one in the freezer so I will check. We have pork for christmas eve (which is also my toddlers birthday - he is two this year) and I am making space int he freeezer now to buy a joint ont he next good offer. Drinks I will start to stock up on beers as hubby likes a drink and I will get some wine too but not too much as I am trying to cut down! Already have two tins of chocs and some pressies for the boys. We have all three of our boys birthdays coming up in Nov, Dec and Feb too so I don't want to overload at Christmas as they just don't need it or appreciate it. Hubby and I don't get each other much as again we dont need stuff. I do love Christmas though!

UnderPressure

katskorner wrote: »

I do love Christmas though!

Me to I am the original big kid for Christmas, just typing my last over winded reply to this thread was enough fro me to place an online order with MR T for the stuff I need to make the cake, pudding and mince meat for mince pies yummyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Me and the wife dont bother too much with presents for each other, it bothers her a little bit although she would never admit it lol so she always ends up with a little bag if something, doesn't me at all as said already if there is anything we need or want throughout the year subject to it costing an arm and a leg we generally end up getting it at some stage.

I am however going to make a special effort with my better half this year and make sure I have a big bag full of all sorts of presents for her to open, we have had a hell of a couple of years financially she deserves a little treat but shhhhhhhhhhhhhh its a secret

SO far as the kids well we have 2 girls one 9 and one 3 on the 27th of December then a boy who is 7. Every year we have spent a fortune buying each of them a "mountain" of presents and honestly we have found every year they have been completely and utterly overwhelmed and not know what to do or play with first, this then bring on the moods and attitude quite an unfair situation to put your kids in really, so this year we have decided they can have 1 show stopping present each then a good few smaller ones, the 9 year old girl really wants her own laptop, all credit to her she is very mature for her age and I am what some would call a tecchie geek so I am quite comfortable with her having this safe in the knowledge that I know I can keep a good eye on here and see exactly what she is up to, darling son who is 7 is motorbike mad and I do mean mad so have decided to unwrap a few layers of bubble wrap and let him have a motorcross bike, nothing imense just a 110cc trials bike, we live in the middle of nowhere in beautiful Wales so there are plenty of place for him to go and ride it from green lanes, woodland and open fields to some of the most beautiful beaches in the UK which in Winter are deserted.

Darling daughter who is 3 just after Christmas is a little different, she wants a bike and a kitchen and virtually 1 of everything in the Argos catalogue geeeesssshhhhh what it is to be young

I cant wait, it is all about the kids for me and I love spoiling them and making a fuss of them, my mu did the same thing for me when I was a kid she saved all year to spoil me to death at Christmas and was a single parent bless her, I owe her a lot

Sorry for another long post, on a side note I dont know anything really about motorcross so really need to learn a lot quickly, if anyone can point me in the right direction of maybe an online community based in the UK where I could pick up some tips and find out about the different sort of bikes I would appreciate it

Thanks in advance money savers...............

chardonnay_2

wow, i don't understand all this stocking up on junk, unless its for presents. perhaps it's cos i want to lose weight but i don't see xmas as a reason to buy umpteen boxes of chocs and biscuits etc. i like xmas dinner and even if we have one at relatives, we still have our own one on an alternative day, usually with bargains at xmas what i ejoy best is spending time with family. perhaps what is different is that our families tend to have xmas dinner at dinner time and not at 3pm so then we don't need more food at dinner time

thatguy1

The shops are only shut for ONE DAY! You don't need to buy hundreds of pounds worth of food!

Vaila

some great opinions here, we dont realy have a big christmas dinner anymore since now most of my aunts, uncles etc have a family of their own now so spend xmas at their own houses. im vegan, but the rest of my family dont like the traditional christmas turkey, ham whatever, the only meat they eat is a roat chicken so that would be a waste of money too. thus the past few years weve actually got an indian takeaway on christmas eve and reheated it for the big day ! theres something for everyone, no hastle and all in all costs around £30! , the only extras we buy are a few drink for mum and dad, and maybe stuff for a homemade dessert, but to spend ridiculous amounts of money and panick buy for one day when were an athiest household, no thanks, the best thing about christmas is the fact that everything is reduced the day after!!

SalAmander_2

Bargain_Bunny wrote: »

My view on this is,as long as i have fresh veg and meat for my xmas dinner, fresh soup and a tunis cake - im happy. The shops are only closed for 2 days :S. I dont like xmas cakes/mince pies and im lactose intolerant :eek:

BB

I so agree with you, BB. Scaling back our expectations to something that's more in proportion with the amount of time that the holiday actually lasts for is such a good idea. Christmas is about family or friends, the people we love - and not about conspicuous overconsumption.

Buying too much means you're eating Christmas goodies until well into next year, and you're way past the point of enjoying any of the chocolates because you've overdone them (if you're like me and cannot just leave them in the Christmas cupboard without raiding it from time to time). I'm on a really tight budget at the moment but even before things became so tight, I had figured out that over and above a nice Christmas meal, a good bar of chocolate and a modest packet of shortbread were really all I needed to get a full dose of the Christmas spirit.

When you distil your Christmas food essentials to the ones you really need to feel that it's Christmas at all, it can save such a lot of trouble and heartache, money and extra pounds' weight put on while noshing at things we meant to leave in cupboards for Christmas.

SalAmander_2

gingernutbizkit wrote: »

I try to get myself organised in advance each year. I have SAD and so it's best for me to plan ahead before the bad weather sets in... doesn't that sound depressing

Off topic query - do you think it's too soon to be using a lightbox? I keep thinking I shouldn't need mine just yet, but my head and eyes are telling me it's definitely time.

I don't think having a Christmas spreadsheet is sad at all! In the world according to Sal, it shows exemplary organisational skills!