Christmas on a budget

sun_city_girl

I have saved a little over the last few months for Christmas, so will probably have about £150 -£200 to spend in total. We also save up Nectar points, usually by Christmas we have between £40-£50.
We will spend between £50-70 on our toddler and may keep some presents back until her birthday which is beginning of January.
Then we don't usually buy for each other. The bulk of the rest of our spending will go on siblings (I have 3 very much younger siblings of 18,19 and 23 and my partner has a sister) They probably get something between £20-£30 each and then everyone else will get some gifts that me and my toddler make together (You can get things like decorations to paint etc in Hobbycraft and places like that online) and we usually give photos to our parents (grandparents).
Then we will do kindness advent that doesn't cost anything but just concentrates on a kind task for each day and do some celebrations of midwinter with evergreens; like make a display or craft a picture or something. Oh and we always make paper chains :-)

sun_city_girl

Caddyman wrote: »

My other half and I spend absolutely zero on presents, because we stopped buying presents (and cards) for everyone we know several years ago. We obviously don't receive any either, which, to be honest, is wonderful. We still involve ourselves in Christmas from a social perspective, we host the in-laws for Christmas Day dinner, plenty to eat and drink, but without all of the materialism that Christmas seems to represent for so many people these days.

So Christmas actually represents just two days for us, Xmas Day and Boxing Day, none of the months before hand buying presents, none of the mid October start on the run up to Xmas Day, none of the wind down period after the event, just two days and it's job done. Best part of it all? we have no debt at the end of it. In fact, whilst everyone else is paying off a chunk of debt they'd probably if they admitted it, rather not have, all in the pursuit of pleasing others, me and my other half are getting ready to go off on our annual winter sun holiday. Selfish? probably some might think we are, but I'd rather be sat on a beach in the first week of January, than sat at home in the cold moaning about going back to work. :-)

I think organising a holiday for the beginning of January and spending less (or nothing) on Christmas is a great idea, I notice people seem to be depressed after Christmas so it would be a good to have something else to focus on!

determined_new_ms

am loving these non consumerist Christmas traditions! We do 12 days of Christmas. From the 12th we do a different Christmas themed activity - crafting, baking, go for an evening walk to an area where they go all out on decs, watch xmas film, carolling. This year we have panto tickets for 23rd but it's the only year I've spent out on it

Caddyman

sun_city_girl wrote: »

I think organising a holiday for the beginning of January and spending less (or nothing) on Christmas is a great idea, I notice people seem to be depressed after Christmas so it would be a good to have something else to focus on!

To be honest, I think the whole depression business with regard to Christmas, is the fact that shops start Xmas so early these days. I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no justification for starting Xmas in October and that is what some shops are doing these days. But of course, it is ALL about materialism and the fact that Xmas is pushed very hard at kids who then pressure parents into spending money they can often ill afford.

I'm glad I don't put myself through any of that 'flock of sheep' attitude when it comes to trying to please other folk. I'm in no way religious, but if people actually took a step back and remembered what Christmas was all about, the whole event would have a totally different aspect to how many people treat it at present.

As for taking a winter holiday in January based on the fact we can afford to do so because we won't conform to the socially acceptable 'norm' that modern society often expects with regard to Christmas, well it takes about 20 minutes to sort that out online, much quicker than hauling one's backside around the shops for hours looking for presents!

CattyCatX

foxgloves wrote: »

When we were little (1970s!), my Mum used to do such a nice thing......she is quite crafty & she'd make what we called a 'Snow house' out of a box.She'd pack them all into the Snow House & it would sit in the middle of the table & we all chose which coloured string we wanted, then took turns to pull out our little present. They were never expensive things, the magic was that we had that lovely Christmassy house on the table & the contents always felt like such a surprise. We used to spend ages trying to decide which string to pull.
F

Just wanted to say that sounds absolutely magical Foxgloves!! I would love to do something like that in the future if I have kids... I mean, I'd quite like to do it now even though it's just me and my partner and parents!!

I was very spoiled as a child and used to have a huge stocking (I mean it was 6ft!!) filled with presents (not chocolates and fruit etc either - proper toys/dolls and things). Then 'large' presents from santa in front of the fireplace, then presents from my parents round the tree, then all the gifts from other family members and friends etc... My parents must have spent hundreds if not thousands every year. Do I remember any of the actual gifts?? No... The only things I remember really clearly are setting out the mince pie/carrot for Santa/rudolph on Christmas eve and the excitement of finding them eaten (carrot stump complete with teeth marks!) on Christmas morning and sitting in bed with my Dad helping me open my stocking in the morning: it could have been filled with anything tbh, it was the ritual of being with him that I enjoyed (he worked long hours and I never saw him in the mornings normally or much in the evenings either). Also, we would go to a show on Christmas eve and I remember those very fondly. The lesson I took from that as an adult is that it's the 'doing' things that you tend to remember and the spending time together that counts. So, we've always got each other 'experience' gifts as adults with a few small (handmade!!) things to unwrap on the day, plus books... In the past, we've gone overboard spending-wise on even those so this year have a limit of £50 each so we've got even more creative than usual with the handmade presents! I really don't think the spending would be more than that with kids either, especially if they don't 'need' anything. Lots of great ideas on this thread to make it magical for children without spending huge amounts, thanks everyone!

Grazeley

My husband has a Sainsburys credit card, 0% on purchases that he uses for his work expenses (which he claims for)
Using this has racked up a reasonable amount of nectar points over a few months, he now has about £60 worth of points and we will be using this for our xmas dinner food shopping.