Tiny Budget Christmas (Gifts excluded)

Katiehound

One of the ideas I read on here some years ago was to walk round the neighbourhood and look at the decorations. Then either vote for the best or each person chooses the one they like the best and pops a card through the door. Can be the front of last years card (or any piece of card) and says something like ' I think your display is lovely'
Costs nothing & a nice thought for the homeowner.

games cost nothing. You probably have some in the cupboard already otherwise buy a pack of cards- some great games that everyone can play

Get the children to help bake. Ice plain biscuits.
 Don't have cake? This one is good (and easy)- just use sultanas instead of fancy fruit: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/good-housekeeping-uk/20170501/285808603288724

Get the children on your side, explain that there isn't any spare money so get them to trawl the internet/ local notices to see what activities there are locally that are free or minimum spend. Visit the local library to borrow books- DVDs?

The veggie price war starts the week before Christmas. Look for veggie recipes that can use the cheap ones.

CapricornLass

If a real tree is out of the budget, why not do as some of the continentals do, and get a  bare twiggy branch?  It will need to be anchored to a piece of wood at the bottom, but once that's done,  paint/spray it white and add a few baubles and lights.

I must admit I do get a turkey and a gammon, and these form the basis for all meals and sandwiches from Christmas Eve (the gammon) until New Year.  One thing you should do is ignore the number of servings that is given on the packaging.  I have got a 5kg turkey for years and years.  It was labelled as serving 8.  I used to serve 4 people on Christmas Day, 11 people on Boxing Day, and 4 people for the other four days - so that is 31 portions, and no-one felt deprived, not even the teenagers with hollow legs.  And that doesn't count using the carcass for stock, either.   

If you are Christmas pudding eaters, then the other thing I do is to set it up in the slow cooker when I get up in the morning.  I don't serve it at lunch, as we are usually too full to eat it.  Instead, I serve it up at tea-time, instead of tea.  Lunch has been digested a bit by then, so people are happier to eat it.

If the weather isn't so kind, maybe a dvd that the whole family can sit and watch and enjoy? Or there are paper, pencil and dice games.  I'm thinking of Beetle, but I've been told there is a Snowman version.  Or card games like Sevens, or Rummey.

One game I would avoid like the plague is Monopoly.  It takes forever to finish a game, and people fall out over it.  Stick to something simple like Ludo or Snakes and Ladders.

twopenny

I come from the past where decorations for the tree were kept through the generations but I guess that's not whats happened.
Watching tv someone made decorations from slices of wood from last years tried wood and painted.
A twig or two in a vase with some baubles was very trendy at one time - or several. 
Yes to cut out snowflakes and paper chains. That always was the childrens job to make and the ready glued ones are still available.

Lots of wild holly. It was also our job as kids to make and stick berries on. And ivy is easy.

Look at what other countries make. Few are as wasteful as we are.

Picked up lots of big bags of veg last year, 19p each. I stowed them in an old container outside in the cold and they lasted for ages.

Food? Pick up a discounted chicken and freeze it.
I've taken to have my favourite foods for Christmas. So this year is bangers and mash. Yummy and less cooking and washing up.
Would the kids prefer pizza? Just stick some holly in the middle 

If you want to go traditional buy a cheap cake and make the marzipan and icing yourself. I connex my horrible aunt this way. Ok so I drizzled wIth alchohol so that may be why but it's sometimes easy.
Ditto, mincemeat for mince pies is very easy, about 10min and smells delicious throughout the house. The children could do it.
Ditto the pudding. Easy as......just look how to microwave or bake it for economy.

I don't know what got people thinking these are difficult but they're not and while the dried fruits come at around £6 that will do a pud and endless mincemeat.

Lots of decorations in the charity shops and fun to hunt.
Beautiful tablecloth or runners there too.

And in January buy Christmas cards dead cheap and pick up a turkey leg for the freezer, they go cheaper than dog food

I used to have Christmas 2 days later when everything was a fraction of the price. Sadly the shops caught onto this as more mse people twigged  :-/

sillyvixen

Maybe a bit late for this year but some ideas for the future.

As kids we used to collect twiggy sticks and pine cones in a nearby wood, dad would spray the twigs white and we would pur blobs of glue on the pine cones and sprinkle with glitter mum would string them with whatever cotton she had and hang them on our twigs with the few baubles we had (a walk in the fresh air, an activity and a decoration all in one). We used to make paper snowflakes to bluetak to the windows and make paper chains to decorate (all cheap decorations that kept us busy).

We would do activities like wrap up warm and walk through the town looking at the Christmas lights, as a church family there was always christingle (now we do a Nativity service) and candle lit carol service and anyone can attend for a Christmas activity (we also have extra Nativity costumes so as kids turning up can join in if the want).

You could always get a cheap Swiss roll and whip up some butter cream with cocoa or hot chocolate powder and get the kids to make a Yule log for pudding. We used to make home made biscuits in the shape of a star for the grandparents as a gift and activity - i still make shortbread stars for the family stockings!

sammy_kaye18

Just coming back onto the boards after a break away from them and I know Christmas has been and gone but wanted to add in as well. Maybe we can keep adding incase someone else needs it in future. 

Food wise
- we usually always have chicken and the only thing I add to it to make it different from a normal roast is pigs in blankets. I usually buy a few bits frozen a few weeks before. This year I had a nightmare with my food shop getting cancelled but luckily I had a frozen Iceland gammon joint in the freezer so we had that instead. We still enjoyed :-) 
- I cook meat the day before and make up a cake to pop in the bottom as well which we have for pudding or a snack on Xmas day. 
- Boxing day is a whatever is left over or in the fridge kind of day. You dont need lots of expensive or fancy boxed chocolates etc. A cheap pack of biscuits and the same one in a winter wrapping will still taste the same. 
- we don't bother with crackers and all that stuff. If Im feeling fancy Ill get a disposable table cloth but thats literally it. 

Decorations
- I've always reused my decorations. I have slowly collected them over the years and exchanged some with penpals.  
- Ive never had a colour scheme. I don't think you need to at Christmas!
- I don't like tinsel - I prefer beads.
- Candles can add a real ambiance of the festive feeling as can cheap fairy lights. You can usually pick them up cheaply online or in pound shops. 
- Me and my sister would spend hours making paper chains and snowflakes when we were younger. And a paper tree that we put on our cellar/playroom wall. We loved it. 
- Making decorations from salt dough, kids can have fun and join in, its simple and easy to make, can be given as gifts as well and lasts a good while. 
- if I do have a clear out of decorations I always offer them free to a good home on things like FB marketplace, freecycle etc so worth a look on there. 
- I don't bother with a wreath for the door either or chocolates on the tree ( my kids are 19 and 13 but we have 3 dogs and I don't need that type of bill over Xmas!) . 

Entertainment 
- look on your TV planner and see whats on. I start taping things or highlighting things the week before. Stuff for us to watch as a family, things for adults and stuff for the kids. Our son says its not christmas until weve watched Mary Poppins (the original), Home Alone or Elf....and my FIL refuses to believe its Christmas until hes seen The Sound Of Music......MIL prefers The Polar Express though. We all have those little things that make us feel festive! 
- Theres always lots of movies on around christmas so bound to be a festive film of some sorts. If you dont feel like watching it then, tape it and save it for later if your able to. 
- Failing that charity shops nearer christmas tend to put out their festive stock of DVDs so youll find something in them usually. 
- Also charity shops are a great place to look for games. Things you can play together - our family favorites are Uno and Rummikub but we generally will have a question asking one too. 
- Another good form of entertainment is things like going for a festive walk after dinner, making a tradition with your family - it could be something like the walk, board games, going to church, donating to a charity or food bank etc. One of the traditions we have recently started (3 years going now) is that we all get a lego set for christmas - I usually pick them up cheaply in sales or second hand) and at one point on Xmas day we all sit and build lego together. Its our favourite tradition but you could do it with anything and plenty of online places have cheap sets now.