Christmas budget 2023

[Fatcat00]

Inspired by two recent threads RE gift limits, reselling etc. genuinely curious to know what the average person spends on their children at Xmas.

I know it is very much dependent on income (generally). But I’ve seen lots of posters saying they spend £100 for example and would find it ludicrous to spend any more regardless of income.

where I live, well off or not, people go to town on gift buying - and obviously post it on SM which is something I never do.

I have noticed some people that do this don’t go all out on their food, which for me is the peak of Christmas. I’m very much into an elaborate tablescape, top top quality food and amazing presentation. Which can cost quite a bit.

So what do you tend to spend on kids, partners if you have them, family, and food?

I think mine is under £500, probably £300 but I don’t have children (have DPs, nieces and nephews).

I rarely host Christmas dinner, sometimes do a Boxing Day one, sometimes have drinks and nibbles one evening in the run up to Christmas. Can’t think of what I spend on that and certainly no Christmas themed items.

@Fatcat00 It matters as you asked how to keep costs down. By not spending the fat end of a monthly mortgage payment on the gift for one person, that is how!

Table placements are not essential and do not need to cost a lot at all. I just get a nice disposable table cloth from Sainsbury's (they do Christmas designed ones in heavy cloth feel paper) with matching napkins, I usually do a table arrangement using winter greenery gathered from local woods and then a couple of nice pillar candles. I may add crackers from a supermarket box (I am a firm believer that crackers SHOULD be cheap and tacky). If I am feeling fancy I may drag the nice wine glasses out from the back of the kitchen cupboard. Budget - around £25.

We don't go to town on Xmas and dh and I don't normally buy for each other. We have 2 dc and spend £300 on each. Apart from xmas and bdays we don't really buy them anything "stuff" wise. I try to wangle in as many things as possible that they actually need, such as coat, furniture for bedroom etc. I start saving from summer.

Looking at your updates, I think it’s a different outlook on life.

Some people love shiny new stuff, Christmas Eve boxes, personalised cookies etc. They love the glitz, gifts and Christmas events. That’s fine, if you can afford it.

Other people prefer a quieter time, using the same precious things again and again, find ‘stuff’, especially new stuff a bit tiring,

Hmmmm.

Probably £300 per child (3 kids)
£300 on each other
£400 on food (Xmas eve and boxing day included)
£200 on Xmas activities
£200 on other family presents

Probably £2.5k in total. We put away money all year for it.

I don’t have a budget of a value but I just pick up little bits dd sees and she loves. This year the most wanted gift is the £30 Aphmau meemeow surprise. This has already been nabbed by grandma in law who asked if I had something worth £30 to give dd for Xmas. This is normal and happens each year. I buy a nice selection of gifts and relatives come running asking what they can have to give the kids that I’ve already bought. I’ve sorted presents for both grandparents, Pils and my sister for the kids so far then they send the money. I don’t mind too much as it happens each year so I plan for it now. The only issue is my grandma does it literally days before Xmas so I have to find something for her to give!

Dh not much of a budget but I’ll get him around 5 gifts. I think I spend in all over Xmas around £800 including all family. We save for it all year though. We have a new baby this year and I’ve got her a few bits as she’ll be 9 months at Xmas and I don’t want dd1 thinking Santa didn’t come for her too. Luckily MIL took the big present for dd2 which was £50 so saved me money there.

I don't know, not a lot really although we could spend as much as we like. When our children are old enough to understand Christmas we'll make a bigger deal out of it but my oldest has just turned 2 and already has everything he could possibly want or need so I don't see the point in buying a bunch more stuff just because it's Christmas, especially when he doesn't even know what Christmas is.

We don't budget as such, but only spend what we can afford. Would never go in to debt for one day and we don't spend excessive amounts either.
We have 2 ds', my mum, mum's partner and MIL to buy for. My Nana passed away last year and OHs Nana passed away a few years ago. The rest of the family receive a card. As for me and OH we buy something between us such as gig or theatre tickets layer in the year🙂

I save up with Tesco Christmas Club all year round and that pays for our Xmas Dinner, food and drinks 🙂👍

I've found that as our income has grown we spend less on the household gifts as we are able to buy more throughout the year.
DH and I only buy each other token gifts now as we don't really need or want anything.
We don't do anything like Christmas Eve boxes or expensive advent calendars. I do buy the DC new pyjamas for the first of December.
We spend a lot on good quality food and I am a bit of a sucker for decorations. I love the idea of an elaborate tablescape but I find the reality impractical on our table as there's nowhere to put the dishes and serving up in the kitchen feels a bit canteenish. I have make some wreaths to hang over the table, a tablecloth and some festive serving dishes. I buy little table gifts too, this year its silly socks.

I only buy for my 3 adult DS's plus a token for my dog Walker and an older couple who are great friends
My sons I have a rough budget of £150 each as it gives me great pleasure and they are very appreciated
I'm on lifelong disability benefits so I save small amounts through the year in a plum account
Food and drink we have a keep it coming party food throughout the day few beers and Cremant for me
Very low key but it's just lovely being all together

I agree, and curiously as I'm getting older, my tolerance for "stuff" is diminishing. We are pretty comfortable, financially speaking, and we tend to spend our money on travel/experiences rather than physical goods, so we don't spend a lot on our kids, and don't often buy for each other (we just buy things we want as and when we want them.)

DD - varies a lot depending on whether she needs anything. Last year she had a new scooter but I wanted her to have something to play with inside too, so got her a space explorer kit. Around £200 including stocking fillers. This year will be cheaper as I got her some Gravitrax when it was much reduced on Amazon.

DH: normally theatre tickets so his half is about £80. But this year he needs a new coat so I might get that for him.

My mum: £70 on posh smellies. She is very generous with DD and I like to treat her.

My grandmother: £70 or so for a hamper. She's 90, I reckon she deserves some chutney.

Everyone else: token gift only.

Food - it's only 4 of us including my mum so we get a roast chicken plus pigs in blankets and veg. I don't go mad on the food as it's just a roast dinner plus a ready-made pudding.

Decorations and tree come out every year.

£150 per adult DC, a little bit less on my DH and about £50 on my DM. I don’t buy for any one else and haven’t for about 25 years.

I’ve never added up food as we spend a lot anyway, I get everything from M&S.

Table decorating, £3 from Poundland

Pantomime for DH and I £80

Boxing Day dinner out for 5 adults £200 ish

Trip to a European Christmas market £1200 ish for DH and myself

Maybe a light show type of evening which varies from about £40 to £100 depending on how many of us go.

Separate friend night out for my DH and myself (DH’s about £280 and mine about £80 but we use our individual money for this)

Hotel night away to visit DH’s family in between Christmas and New year £500.

I spend about £80 on adult dc and £25 on their partners

£25-30 on each parent

£30 on Dgc

£25 on dsis

£25 DN

About £60 on DH

I use a tablecloth of my dms that is about 30 years old

Disposable napkins

I have Christmas table mats

I buy flowers and make arrangements in glitter jars which I bring out each year

I may do Christmas dinner for my immediate family only this year

OP what happens to previous years table settings, could you mix and max some stuff you already have for future years? I do this with my decorations, I have two trees and like to swap things around.

£150 on ds (£100 main present, £50 stocking)
£100 other gifts (Mum, niece, nephews, friends)
£100 food / drink
£45 advent calendar (decided to treat myself to M&S one this year)
£30 tree
Total £425

I don't do Christmas cards, have plenty of gift bags that get re-used, decorations get brought out year after year, bought crackers in the sale last year.

Christmas Day it's just me, ds, Mum and Aunt, after lunch we go for a walk along the beach then do a family quiz on Zoom with siblings that live a distance away.

DH = 0 We both buy what we want, when we want so don’t bother buying anything for each other

DC = £75 budget each but they have to give a list and highlight top 3 items most wanted and we pick from that. Older now and they’d rather have the cash so getting much easier!

DM/DF/DMIL/DFIL = £25 budget each

Extended Families = 0 there are far too many people on both sides so we all agreed years ago not to buy for each others kids, partners etc

Friends = 0 we all spend time together over Christmas instead of needless spending on things they/we don't want or need

Food = whatever rewards/points/vouchers we’ve accumulated throughout the year with whichever supermarkets. Christmas Eve is a buffet, Christmas Day is the turkey roast, Boxing Day is leftovers and house is open to whoever of our family, both sides, and our friends needs a place to go/food to eat on all three days.

We’ve had the same decorations for about 20 years and are only replaced when broken. Never felt the need to change the theme or colour scheme every year as this is right at the very bottom of what Christmas means to us.

Kids £300 each
dad £50
BIL £50

that us all. Don’t buy anything for anyone else.

Oh, no Christmas cards neither. My tree is 2nd hand and 25 years old and looks like new. Got new decorations last year after I changed decor in the living room. I bought wooden ones and hand made clay decorations with my 15 year old DS.

i love wooden rustic things, modern would suit my home.

I have a silvery/white table cloth I’ve had for years, silver charger plates from the pound shop probably bought over 10 years ago. I’ve bought silvery/white napkins and a silver candle also from the pound shop to use this year.
Its all adult males in my family and the only thing they’re bothered about is unlimited pigs in blankets but I like the table to look nice.

I'd never heard of charger plates before today

Table mats and Christmas plates I was given in late 80s

Table ‘scape’. Well I have never heard it called that, but we reuse the same things every year, so it wouldn’t cost hundreds every year. Are you throwing out and buy new table clothes annually?

Table cloth, mat, candle holders etc all reused here. Might buy a few new candles. Greenery is from garden, or from Xmas tree place offcuts. Any other little Xmas nic nacks are usually the Same from last year. We just wrap and put away with decorations and bring back out in December.

Budget isn’t fixed though. But we buy little but happy to spend more on one item if needed. Ie dh had new go pro camera last year.
But Ds only gets 1 main gift from us, and stocking. He might get 2-3 other gifts from family or friends but that’s it.

Food wise it’s Xmas food, but similar weekly budget to all year around , we don’t really eat more than usual

I spend about £200 each on dc x2
£20 on dns x 7
£20 on main gift for inlaws x3
£10 each on their stocking x3
Friends son £10
Dds boyfriend £20 dds bf siblings £5x2
Dm, df £20 each
Procecco for dh aunt £10

Me and dh spend £40 main each
Under the tree gifts £15 x 2
£6 stocking x2

Dinner just a normal roast chicken as no one likes turkey plus chocs and a few tubs of nibbles. All totted up comes to about £850

Depends what people want/need. Probably about £100-150 each on 3 adult DC , and same on DH. Then £75 ish on my Mum, £25 each niece and nephew, and maybe another £100 on other friends/ family.
Then ..no idea how much on food and drink, I usually host Xmas day, maybe £200? And another £200 for the rest of the period, over and above what I'd normally spend on food shopping.
That's about 1k +, hard to say exactly.