What are you stripping back this Christmas?

[Carfeulyay]

As my thoughts turn to Christmas - I’m conscious this year with rising prices and uncertainties that I would like to limit spending this year.

I put money aside each month for Christmas, so I have a nice little aim set aside but I would like to draw some of that back into my emergency fund or cover cost of rising heating bills.

What will you be cutting back this year? I’m thinking visit to Santa, Xmas panto & reducing present budget per child

We have on = we gave up on

Nothing. We have never gone crazy anyway. The one thing that will be expensive this year will be heating the house properly for the days I have guests staying as I can't expect them to freeze their tits off and dress like yetis.

I am positively embracing a pared down Christmas, and I am glad there is at least this small silver lining to what is otherwise a very stressful time for everyone. The environment will benefit, our children benefit and appreciate there is more to Christmas than mountains of plastic tat, I am hopeful of a return to something more wholesome.
We are cutting back on absolutely everything and replacing with something from nature, in nature, celebrating nature or simply spending time with our children with no performative entertainment.

There will only be 4 of us for Christmas Dinner and non of us like turkey. I will get a large chicken soon before the prices go up near Christmas and put it in the freezer

I've been stripping back Christmas for over a decade and I am more or less where I want to be. It is not just about the money, for me, it is about principle.

I have been on here for years under different names angsting about extended family who do nothing for us, have never bought me a single thing in 30 years, but then have the audacity to complain when I tried to reel in present expectations e.g. emailing me with a £80 gift DH and I can buy them for Chistmas. I shit you not!

Fast forward to today and I am now in a place where said person above gets a card from a packet, and others like them, of which there are many CF'ers, get a box of chocolates with a bottle of wine to tick a box. They are recieved with a face like a slapped arse, but MERRRY CHRISTMAS 😘

As time goes by I spend more on others. I have a couple of relatives who are lovely and dont get much thought from others and I make sure they have a lovely gift just for them.

Christmas has been a massive minefield for me for years, but I am in a good place with it now. We invited someone over this year and they are playing high maintenance silly buggers, but they can come or they don't. I no longer care.

I'm finding it really hard to strip back. We already do secret santa for the adults in both families. We've reduced the budget from £30 to £20 for that, but that is not much of a dent.

It is the hosting that I was hoping not to do this year. 2 DSs and I would prefer just to be us 5, but DH and DD are very into the traditions and family get togethers.

my budget for xmas will be the same this year as for the past few - zero.

We’ve said we’re not doing presents,’apart from a couple of things for our baby and stockings for each other. Food-wise we will still have our Christmas Eve takeaway and a proper Christmas dinner, but we aren’t planning to host anyone or have meals out.

I’ve bought everything secondhand for my kids this year. Luckily they’re young enough to get away with it! It’s my preference anyway. We don’t normally do PJs, Christmas Eve boxes, panto etc anyway.

DH and I set a very low budget for one another, we normally go over the top.

The only adults we normally buy for are my parents, again we’ve reduced our spend down.

That’s about it really. We have one child birthday just before Christmas, hosting their party is the big expense but I’m happy to cut down elsewhere to afford it!

Cutting out buying a gift/gifting money to my partner's ungrateful step siblings!

So many on here talking about giving up pantos and center parcs and london breaks. Check your privilege people.

Whilst the rest of us out here are contemplating if we can heat the house, afford to put the lights on the tree and buying microwave roast dinner ready meals.

I also think I'm going to have to tell my 9 year old santa isn't real as when I gently suggest something smaller/cheaper for his present list he tells me the cost of the things he wants don't matter because santa makes them.

Present buying for wider family/friends. Older family don’t even want presents, they want time with us and our young DS. Friends and younger family all have hound children so just buying for the kids makes sense. I’ve also been a bit brutal. For years I’ve bought for nephews/brother in law who we don’t see when our DS consistently gets nothing (never even met him) so they’ve been cut. The inner people pleaser in me is very anxious but I’m trying to put a brave face on!

Food. I’m hosting but my Dad is sorting the meat and my brother is sorting dessert.

Events. We are having one big Christmas Day out but, thanks to an earlier COVID cancellation in the year, it’s only cost us £20 instead of £60. Well, it has technically cost us the £60, but the other £40 was back in March so you don’t really feel it.

Presents for each other. DS is 3 and a half this year so we have doubled his budget from last year and have spent about £200. However, me and DH aren’t buying for each other.

Me and DH can’t attend work Christmas events because of logistics but that’s saving us a fortune. I’ve also been a bit of a grinch and opted out of secret Santa. I don’t want to spend £10 on rubbish to get £10 of rubbish in return!

Weve absolutely stripped it back. I thought we always did quite simple Christmases anyway but it will be extra simple this year with the focus on hygge, family and spending time together.

We've cut the present budget in half from £100 a child to £50 and bought lots from charity shops and vinted. Family cut from £20 each to £10.

No shopping day with my teens this year for new outfits, instead looking on vinted.

Gone for the basic butchers hamper rather than the luxury and cut down the amount of treats we buy it's not good for wallet or waistline and we don't need that amount of food.

Meeting family for a walk around a national trust place and tea/cake in the cafe to exchange presents rather than our usual meal out.

Going to see Matilda at the cinema rather than a theatre trip.

No Christmas tree is really sad

Nothing really because we never go over board .. we don't exchange presents, not so much because of the cost but the sheer waste. Food is no more expensive than our normal food & drink budget ... we like to eat and drink well all year , never pay for entertainment - loathe Panto etc - plenty of lovely church concerts and Carol services to attend with just a donation.

I love Christmas but don't need to spend excess amounts of money to enjoy it ... and as I've said so many times on here... as a Charity shop manager I can assure you that I will be overwhelmed with unwanted Christmas presents as donations in the New Year!

A lot less food, but that’s only because it’ll be only me and dh this year - dds and families are going to ILs or other relatives. I never went OTT anyway - we had plenty but everything would eventually be used up.

A few fewer presents, since a couple of relatives have opted out.
As usual, no new decorations - ours are a collection going back decades. It’s part of Christmas to me, to get the old favourites out.

The only Advent calendar I buy is a little-pictures one, for me. 🙂. I will probably buy the same (a corny one) for little Gdcs.,

We will massively cut back on alcohol. I have already done so this year due to cost of living generally and it is making a difference.

I have quietly suggested at work that we dump the office secret santa. People are struggling (min wage ffs) and one of my colleagues who is well over 50 is having her salary topped up by her mother as she simply cannot make ends meet. Previous years the 'suggested spend' was £20 for the office SS which as our Equity partners drive a maserati and an aston martin respectively so probably seems low for them but most definitely is not for others.

I am asking DH to not buy me a gift this year. He went overboard for my birthday so I think no gifts this year will go some way to evening it out. The Dcs will also probably get less but they really only want money as it is.

We have never really done christmas eve stuff and will have a quiet one at home. I do have some vouhers for the lcoal theatre left over from last year when we could not attend the panto due to illness so that will be nice.

Will be spending less and will donate more food to food banks… I usually use Xmas to buy things that are decent but need e.g replacement laptops, bikes, pjs, that would have to be bought at some point anyway. When I had very little ones , I bought lots of great things on gumtree like brio train sets etc biggest spend is food as we always host (easier to have children and dog in own home, and I like to cook for the family)

This may not be a helpful suggestion at all but a few years back we just bought a living Christmas tree in a pot and that is it for our tree. It goes outside after Christmas and we tend to it through the year and bring it back first week of december. I can't recall how much it was but it was quite small- only about 3 and a half feet I guess. It's now about 6 foot and we have had to repot it maybe twice but it is like an old friend now and a one time spend only! (Every now and then we give it a feed but I can't recall when).

We're not cutting back. We haven't done adult gifts my family for 20 years - only for my mum and she died a couple of years ago - DH's family started doing the same thing about three years ago. DH and I get gifts for each other but nieces or nephews over 21 years old doesn't get a gift. Their own parents obviously buy for them, and this gives them (potentially) more money for that rather than waste it on gifts that are lovely, but not needed, for all the aunties and uncles.

We do the panto each year and it's a thing we enjoy so that's staying. We got the tickets in the summer so the cost is spread. We're going to a lights festival as DS is now a teenager so not a 'Santa Claus' boy anymore. That's a couple of days before Christmas but that's been booked for months so, again, it's not a 'December pay packet hit'.

We don't eat out over Christmas as we hate that 'squeeze them in' thing in restaurants. We don't have family over at Christmas so it's not a huge spend on food. But we will be having 'the works' on Christmas day as we like turkey etc!

I've got almost all the tinned, pre made, packet or bottled Christmas foods. I've been adding something to the shopping trolley each week or two as use by dates fit (like pickles/chocolates) So I've been collecting Christmas food since June! Got the Christmas pudding last month. It spreads the cost.

Nothing.

If anything we are going more in for Christmas as it’s DDs first one where she actually kind of understands what’s happening!

With even 2nd class stamps being 68p each I may not send christmas cards this year, which is a shame as I only give them to people who I care about don't see regularly - I stopped giving cards to local friends a while ago to cut down. I generally try to avoid the mass consumerism aspects anyway, so hard to cut back on much else - will use same decs, forage for fresh greenery etc.

Are you me? This is exactly what I do every morning

I'm buying no presents and have already told everyone. I will probably get some nice pork chops from the local butchers for dinner. I am not buying any chocolate as this often gets gifted.

@RaininSummer I find, as a guest, I'm almost always melting in other peoples homes. So, maybe you don't need it as warm as you think?!