My Christmas expenses look to be totalling over £1000

[Xmasdemon]

This includes decor including a tree, lights, garlands, a door wreath and other little pieces; outfits for self and child in family; presents and money gifts. Is this crazy or is this just the price of Xmas ?

No, it doesn't cost that. I've built my decorations up over the years. I get 1 new decoration every year. I don't bother with new outfits as we don't leave the house anyway apart from a walk in the park.

Mine will be well over that, including travel costs.

https://jennakateathome.com/diy-wire-hanger-christmas-wreath/
Various simple wreath ideas here. My mum used to make them when I was a child in the seventies.
I hope you have a lovely Christmas, OP xx

Natural wreath and tree, presents and wrapping paper might be new this year, but what's happened to all the stuff from last year?

If you had it then, why are you paying for more?

Thank you and Merry Christmas

I get where you’re coming from OP - you finally can and for once want to buy into the Hallmark Christmas spirit. You’ll have loads of people telling you it’s foolish and how to do it cheaper…but there is a lot of joy in almost mindless splurging…I’ve done it in my 20s a lot before “retail therapy” became a bad word and I’ve gone much more minimalistic. If you’ve never done it, it can just be fun to for once not calculate and rationalise every pound.
So, assess for yourself, is being skint in January worth it (for many, many people it very much would be), is it setting you back significantly on your savings goal or just a touch? And again is that feeling of careless abandon worth it for you? You’re not talking about going into debt, just redirecting your savings - nothing wrong with that (different if you decide to make it an annual tradition while it’s a stretch).
We get a real tree every year (I can’t stand artificial ones), we’ve been building up decorations slowly over years (but they tempt me every year to just buy a tonne), this year I bought lights for kids’ windows to start working on the house being more festive. I treat myself every year to real wreath kit - but I don’t really treat myself to anything so it’s a bit of a “sod it” moment. But I’ve been mostly in control of my Christmas and money for a long long time, so it’s different. You can make it cheaper, if you want to, but you can just have fun spending for once.:)

Yeah you said that numerous times, stop with the bitchy snark!
If the OP came on and said she was spending £10k then I'd say bragging.
I would imagine she posted for some reassurance, if she's been poor/ can't afford before it's understandable as it seems a lot.
OP spend what you can afford, it's no ones business but don't go into debt or non christmas savings.

OP has said she buys it each year and throws it away as she doesn’t have a loft.

I would work on building some family Christmas traditions, like baking, Christmas music disco, making your own decorations at home. Buying stuff isn’t what makes Christmas special.

Having spent a lot of money on xmas over the years - some of which I could afford, some I couldnt. I have come to the conclusion that most money spent over the christmas period is not worth it. Perhaps a nice meal (of what you actually enjoy), carefully chosen theatre show (not necessarily xmas related), cinema trip, church service, meeting up with family (if you get on). All the other stuff is irrelevant I find. I'd sooner spend the money at a time of the year I choose, not when the retail giants tell me to.

In that case, YABU. Cut your cloth accordingly.

I’ve always gone overboard at Xmas as I love it but I save into a separate bank account to cover all my Xmas expenses.
i think you should use your savings and enjoy this Xmas and maybe budget through the year for next year

We once paid 1 whole pence for a real tree from B & Q on Christmas Eve. That was about 20 years ago. Wonder what the going rate would be now?

If you can afford it, fine. If you can't, cut back.

Obviously decorations aren't a recurring cost, they're a one off. And I'm assuming you have clothes already.

OP hasn't got the money though, she said she was going to have to use money she was saving up for something and would have to cut back a lot in january
That's hardly braggy, may you missed that bit.

If your children need new shoes and clothes, that’s nothing to do with Christmas. I don’t know why people think they need special Christmas clothes, to wear for one or two days. My family have never done that so I just don’t understand it.

If you look at Scandi decorations so much can be done with simply candles and paper stars. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be magical.

You can buy pretty paper stars for £2.32 for a packet on Shein.https://www.shein.co.uk/goods-p-138037858.html

And bigger stars including self-lit here https://www.nordicnest.com/lighting/christmas-lighting/christmas-stars/

Christmas candle tea light holders https://ebay.us/m/fl3KLt

I don’t get Christmas clothes at all I think they’re ghastly.

A new dress with sparkles is nice. Tat with reindeer on is not.

You don’t need a new outfit every year or a wreath. If you’re concerned about costs, I’d take a moment to think about what you really ‘need’ and cut things off the list. No one needs to spend £1000 on Christmas

Throwing trees aside. If this is the first year you have been able to go all and and it's going to make you happy, then do it.

I'd be less inclined to say the above if you're going to be in debt afterwards.

The other thing on the tip of tongue is memories are made with moments and loved ones, not things. The kids won't feel all fuzzy at the memory of the garland and wreath when they look back. They will remember the laughs, or the movie night.

But as said, if it's what you want and you believe it will make Christmas, buy the things.

So have you been throwing away the decorations every year too?

That does seem like quite a lot. But once you've bought the tree and decs, you don't need to buy them again. We have a family tradition of buying one new bauble for the tree, and one new Christmas-related ornament each year. That's about £30 max.
Our tree is about 15 years old and still going strong. It's had a few new strings of lights over the years, but otherwise that's it.

Presents come to about £400 for me, DH and 2 primary-aged kids. Then we spend about another £100 from our own money for our respective birth families and the odd friend. I buy stocking stuffers as I see them throughout the year, usually starting in the January sales for things like smellies. We've got plenty of storage space, so it's not an issue to store stuff. That really helps spread the cost.

We don't do anything too mental for food. We've found in previous years that it just doesn't get eaten. Neither DH nor I are bothered enough to drink alcohol and are happy to do J2Os the same as the kids. We spread the cost of festive foods over the month or so before Christmas, when they start appearing in the shops, so it's not one big spend all at once.
We probably spend about £200 on food specifically intended for Christmas.

I'd say our Christmas comes in at about £700-£800.

That's your choice. Up to you to decide if you can afford it.

Regardless of the money, this post is very strange.

I can’t imagine anymore who throws away a tree and decorations every year, but has no concept of buying decorations from B&M or home bargains etc. You want to save money but you seem baffled by the concept of shopping cheaper, cutting back on unnecessary clothes etc or making your own wreath etc.

You can get very cheap decorations and garlands at Tesco. You can do a homemade wreath.
and outfits at Vinted for fraction of a price.
you can also trim down a cost of presents.