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 ?

I have seen quite a few trees for sale on FB marketplace. And decorations. And charity shops often have things too. I follow a few American FB accounts of people who go ‘thrifting’ and am so jealous of their thrift stores. So much lovely stuff. And lots of Christmas decor.

I think £1k is quite an easy amount to spend at Christmas and I think we may have at least once. I'm thinking meals out, work do, Christmas light trails, Santa visit, school fayre, clothes, food, drink, gifts. I think it takes effort, self-control and compromise to spend less and I'm trying hard!

🎣

3/10

At first it sounds ridiculous because you listed the unimportant superficial stuff first that leave you thinking 'why are you having to buy new decor and lights?' and 'how much can matching PJs cost' etc... but then at the end you list its for presents and money gifts too, and surely that depends on how many people you buy for and at what amount. If theres several + the other things £1k isn't wild.

Like if your buying gifts for your own 2 kids, DH, 8 nieces/nephew, your parents, 3 sibling with partners, a few aunts/uncles, ILs etc... then it will be much more than if your say single mam of one with no sibling and only 1 parent to buy for etc...

I spend about £650-ish on Christmas and its basically just me, DH, our 3 kids and one family member to buy for so quite a 'small' group.

I think you are realising just how consumerist Christmas is?

I agree that the cost of Christmas decorations is shocking. I have very carefully selected mine, and reuse ours every year, we have as many as we can reasonably fit in storage in our house, yet when we get everything out it looks... sparse. Making it look anything like Christmas is made to look in magazines, films and indeed, parts of Instagram is A LOT of money and effort. That's why the acquisitive-minded are so into it. It's an acceptable way of displaying your wealth.

I don't think there is anything wrong with investing in a bunch of Christmas decorations to really 'do' the house in one go, so it all matches, is a bad idea. But yeah, it would cost a lot.

I didnt see that in the original post

I was £700 in presents alone and still have more to get. So probably gonna be close to £1000 too.
I dont even have kids

It's helpful to read all of the OP's posts.

She says she has "always been poor" and "I would be using savings which I am saving for something important... and I would have to cut back a lot in January"

Burning all that for a bunch of tat is very short-sighted.

The kids would remember baking cookies, making paper-chain garlands or play dough baubles a lot longer than they would remember standing passively by while mom puts hundreds of pounds worth of cheap imported tat all over the house.

Get them involved in creating; that is how kids' "memories" are made.

I’m taking 3 GC to see Matilda on Christmas Eve….with parking….ice creams…meal after it will cost over 400 …I mean I’ve got it so I don’t mind but easy to see how it mounts up quickly

Mine will definitely come in under 1000.

Decorations/tree are all already owned and in cupboard. Tree 20 years old. Me and DD bought one new dec that was less than a fiver.

Food - a sibling is hosting and I will contribute £100. But we won't bother exchanging presents. Me and DH won't bother with presents either, but we will get our teens stuff and little DNs a present each, altogether a few hundred.

I consider us to be well off. I don't like spending money on Christmas. The things I'm buying for my teens are things that they will use for years.

I hate that look.

Out tree has meaningful decorations we’ve collected over many years. I have a few other things and lanterns I’ve made or had for years, a brass ring I bend greenery round and then it’s holly I pick , a real tree , Christmas cards, twinkle lights, tealights, a bunch of winterberry and anything homemade if I’m in to that. Only decoration I buy is a real tree but if you have an artificial one in the loft you wouldn’t even need to do that.

Bake some orange slices and make orange slice garlands, get some ribbon and tie bows onto your Christmas tree if you haven’t got many decs. Display your cards. There are loads of decs you can make out of stuff you’ve got online. Don’t do overpriced Xmas experiences. Make a list of cheap / free things you can do. Do not spend a fortune on presents. Cut it right down and buy meaningful things. Don’t fill stockings with tat, things they’ll use or eat. Something to read, something funny.

You can go to small local theatres and amateur theatres for a fraction of the cost of the WE.

Of course you can…it can cost as much or as little as you want it to….but easy to see how it adds up ….this isn’t the WE …that would be more expensive still

This sounds fine to me.I usually put Christmas gifts on paypal credit and pay it back within the 4 month interest free period. Great way to make it more affordable.

Oh I didn’t mean you, that was for the OP.

Okay noted 😊

Sounds reasonable to me if you can afford it!
I will probably spend about £750 on presents
£150 on food £150 on drinks
Normally nothing on decorations but decided to get a new tree this year which was £100
I’ve also spent £175 on Xmas themed Lego!

I completely understand why you want to make Christmas as perfect as possible for your family, I really do, however your savings are your security and going over the top now will bring stress later on. A far better option is to challenge yourself to a low spend/low worry Christmas. I love Christmas and already have my decs up, it's looking so cosy and very festive right now and I have sourced most of it over the years from charity shops!
Wishing you all the best OP, for Christmas and in the future x

I remember our first Christmas having a tree and we had one decoration on it. Now we have a tree covered in things the kids have made or one-off decorations we have bought over the years.

Much better than a house full of decorations bought in one year from home bargains!

If there's ever a time for a splurge, it's Christmas! And if you've traditionally struggled financially - and emotionally - at this time of year, it seems natural to me that a bit of a lavish Christmas would be very meaningful for you. And also that you might feel quite vulnerable about your changed circumstances.

I hope your Christmas is wonderful.

Your kids will have a wonderful Christmas, and so will you, if you concentrate on telling everyone you want it to be a lovely day with no arguing, nastiness, etc. .

That doesn't cost money.

You can make decorations for pennies that look lovely - get creative and kids love doing that. You can make Christmas cake. You decorate the house as close to Christmas as possible to leave it up 12 days.

You are not going to enjoy Christmas- now one is- if they are having enforced fun in elf pjamas and you get upset and angry when someone isn't ' trying' and bang on about money.

No one I know does outfits, Christmas eve gifts, buys party food if no party. We don't drink - too busy- so we already know there won't be any drunken arguing:)

You can do it cheaply and small and it still be lovely. Ask friends and family if they have anything they'd like to gift you (so many of our lights / decs have come from MIL because she likes to change hers up regularly). Buy a small, cheap tree and a multi pack of baubles (Argos usually do them) then make decs. But a couple of new ones each year and build up the collection, make it a tradition to go out and choose one each or something.

Forage and make a wreath or decor for the door from local parks or something.

But the real joy comes from being together, doing the festive things (making biscuits, looking at the lights etc). We could afford to do what you're talking about but we don't, because we'd rather spend that money on life and things to do together.

It’s so obviously a journalist looking for tips on cutting down Christmas cost