Frugal but fun Christmas

[littleshebear]

Hi to you all- I am in a position that probably a lot of people are in for one reason or another- very little money and Christmas looming- but I still want to have a lovely time but without all the stress of paying for rubbish that noone actually wants or needs- but also do not want to fall out with anyone! I have had an awful year and been ill and have had to reduce my hours at work so even less money than usual. But also I want a lovely Christmas.I have already told my kids there will be much less money this year and they have been ok about it.

Does anyone have any tips on how to achieve this? I still want to have fun! I have thought of making some presents- stockings for mum and sisters to whom I'm very close and filling with bits and bobs- where to get cheap fabric to do this? I have already bought some bargain seeds to put in one of them for my sister who is a keen gardener. Also for nieces thought of doing cookie recipes in a jar- but most of recipes on line American? Would like to make sister in law a cake and send it in post but worried it will be a bit heavy- can you think of anything else that I could make and send that won't be too heavy and will keep?I can knit (slowly!)and cook but my sewing skills are basic!

Also want to do more fun things with kids- have thought of making gingerbread house, but can anyone think of anything else? We will go to Christmas markets and also to forest to get Christmas tree too which have already turned into traditions. I will have bit more time which is a positive, and am trying to see this as an opportunity to improve the festive season rather than the reverse!

what about buying plain brown paper and getting the kids to potato stamp them (eg xmas tree shapes)to us as xmas paper, cheaper and they will enjoy it, ginger bread and short bread biscuits to hang on the tree

for cheaper presents last year, i found a jar of hard boiled sweets ( i think they were in the shape of xmas trees) in Aldi for about £2.99 and i think they have some this year, they were ideal for my dad. he loved them, my sister got a gift bag full of toiletries, i got one a week whilst i was shopping (try places like wilkinson, poundland and savers keep your eye out for offersa as wekll as the summermarket. i usually buy gift bags for each person and then if i see anything on offer i buy it and then decide later (depending on how much everone has) who gets what. usually i set a limit fr each person and everyone gets a few little things rather than one big thing. that way i can spread the cost and it everyone has lots of presents to open.

what about knitting your sister a scarf? sof

Home made decoraions with the kids for the tree. Make cookie decorations & varnish them as gifts, I have a recipe somewhere I'll root out if you'd like.

Home made sweets
Buy each of your kids something from your local pound shop each week (or somewhere along those lines) from now until xmas & one main pressy each. I've been doing thi for my two all year as their birthdays fall sooooooo close to xmas & will split what I have between xmas & birthdays.

Pine cones sprinkled with glitter as home made decs are pretty & my dd likes to do them.

I'll be watching this with interest as I'm always after something to do with my dd & as you said, spending as little as possible while still having a good time. I'll probably think of some other stuff too, I had a bad xmas a couple of years ago & mn was so helpful in making it a better time of year for us

Scarves are a good idea- my darling eldest daughter has said she'd like a jumper! Not sure if I'd finish it though-but I can do quite complicated knitting, just not very quick so I will look for scarf patterns- I like the idea of plain brown paper and potato stamping-also I have just thought will try to get my eldest son(17!) to design a Christmas card and we can make our own- he's doing Art A-level- may be way to get him involved -although he would probably still do potato stamping too!

And good idea to start cheap stocking filler shopping now- was in Aldi yesterday and they had poshish looking sweets- may pop back and get some. Thanks to you both.

Bargain Books is always good for inexpensive presents. Also look out for Asda's 3 bottles of wine for £12 offers. You can get bottles that on their own cost up to £8. As for Christmas dinner, my family all get together and we each bring something, mum does the turkey and trimmings, I bring the ham, my sister does the starters and my bro buys dessert. There are always enough leftovers for us all to bring some home. If it is just immediate family do a chicken instead of turkey.

we thread popcorn for the tree,make our own paperchains(although last year we had expensive brought ones!),make collage cards,hand print xmas tree for the wall(cut out lots of green hand prints and style in shape of tree with pretty fairy or star at the top-looks very cool and its sweet to find one from years ago with baby hands!).im sure we do more but cant think!

we have a day -usually about 21st as ds2 birthday is 19th of making things and invite everyone round!we put up the decorations whilst making more and making mince pies etc!really good fun!

How do you thread popcorn and do you colour it? If so how?

Also how do you make your own paperchains?

We are on a tight tight budget this year (and probably for a good few years to come!) but I want to make it special esp. for dd, who will be 3 and it will be the first year she will know whats going on.

Will definatly be decorating pine cones with her - love that idea!

Brilliant thread. I love the idea for a handprint christmas tree. I think we will definitely do that this year.

How about setting the planning for this as a challenge for all your family? And instead of thinking about it as a frugal Christmas thinking about it as a "re-evaluating values" Christmas? I know someone who did this with their family - they weren't short of money, but wanted everyone to apply thought rather than spending. One of their children made sweets for the family & decorated jars etc as containers; another took a trip to the local library and borrowed books chosen according to family member interests for free; another did a promises book (cooking a meal/doing the ironing). I think we could all benefit from doing more of this - perhaps more so when money isn't the issue, ironically.

Homemade paper chains-

Cut strips of wrapping paper (shiny Christmas, patterned or plain) and use tape to stick ends together to form the links. Thread a strip through a link and secure it's ends to make the next link and so on. If several people are making chains, you can join all their chains together like this. Good for all ages, and cheap if you buy value packs/rolls of gift wrap. I found this method much better than using the gummed paper strips that you can buy commercially, because the latter tend to come apart due to central heating, etc.

It is most effective if you use a mix of colours. For added glitz, sequins can be glued to the plain strips, but use a pva glue to make sure they stay stuck.

The chains should stay up if held by blu tack.

watching with interest as I want a more home made christmas this year!

Another little thing you can do with glittery pine cones is to stick them down on a bed of cotton wool balls so it looks like they are standing up in snow - DH did this last year with DS and I was so impressed when I got home from work!

Last year I made some Christmas shaped shortbread biscuits with DS as presents for people and we decorated with star sprinkles. Wrapped them in clear cellophane florist wrap with stars on (big roll quite cheap on ebay and I have used it for lots of presents)

I read a good tip last year for toddler age children of saving things you would be buying anyway for their stocking, such as a new toothbrush, topping up crayons/socks etc and we also did this for DS last year.

we just make the popcorn in the popcorn maker and thread it together with a needle and thread and hang it round the tree!i'll try to find a photo-it sounds crap but looks good.we dont colour it but you could with food colouring.
for the paper chains the dc cut up magazines,catalogues etc into strips and stick them all together.

We did this last year and had a great Christmas!

I made quilts for the kids, and things like preserved lemons, cakes and cookies and jams for family and friends. I also made some 'promise' stones for family - I wrote inspirational verses from the Bible (we are Christian) with silver pen onto some large, smooth, flatish stones that I had picked up from the beach during our holiday in Devon in the summer. I then tied 3 together with pretty ribbon. They were a real hit! You could write inspirational quotes instead if you are not religious.

Another thing we did was spend the afternoon as a family making and painting saltdough shapes for tree decorations. We also strung some together to make garlands.

The kids did some wonderful artwork (paint, glitter etc) on some cheap canvases I bought, which we gave as gifts to their grandmother and godmother.

I enjoyed this Christmas more than any other, and we actually went into January without having spent a penny on credit, and actually with a healthier bank balance than ever before at that time of year!

We've done away with all the adults buying each other presents. Instead all the names go in a hat and we set an approximate budget and buy/ make one really nice thing. It makes present opening much more fun as I think more effort goes into each purchase. We've done it at £5, £10 and £20.

For the kids I've filled their stockings from the car boot sale for the last couple of years. Usually a couple of books, some cars, some action type figures, a cuddly toy, a tube of sweets, the obligatory orange and a 50p.

For decorations I love the popcorn idea but the dog loves it to!

I buy the big tins of sweets like miniature heros and celebrations then make them into garlands and thread them individually to hang on the tree (currently £10 for 2 big tins in Asda). Last year I put a twig in a pot with modelling clay in the bottom to hold it and hung lots of sweets. We had it on the table with coffee after the Christmas meal.

I really like white snowflakes (circles of paper folded and shapes cut along the edges) hanging in the windows and all the kids can join in making them because it doesn't matter whether the patterns they cut are neat or chunky they look good.

Another favorite is to tape or hang a stick of cinnamon near where the steam from the kettle comes out. Its a wonderful smell far cheaper than scented candles and Christmas air freshners.

Charity shops are your friend. You can fill your DCs stockings for astoundingly little with charity shop stuff - soft toys (often still with the original price tags), books, videos....

Buy cheapo wrapping paper and cards from wilkos or poundland. Oh, and the cheapo wrapping paper also makes good paper chains with the help of a stapler.

In a rush but I've been trying to spend less the past couple of years

Last year did homemade hampers for adult family members - jam with plums from our tree (made it in the summer when we had loads of fruit), cranberry sauce (so easy to make and way tastier than shop bought, cookies, little Christmas cakes, homemade sweets, lemon curd (literally a 10 minute job, I have recipe if anyone is interested)

Previous year we made a CD with some of our favourite carols on (DH and I both fairly musical) - FIL and my mum loved it.

I'm sure I have lots more ideas but will check on this thread later, got to take DS2 to kindergarten...

This is a great thread - my DP has just lost his job and I'm on part-time hours so we are being really frugal this year!!
The local butcher near me has a 'Christmas Club' you can pay into to pay off the turkey etc - he starts it in September and I always join. I also invite relatives, so they can contribute to the dinner.
Throughout the year I try to buy one or two things in the sales and put them away for pressies. In Accessorize recently I bought some scarves and belts for £3 each - great for teenagers.
Last year I also made it clear to family & friends we were only exchanging 'token' presents - there's some really nice gifts for about a tenner and it's fun finding bargains.

Another general tip - I've also stopped doing big 'weekly shops' which cost about £100 and there was never anything for tea! I now buy a meat pack from the butchers (£10-12) and a bag of veg from a local farmer(£6) and that does about 4 dinners. I only spend about £40 a week in Tesco now on essentials.

I'm going to have a go at blanching & pre-freezing the Christmas veg this year to save time & then I can pick it up at my leisure instead of running around in the crush at the last minute. I did Nigella's brining of the turkey last year, only I just did a turkey leg - twas lush and a complete bargain. Her chilli jam is very good too - very easy & makes a lovely present. Quite festive looking. I'm going to try to make some homemade liqueurs this year as well, using hedgerow/free fruit & Lidl/Aldi vodka or gin. This Delia recipe sounds nice & festive & frugal to boot.
Christmas fabric - I seem to think Ikea do something like this, nearer the event but not sure. I bought some yonks ago but can't remember where exactly now.
One year we had some mates over just before Xmas for a meal. They brought me a glass bowl with glass beads and narcissus bulbs. You just added water. They bloomed a couple of weeks after Christmas and the smell was out of this world - really beautiful & it perfumed the whole house. I think you could probably do something similar with charity shop glass bowls and get a similar result. They were white doubles & I imagine a dwarf variety - only about 6 inches tall.

This year DD1 (3) is making calendars for her grandparents. I got the little calendar books from eBay for £2 Inc postage and were doing a season theme eg. For autumn were going to go to the park and collect leaves to do leaf prints and for spring we got some flowers and pressed them ready to make a picture from them. It means DD gets a whole four days worth of crafty things to do and the grandparents get a lovely gift which costs me no more than a few pounds :)

DS decorated photo frames for the grandparents last year. Cheap wooden frames from IKEA, painted with poster-paint/PVA glue mix, lots of sparkles and glitter etc - framing a snapshot of him and his baby sister. Very popular and still on display.

Great thread! I make homemade toffee and caramels for people which are cheap to make if you don't add lots of extra (like nuts or chocolate etc). More expensive but equally nice is making chocolates and marzepan. Marzepan can be moddled into lovely fat pigs and santa couples (lots of potential for a bit of humour here...hahah). Get the dc to make Christmas cards, much nicer being given a home made card than a shop bought one. You can pick up coloured thick paper from Rymans for a few pounds and get some glitter and glue and a nice felt pen or paint and away you go!

Planning I find is key, so from november onwards fill up your freezer and larder. Plan meals over Christmas with family so that you aren't always eating at home. Visiting is lovely and if its tight at home its useful in a way too not having all meals at home. And if you've made something nice you can bring that as a gift and a thanks for haivng you over.

Keeping an eye out for good gifts is also a good idea. I also give away things that others have kindly given me during the year. Sounds awful but if I have been given something that I don't need/want/will use and I think someone else will like it I don't see the problem as such, though its perhaps frowned upon.

I'll keep my eyes on this thread

Ooh and really cheap to make is short bread (its basically butter and flour!) and if cut into festive shapes its a lovely gift and stocking filler too.

What about making your own candles? The ingredients and recipies can be found online and you could buy some containers from charity shops. Chintzy cups and saucers are lovely.

Here is Lauriefairycake's infamous candle making thread for inspirational purposes.