Frugal Christmas ideas

[DitaVonCheese]

Another idea for an NCT newsletter article, possibly - any good frugal Christmas tips? Plus we're broke so will be good to hear other's ideas

In our family we've agreed not to do adult-to-adult presents any more but just get them for the kids instead - none of us really need any more stuff (including the children tbh). And have cut down on the cost of the children's presents by getting them over the course of the year when I've seen stuff they'd like, esp if reduced, rather than panic-buying at the last minute.

Also find NCT NNSs are great for stocking fillers for DD - she's only 3 so doesn't care yet whether things are new, just new to her :) She loves a game they play at nursery where they have a big box with lots of small toys that correspond to nursery rhymes in it - each child takes a toy in turn and they sing that song - so was thinking of putting one of those together for her stocking this year.

Also it was her birthday a month or so ago and had a clearout of toys just before that, so will be selling them at the NCT NNS in November to raise some Christmas funds :)

Re. the rhyme box, what a fantastic idea! DS is 20mo so will definitely sort one of those out for him :)

My favourite frugal tip is to arrange a big family Christmas lunch and assign out all items of food and drink so that everyone drops off their bit to the cook at some point in the week leading up to Christmas, then gets together on the day for a lovely meal that hasn't cost anyone a huge amount of money.

Fab idea re sharing out dinner costs :)

The official name of the rhyme box thingy is What's In the Box? and you have to pass the box around each child in turn and sing (while they bang excitedly on the lid): "What's in the box? What's in the box? E-I-agio (or addio 20 miles down the road where I grew up but seems to be agio round here), what's in the box? [Name] have a look, [name] have a look, E-I-agio, [name] have a look!"

(We have borrowed a story bag from school this week which contains a fox-shaped backpack, so amusingly we have also been playing What's in the Fox? )