My husband says I’m basically a Christmas Elf and we have also had Christmas’s with not more that two beans to rub together so thought I could give you some suggestions...
Providing the £40 is for Christmas and not to last you longer...
£10/12 for Christmas dinner, Farmfoods, Aldi’s Lidl etc, you could definitely, especially as you don’t need to include your fruit and veg, choose wisely with treats that can double up as experiences, popcorn for Christmas movie night, hot chocolate for Christmas Eve.
Utilise what you already have in the house or can get hold off, can you get Oranges on your healthy start vouchers, my DD absolutely loves helping me bake these and then stringing them up and I defy anyone that won’t feel Christmassy with the smell of orange wafting around.
Do you have flour, etc, if not spend a couple of £ on a few baking bits, salt dough for Christmas ornaments and then also to make biscuits , stick some Christmas music on and have a day of making.
Cut Snow flake paper decorations for hanging on windows and from ceiling. Another trick I learned this year is Bicarbonate of soda mixed with a water and frozen makes snow, so many fun things to do with that, last week my DD’s had a North Pole bath where I made icebergs with shaving foam and glitter, they played with the real snow and drank hot chocolate and they said it was the best day EVER!!
Elf of the Shelf, not everyone’s cup of tea but my DD’s have always absolutely loved it and always one of their favourite part of the Christmas time, no elf really needed, does she have a favourite teddy that could do kind/naughty things while she is sleeping?
Go to the library to read Christmas books, go out a walk in the dark and see the lights, go to a children’s centred church service, some of them can be really nice. Time these things so that you are walking in out of the cold to the smell of baking or your oranges cooking...
Where do you live can you go foraging for holly, ivy etc?...
My DD and I are reading Christmas stories by Alison Uttley and it’s great for simplifying Christmas and enjoying it the way it used to be done with less things but just as much happiness, we have made kissing bunches, mince meat pies for neighbours and fat balls for robins stockings, home made Christmas cards which we have them hand delivered, it’s so lovely for teaching children Christmas isn’t always about presents.
Christmas Eve, Santa’s footprints (stencil made with paper and flour over the top, Santa’s lost button (note left somewhere saying that he enjoyed your baking so much that his jacket has popped open and he has lost a button somewhere, hide an old button with a bit of red thread through it, my 12 year old will absolutely not settle if the button she found when she was 6 is not left out to remind him we still have it!! Track Santa on NORAD website, make sure you borrow a copy of the Night before Christmas so you can read together before bed.
Once terms of presents you have had lots of good suggestions and I’m quite sure you could fill a pillow case full from the likes of the bargain shops, the works and supermarkets etc make sure you buy a “special” tree/Christmas decoration that Santa has left just for her as she has been such a good and kind girl all year round (you can get these as little as 50p)
Grownups can very rarely remember what they got for Christmas’s but they do remember what it felt like to be excited, loved and happy and you don’t need a lot of money to that.
Lastly be kind to yourself, you sound like a lovely mum and your little girl is very lucky to have you, don’t forget that.
Hope you both have a Christmas to remember. ❤️