Christmas for the totally skint...

[wheresmymojo]

I'm feeling very sorry for myself as both me & DH love Christmas, we even got married on the 1st December to have a vague Christmas theme (not in a cheesy way, I promise!).

Anyway we have been hit very hard by COVID financially. We can't afford a tree or presents.

Thankfully we have no DC.

If you were in our shoes what would you do that doesn't cost very much money to make it enjoyable?

Thoughts so far:

• Swap one book on Christmas Eve as presents and spend the evening eating chocolate and reading our new books (apparently this is a thing in Iceland?)

• Making extra Christmas decorations from natural stuff (I have a Pinterest board of ideas)

Christmas dinner itself will be with PILs so we're lucky that it will be normal for that bit...

What else?

Make a junk tree.

@AintOverUntilTheCatLadySings has some brilliant advice here op. I like all these ideas

You could both plan a romantic evening in for the other, cook their favourite meal, favourite film, candles, flowers, games, massage, pampering, just cheap bits but giving an evening of luxury

My younger siblings set a challenge where we all had to find gifts for each other that were totally free.it was quite amazing what people managed to find with a bit of hunting and gave us a fun challenge.

For Halloween we made a twig tree. Loved it that much it's now on the dining room table and has little baubles on. You could make similar and then spend an evening making salt dough decorations. Thats incredibly cheap and they look great. I also made plaster of Paris Halloween Deccys and painted them with watercolours from amazon (£3 delivered). £1 lights from the pound shop and it will look great.

Are you in or near a town? A nice pre-Christmas evening could be to pack a flask of hot chocolate and go for a walk around the town looking at the Christmas lights. We’re near London so do this on a big scale but even a medium size town can have nice street lights, pretty shop windows etc.

Normally I’d suggest free things like carol services but I guess not this year.

Christmas wreaths are lovely to make, you can go for a walk and collect greenery, take secateurs with you. Use ivy to make the 'frame'.
Think about volunteering in your local community? Will warm the cockles ❤️

I second a twig/branch tree. Paint with some left over white emulsion for that snowy Christmas look.
Pinterest has loads of ideas. I’m going to do an activity advent calendar things such as write Christmas cards, make mince pies etc.

@NeverTwerkNaked

My younger siblings set a challenge where we all had to find gifts for each other that were totally free.it was quite amazing what people managed to find with a bit of hunting and gave us a fun challenge.

I love that idea

DIY chocolate coin advent.
Cheese board
Christmas music
DIY wreath making
Volunteer time to a charity age concern rspca
Christmas lights walk

I would ask on local groups for older fake trees, even if they are a bit bare they can be rescued with decorations and tinsel etc. which can also be requested. Any reason you don't have decs from previous years?

How about challenging each other to come up with free gift ideas - so you could take finished with books to a book swap phone box/shelf etc, you could bake something like shortbread (limitd ingredients most people have) or ginger bread cookies etc, make or upcycle scrap things with scrap paint etc - again freecycle or gumtree, find an old jumper and make mittens or wrist warmers if no longer useful. FOld some cranes for good luck, junk modelling - so a la blue peter for pen hlders and drawer tidies etc, can you sew? sew something small from scraps of fabric. Scrap book of photo memories t tell a story of a holiday or time away or family etc,

Home made decorations are great too - paper chains, popcorn, dried orange slices and cinamon sticks. You could locate some free baubles and peronalise them or paint to be unique.

ooh also have an activities Jar - so you each get 12 ideas to put in a jar and pull one out each day - so hot chocolate and marshmallows one day, make gingerbread cookies another (can also use on a painted branch instead of a tree) go for a walk for holly/evergreens, go window shopping or too look at town lights or to walk round a farmers market etc. so that would make it festive.

I am sorry to hear you're in that situation.

I make wreaths from foraged greenery every year (and I am not particularly crafty). I dont use a shop bought frame or base, instead I cut a couple of branches of bendy, new growth (I use willow but I suppose whatever grows local to you...) you know when a tree has been damaged in the wind, it often sends out straight, long bendy sticks? That's what I use. Then I persuade them into a circular(ish) shape and hold in place using whatever I have to hand - normally gardening wire, but one year I did use a little gaffe tape.
The build it up with other foliage in layers. Then add some pinecones, maybe a few sprigs of berried holly if I can find it.
Voila, totally free wreath!

Also paper snowflakes from white paper folded into 6ths or 12ths. You can create some incredibly intricate ones with a bit of practice, and I find them quite satisfying to make. Pinterest is good for templates/ideas to get you started.

Could you make a small "tree"? Even if it is a foraged, decorated stick in a pot, (be wary of woodworm and bugs) or driftwood, or something made from paper or felt that represents a tree.

Lots of scope for free/cheap homemade decorations.

I second making your own tree with tree branches, gather lots of greenery to decorate the house, Christmas music, cosy lamps, book swapping and chocolate. That sounds perfect to me.

Forgot to add, for several years me and DH did a £10 Pound Shop Christmas, which worked pretty well, it's surprising what you can get. For the past couple of years we've gone upmarket and we go mad in Home Bargains.

Second hand books can be bought very cheaply from charity shops etc. Jigsaws too, if you aren't fussed about the picture on them (you could try to find the tackiest possible!) Nice way to spend a winter's evening maybe?
Or set quizzes, or cryptic puzzles for each other if you are into that kind of thing.

Make Christmas for someone else? There is always a need for volunteers at Christmas. There's lots of people whose plans are even more limited than yours. You're having a lean year. But you've had previous Christmases, and will have more to come. You could help make a memory for someone else. There's a lot of fun in that.

You can make a wreath out of things you can pick up whilst on a walk (moss, Holly, berries etc) all you need is a wire wreath frame and some wire or even string. You can also collect pine cones, stick them in the oven to get them to open up, paint them or put glitter on them. If you wait until a few days before Christmas you can usually get a real tree for £1, sometimes free.

I think just being together and watching cheesy Christmas films is pretty special. Lots of people will be on their own for Christmas and many would happily rather have someone special with them then would presents.

@JayBag

Previous years b&q have had Christmas trees left outside their stores on Christmas eve to be taken (I seem to remember they were free but they may have asked for a donation). It could be worth having a look and spending the evening decorating the tree

To add to this - a lot of our local schools leave their trees outside with a 'take me' sign after the schools have broken up

I used to work for b&q - Dec 15 is when they normally reduce their real trees to £5 and under

Cheese, wine and chocolate from Aldi.

Where do you live? If you're in or around London there's a fb group called "the golden hearted" where people post things they are giving away and people can post if they're in need of things, there's always lots of nice bits that could be used as presents and Christmas Dec's up for grabs if you can collect.
If not free cycle is another good shout and fb marketplace.

PM me If you’re anywhere near Monmouth - I have a fake tree and decorations in the loft going spare.

I don't think carols will happen this year, singing is one of the highest risk COVID things

@JayBag

Previous years b&q have had Christmas trees left outside their stores on Christmas eve to be taken (I seem to remember they were free but they may have asked for a donation). It could be worth having a look and spending the evening decorating the tree

Oooh!

This would be great!

I'm definitely thinking from the thread so far:

• Board games (we have some we haven't even played)

• Decorating found branches and such with the decorations we have and seeing if we can get a free tree on Xmas eve

• Vouchers and letters/poems to swap

• Winter walks