How much do you honestly spend on Christmas each year?

[MrsTxx]

As a family of 3 I’d say we spend around £300 on DS including clothes
Around £200 on eachother each
£200 on food (we host the family) and nice bits
£100 on alcohol
£400 on gifts for family (large family both sides)
So about £1200 in total, which we save up for throughout the year.
Interested in other peoples budgets and how they spend at Christmas

£200 each on 3 kids - £600
£20 each on 3 nephews - £60
Sibling - £40
Parent - £60
Parents in law - £80
Sibling in law - £40
Grandparent - £10
Teachers - £30
Dogs - £30
Christmas days and nights out - £300
Christmas food - £150
Christmas cards and stamps - £30
Christmas tree £70
£1500 plus charity contributions

Used to spend a lot more but there was no need for it.

Around 2k but most of that is saved for each month - single Mum and like to be frivolous at Xmas as I have to watch the budget most of the year.

I’ve never added it up. I cater for 6, ordinarily, MIL buys the turkey and other bits and stuff for Boxing Day, so food doesn’t cost loads. I make the cake. We buy wine when there’s a 25% off 6 bottles
Presents, we’re not materialistic in the least, so it’s mostly token things for grown ups. DD isn’t materialistic either, although she has been talking about a Nintendo switch, it’s the first “big” thing she’s mentioned (she’s 8)

For me, the joy is in the prep, the crafting, cake baking, Christmas lights switch ons, tree decorating, evening trip to the big garden centre and present wrapping. I just LOVE the lead up :)

We get the M&S dine in for £12 quite regularly but we don’t like wine. We put all the bottles away to give away as gifts at Christmas.
I sent about 12 bottles to my daughter’s nursery and the rest would normally be given out to people who pop in with gifts for the kids or whatever but covid prohibited pop ins this year.
They really do come in handy.

Well scratch that! It looks like they’ve stopped doing wine as part of their offer!

We love christmas here - its the only time of year that me, DP and DC get to spend a whole week at home together.

Looks like I spend over 2k - but I save money towards it all year round.

DS1 (7yo) 500 between games/toys/stocking fillers/sports clothing etc
DS2 (2yo) 300 all in between toys and clothes
DP probably 300
My parents, siblings, nieces and nephews - 350
New decorations/lights 100
Trip to see Santa incl meal 300
Christmas food and drink 500

Between 3,000 - 4,000 each year. That includes gifts, food, trips out etc. The whole shebang.

*About £650 this year for gifts, of which about £250 is for dc, though that includes main present, stocking, an advent with gifts & activities plus any new bits for our Christmas Eve Box. In a lean year I could cut a third off that without feeling like I was scrimping, it's nice to not have to count every penny though!
*Food maybe £150, I don't get loads of snacks just some favourite bits & a few upgrades to fancier versions of things we'd usually have. We usually host between Christmas & NY & make a big takeaway-style spread. None of us are big drinkers, maybe one bottle of spirits or liqueur to top up the collection.
*Outings are included as part of our advent calendar, as is food bank donation.
*Maybe another £150 on random bits. I've bought a few new Christmas books & decorations already; festive jumpers/ T-shirts & cards/wrap etc I get in the Jan sales. I'd like some outdoor lights this year too.

All in probably around £1k over the year as I buy when I see things. If I had the budget I'd spend more on close family other than DC (& on me from DC!!! 🎁) & maybe 1 or 2 more expensive events, and a big real tree 🎄 but I love the Christmas traditions I've created for us & our Christmas suits our family.

festive jumpers/ T-shirts & cards/wrap etc I get in the Jan sales.

Yes me too - I didn’t include bits like this in my total, because I laid in a big stash of super-cheap sale cards and wrap a few years ago and am still working my way through them! About 4-5 years ago the big high street name shops seemed to go massively overboard for Christmas and then were discounting huge amounts of stuff often to pennies in the sales - John Lewis, M&S, Boots, Paperchase etc. I stocked up on tons of Christmas bits at really silly prices, like 10p each for rolls of nice wrapping paper.

For the last 3/4 years or so the shops seem to have stopped doing that - clearly they’ve cut back on orders or have got better stock control (and of course there’s been the pandemic, though I noticed well before that that the big retailers weren’t overstocking and then discounting after Christmas quite as much as they had been).

I shouldn’t run out of Christmas cards for a good few years yet though 😂

I'm trying to cut down this year. Not necessarily by ending up with less, but I want to do a lot more homemade food whereas I usually buy a lot in, for example I make dinner from scratch but buy pudding, party food etc, and I want to scrap that this year and make beautiful but simple seasonal food.

I want to cut down on presents as the kids have a lot and also have autumn winter birthdays.

My budget is £1200 but realistically will go a couple of hundred pounds over. This is actually consistent with the last couple of years.

I am very grateful I am able to save, I don't do credit and I have had years when I have had about £300 to spend all in. I think I could have a fantastic Christmas on much less that £1200 but it's the gifts for the DC that get me.

And I'm another on a quite low income but I save and plan hard for Christmas as it's important to me and I LOVE it :)

Cv-19 has provided an invaluable opportunity to cut down on expenditure and big stressful family get togethers.

I’ve established a budget for this year and I think gifts will probably tot up to £900. I do have a lot of immediate family plus a few kids of friends who get something small - think its 23, but genuinely, these people are parents, siblings, niblings and grandparents for the most part.

I will probably spend another £200 on social things, some food bits for guests (I won’t be doing dinner etc as I go to family) and maybe the odd decoration.

I did vow to cut the number of gifts down however. This year I want to buy one quality item/experience per person, except for my mum and stepdad (whose love languages is gifts and do a lot for me and deserve it!). I’m tired of wrapping and the mental energy of looking for ‘bits’ because it doesnt feel enough.

In previous years I have budgeted for £1000 to include all gifts (2 dc, family and friends) and food. But this year I plan on spending a lot less and putting it towards a holiday instead. DC’s are teens and don’t really need/want anything, our house is full of tat from previous years. So I plan on spending around £100 on each dc and then around £200 on all other gifts so £400 all in

I read once that for most people it’s about 5% of their annual income.
I think that’s probably right for us

@ByThePool2021

I read once that for most people it’s about 5% of their annual income. I think that’s probably right for us

I hadn't heard that before but doing the math its right for me lol.

I’d never mention how much I spend, everyone’s financial situation is different and what is a lot to one family is like pennies to another, and what is a stocking filler to one, is a main gift to someone else.

Last year, i spent just over £1000 on DPs presents. With food, we had a simple meal with trimmings then I baked a cake, so maybe £50 on food in total

@ByThePool2021

I read once that for most people it’s about 5% of their annual income. I think that’s probably right for us

That's about right, I'd say in total that's what we spend on everything.

@ByThePool2021

I’d never mention how much I spend, everyone’s financial situation is different and what is a lot to one family is like pennies to another, and what is a stocking filler to one, is a main gift to someone else.

I was shocked by stockings when I started reading thread on here, it amazes me how wildly different they can be.

As a kid we just really got fruit and nuts in a stocking but on here I saw people calling £60 aftershaves and expensive make up etc... stocking fillers and others saying they got their child a big boxed toy as a stocking filler (something that couldnt physically fit in a stocking) it was definately eye opening.

to me £60 is bigger than a main gift.

I now do a cheap 'mid ground' stocking but still only spend like £5... I buy multipacks of sweets and split them between the 5 stockings and add a couple of cheap novelty gifts (like stickers, bubbles, stationary etc...).

I learned NOT to put fruit in a stocking 2 years ago, my kids both started at the top and ate the sweets (which can last months) and the fruit in the toe promptly went off and liquified to mush in the bottom of the stocking.

I also had no idea until using mumsnet that stockings are 'from santa' for a lot of people. As a child we just had them purely as 'tradition' and part of the decor really like the tree etc...

I learn so much from these threads and it allows us to update or create new traditions for our family.

I try and save £150 a month for Christmas time, so that covers gifts, theatre, meals out, office do's, cards, postage as few family members abroad and parcels are a fortune.
So about 1800 is saved for Christmas period and what's left over usually goes toward a city break in Jan or Feb for my husband and I. Sometimes there is a fair bit left other times we have to find money elsewhere.
Hoping for a quiet Christmas again this year as it was lovely not to be so busy and pulled in so many directions.

About £1K on our three kids, £50 on each other and £200 on rest of our family. Food and drink another £300

Stockings in our house are small sacks really and are from Santa. They are primarily to keep the kids busy while we make phone calls to family, get ready and put dinner on. Main gifts are once we are all ready for the day. Stocking fillers usually cost me about £30-35 per child and have anything small enough to fit!

Usually £1000-£1500 including 2 DC, each other, 15ish family members and 10ish friends. It also includes all food, drink, panto and our NYE party.

The last couple of years we’ve done SS with both sets of siblings and have given family gifts to a couple of friends. We also didn’t do the NYE party on the same scale last year obviously due to COVID.

I expect this year will be back to mostly normal. We’ll continue to do SS with wider family as much as possible, it’s revolutionised the stress of buying for everyone and means everyone gets a really lovely, thoughtfully chosen gift.

It varies every year. A couple of years ago we went to Lapland so that was expensive. Normally we have all of my family over Christmas Eve and we cook for them. DP’s parents come and stay and that involves a trip to the panto. I also have DP’s and DD’s birthdays just before Christmas too as well as two nieces and two friends so it is a very expensive month for me.

Tree: £80
Food: £300
Panto: £100
Presents: £1500
New decs: £50

Birthdays:£300

Total:£ 2330.