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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Original poster

How much spent on Christmas?

97 replies

cantstayaway21 · 22/08/2021 13:55

I have 4dc Only buy for them and me and dh and the normal food etc but We roughly spend about 2k each year. From my fb feed on xmas morning he seems my kids dont get much but 2k is alot of money!!

OP posts:

TheFairPrincess · 22/08/2021 15:04

Of course it’s a lot! please don’t feel like you need to compare yourself to social media

I’ve been doing my spreadsheet and while my goal was £1200 it will probably be around £1700 - £1800, but I will spread that across 3 or 4 paydays and a chunk of that, around £1100, will come from a savings pot I pay toward year round.

BellaTheDarkOverlord · 22/08/2021 15:08

My spreadsheet shows about 1k. That's 400 on family/friends, and the other 600 split between dh, me and dd6. Usually spend a lot more on dd but we don't have money this year. Problem is I'd love to say to family/friends just buy for dd but they insist buying for me and dh too and expect expensive gifts back. Going to be difficult this year.

TheFairPrincess · 22/08/2021 15:10

oh and I should say that is almost all for our family but I also buy token gifts for my sister and her DC and a gift for my mum.

DoucheCanoe · 22/08/2021 15:11

You spend what you can afford.

I have 2 kids and don't really set a budget or spend equally as such just try to get them something they will appreciate - sometimes that's £10, other times it's £600.

Don't compare yourself to others and just enjoy the day :)

ByThePool2021 · 22/08/2021 15:17

5% of our annual income which I believe is the average

LittleLottieChaos · 22/08/2021 15:18

I find it insane the amount people spend (and for some reason have to tell you they spend… why?). Buy what you want to and ignore the idiocy of the conditioned consumerist masses.

Also definitely ignore your Facebook over the period, it sounds like your friends are self absorbed idiots and you’re letting their tasteless bragging affect you.

Curated photos of matching pJ-ed gurning families with piles of needless presents are entirely stupid.

sadperson16 · 22/08/2021 15:19

Oh I'd say a good 60p or so easily.

freshFortunes · 22/08/2021 15:31

@ByThePool2021

5% of our annual income which I believe is the average

WTF

that is an insane amount of money.

Our household income is about £45k. We will buy for our 3 kids aged 10, 6 and 10 months, my parents, my brother and SIL and my grandma. We will spend £400 absolute max. Probably less. We don't buy for any other family members or each other.

ByThePool2021 · 22/08/2021 15:45

£400 for all those people? Plus food/Santa visit/advent? That is definitely on the low side. I meant 5% for everything Christmas. Not just the presents on the day.
We have a joint income of 28k and 5% is £1400 which is about right (4dc, 2 sets of parents, siblings, niece and nephew)

SpnBaby1967 · 22/08/2021 16:05

This year our budget is tighter, I'm not going to buy family gifts this year. I have too many nieces and nephews and it gets too expensive.

Just waiting to get my DD's 9th birthday done early sept and then I'll be on it.

Bobbybobbins · 22/08/2021 16:16

I would say about £1500 including presents, food, booze and festive days out. Both our DC are autistic so not massively bothered about presents atm. But we love good food so will splash on that.

MrsPworkingmummy · 22/08/2021 16:26

Please don't feel under pressure to spend. There are so many cheap ways to make Christmas feel magical. We've been on both ends of the spending spectrum. When DH and I were newly together (along with his 3 children, 2 of whom lived with us) we bought a 99p real tree from B&Q on Christmas Eve and spent around £50 per child and still had a wonderful day. Now, we are fortunate to have a lower mortgage and fairly comfortable household income. My main spend is on food and drink. Probably £400/£500 for food /drink on the day alone (lunch for 12-15 and Christmas buffet dinner for 20 people) but closer to £1000 for the 2 weeks we're off. We host a lot and have people popping round all the time so order 24 bottle of wine from Laithwaites, restock spirits, sea food platter etc. It all adds up. Despite being able to afford more, we still make Christmas cakes, fudge, peppermint cremes etc as gifts (we do buy presents too) harking back to our skint days. We love Christmas and the whole festive season and are happy to spend.

freshFortunes · 22/08/2021 16:54

@ByThePool2021 just presents. About £100 each for the children then just a token gift for everyone else. I suppose if you factor in Xmas dinner then another £150 maybe? We don't do anything for advent not sure what you mean there though.

CurryLover55 · 22/08/2021 16:54

I really don’t know our exact spending but certainly nowhere near £2K. But then we rarely entertain ( just have my parents over on Christmas Day) & don’t spend huge amounts on presents either. I love Christmas but don’t believe you have to splash the cash to have a good one.

Iseeyoulookingatme · 22/08/2021 17:02

I normally spend loads but this is my first year as a single mum so I have to budget. I'm going to spend about £200 on gifts for ds, £50 on my parents and about £150 on food. I'm also starting to buy food with my weekly food shop. I picked up some chocolate today. I will probably get a tin of biscuits next week and so on and so on. I don't want my ds to miss out in any way. I'm lucky that I have already picked up pj's and his Christmas jumper.

mam0918 · 22/08/2021 17:07

I spend £110 per child which I once read (I think on moneysavingexpert) is the average amount.

I also recently heard the 5% thing on here, I dont spend that on just presents but if you add up my xmas spends it does come to pretty much bang on 5% of my income.

I dont include meals out and things to do in that though as we do that stuff all year round so its not a xmas expense just normal everyday life expense.

anyoldname76 · 22/08/2021 17:09

When children are little it's easy to get a huge pile of presents for not much money, it's as they get older, presents get smaller and more expensive. I spent more last year than normal as we hardly spent anything throughout the year. On average my 3dc get around £300 each. £200 on food and drink and probably another £400 on Christmas decorations, activities. Family presents, works do's etc

merryhouse · 22/08/2021 17:31

I roughly totted it up for an earlier thread - £1250 in total, barring splurges. here

kowari · 22/08/2021 17:39

Certainly not 5%, more like 2%. Spend about £100 on adult presents (buy for seven and we all keep it small) and £100 or so on children's presents (DS and DN), then extra food and drink (don't host but do contribute). Household of two.

SanJunipero · 22/08/2021 18:00

I spend £300, which I save throughout the year - but we only have one child (age 3), and I appreciate presents for DS will probably get more expensive as he gets older. I save my Clubcard vouchers throughout the year, which pays for a chunk of the food, plus our circumstances mean that we have a cheaper Christmas in other ways (we don't drink alcohol, are vegetarian, don't host, only exchange token presents with family).

Noshowwithoutpunch · 22/08/2021 18:55

We don't buy new decorations so we don't spend on that.
We don't really tend to buy much extra food or drinks either as we go to our parents alternatively each year - maybe an extra £25 to our weekly shop on tins of chocolates and nibbles.
Children are 'too old' to visit Santa so that's out too. No winter wonderland type places near to visit either so days out tend to be just the type of thing we do anyway.
DP and I spend around £100 on presents for each other.
£300 each on our two dc ( pre-teens)
I spend about £50 each on my parents and token gifts such as £5 boxes of chocolates for Aunts, cousins and family friends so £40 altogether there.
Less than 1K.

ActonSquirrel · 22/08/2021 18:57

@ByThePool2021

5% of our annual income which I believe is the average

Holy hell!

Very little. It's one day. Celebrating the birthday of Jesus when most people aren't religious anymore.

How does a roast dinner and gifts come up to 5% of annual income.

ByThePool2021 · 22/08/2021 20:25

Advent calendars, school fair, Christmas jumper day, visit to Santa, church donations, visit to family, new decorations, food bank donations, presents, stocking fillers, selection boxes, tubs of chocolates, Christmas parties, school Christmas discos, all those pigs in blankets, winter wonderland, hot chocolates whilst out etc etc. Christmas to many people is far more then just one day.

ByThePool2021 · 22/08/2021 20:26

Oh I forgot the pantomime. That’s nearly 1% of our annual income as it is, especially when you throw in the horrible light up plastic wands and the interval ice cream

SmookleLaFaberge · 22/08/2021 20:31

@ByThePool2021

5% of our annual income which I believe is the average

I would never spend such an insane amount of money on christmas. For us that would be almost £5k, never in my lifetime will I ever be a part of such ridiculousness even if we can afford it.

In answer to your question, we spend well under £1k including booze and food. That's all presents too.

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