How much spent on Christmas?

[cantstayaway21]

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!!

Gosh. We just have some nice food and token gifts. Max spend £200 all found.

Do not use social media as a litmus test for how much you should spend. Over spending brings a moment of joy and months of worry.
Don’t fall into that trap it’s simply not worth it.

Start buying and planning now to spread the cost. Make your gift wrap look amazing so if you feel the need to ‘compete’ with others on SM you can take pictures of beautifully wrapped gifts, much better than a pile of presents wrapped badly with cheap paper just to show off a mountain.

@ByThePool2021

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

You don't need to buy your children the plastic rubbish in the interval. You are allowed to day no.

To many people Christmas is more than money, selection boxes, pigs in blankets and hot chocolate.

Christmas means more to me than spending insane amounts of money on sickly hot chocolate and junk that isn't needed.

Christmas is candle lit carol service, midnight mass, family and friends coming together, lovely walks followed by nice but simple veggie food. Something nice to drink. Some really good chocolate.

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.
Presumably on that income you can afford to buy throughout the year the things others will probably wait until Christmas for. The better off we've become the less we've spent on gifts as we can buy things as and when needed.
We do spend a lot on entertaining though.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/4310712-How-much-do-you-honestly-spend-on-Christmas-each-year

There was already a thread on this at the end of July!

£500-600 roughly but that includes hotel for a few nights as we will be visiting family and they aren't local. Family of 3 - 2 parents and a 3 year old.

My issue is growing up we were very poor . I didn't get san pro until i started a part time job so xmas was non existent. I dont know what normal is. So i worry that they get too much or little as all i want them to have is a normal childhood. I always compare my life to others which is something i need to stop

It's okay

It's completely understandable you feel this way. But, social media is a very manicured and selective portrayal of life.

Many people would have seen a thread and either not commented due to feeling upstaged and embarrassed, which is shit, and you can't even rule out the possibility of outright lying. SM like facebook is different to mumsnet, here you are anonymous and can be honest and candid. On the FB threads people are on display, feel the pressure and can be insecure.

As long as you put effort into the event itself it really doesn't matter what gifts you get. I spend far too much on gifts, but similar to you, it's shaped by my childhood as we had masses of presents so there is an irrational tinge of guilt a the thought of anything but a "pile". I've gotten around that now by doing good stockings and choosing quality over quantity, but that's only going to be true for the first time this year, other years I have definitely aimed at a pile. It's not necessary.

Get some nice food, do some nice activities, and that plus knowing they are fortunate enough to open something and have a fun day, it really is all that it comes down to.

And yes definitely ignore social media. Last Christmas all my pictures were of smiling children unwrapping all their lovely gifts. What I didn’t post is that I was so ill with covid I slept through most the day, fed the dc frozen pizza for dinner and spent a good hour throwing up whilst I was meant to be on a zoom call to the family. I can tell the photos show this as they are all taken from the same angle where I was dying lying on the sofa. No one else knows. Social media is only ever the magical best bits

I find this funny... as pointed out above this tread has already been done before but with almost entirely different outcome.

People their saying £1-£2k easy and now on this thread theres some kind of faux outrage and competition to spend the smallest % possible.

I HIGHLY doubt anyone here is really only spending £100-£200 on ALL of xmas unless you have pretty much no responsabilities to anyone (£100 is less than the amount our uncoupled childless siblings who go to other people houses for dinner spend just on their parents, niece and nephews).

I am low income, on these thread Im always at the lower end of peoples spending and I spend £500-£550 on xmas (presents for 3 kids, 1 partner, 5 family members and dinner for 5 people including the extra little bits like advent calanders, wrapping paper etc...) completely budget out as I cant afford to be going wild and that is 5% of my income (I only learned about the 5% thing on the other thread, just turns out to be correct) as I work part time.

So many people on the other thread said £1-£2k (no reason to believe they are lying) and at 5% that would say they had incomes of £20-£40k which is probably about average income for a single full time employed person to a full time employed couple here so also totally believable to me.

People saying they spend £100-£200 assuming an average UK income (£30k) are spending like 0.5% of their annual income on xmas, that doesnt sound believable though that sound like you just want to 'win' at saying your cheapest.

@mam0918 I did find it interesting at the different reaction that a tonally different OP invokes, even when it is the same question, too :)

I've been on MN for 17yrs and this thread happens at least 5 times each year. The answers are never the same and there's always a lot of ill feeling by the time we are done.

I think don't overspend because you feel you should, never get into unmanageable debt, think about the environmental consequences of spending choices, think about what you want Christmas to represent for your family and never, ever compare. You won't go far wrong that way.

I'd say what you're spending is completely normal. We budget £1k all in which covers £100 on presents each for two DC, DH and I. £200 on food. £300 on other presents which is parents, nieces, nephews then just token presents for siblings.....eg bottle of wine then £100 for other stuff....trip to see Father Christmas/some new decorations etc.

I try to keep present buying reasonably small and think £100 is plenty for DC but it doesn't go hugely far (scarily) eg. £50 on main present (bike, big dolls house etc), £20 on stocking fillers then by the time you've bought a couple of books and some PJs that's £100 gone. Which is totally fine but I do think our budget may well increase as they get older and want gadgets/branded clothes or whatever else teenagers want!

@cantstayaway21

My issue is growing up we were very poor . I didn't get san pro until i started a part time job so xmas was non existent. I dont know what normal is. So i worry that they get too much or little as all i want them to have is a normal childhood. I always compare my life to others which is something i need to stop

You do need to stop, comparison is a thief of joy.

I would say we spend more on teen/young adult DC than younger DD but they always have the same amount of gifts to open. I have friends who insist on being equal to the penny but I think that’s silly and it all works out in the end.

I would say we spend about £2k but that's everything, so presents for our 3 kids, each other, nieces and nephews, parents, food and drink, a few decorations. Our combined income is £80k. When I was a kid we had huge piles of presents, it looked amazing in pictures but we didn't get anything through the year because of money so pj's, underwear, new shoes etc a lot of it would be Christmas, we're lucky enough to buy our kids what they need throughout so the piles are smallish but probably have more cost value.

Agree that you spend what you can afford. We only have one DC and I do spend quite a lot at Christmas - we do some Christmassy events and trips, I spend a reasonable amount on presents for her, we spend quite a lot on nice food for the Christmas break. We can afford it and it gives us all pleasure, so that's all that matters. As long as you can afford it and your children are grateful for what they get and it works for you as a family, don't worry about what other people are doing or spending.

£2000 would be a family holiday abroad for us which I'd much rather spend the money on if that just goes on toys. I spend a couple of hundred on my dc for Christmas and get a few expensive new pressies and lots of books/games puzzles from ebay/charity shop. We do spend money on other things though - going to different NT properties to see the lights, going to see The Nutcracker, going to a Christmas market abroad - I just prefer to spend more on experiences than stuff.

@cantstayaway21

My issue is growing up we were very poor . I didn't get san pro until i started a part time job so xmas was non existent. I dont know what normal is. So i worry that they get too much or little as all i want them to have is a normal childhood. I always compare my life to others which is something i need to stop

There is no normal, there's just what works for you. Make Christmas fun and exciting and spend lots of time doing things with them, the stuff is quickly grown out of and forgotten but the time you spend playing with them, reading to them, baking with them, making traditions with them won't be. The thing I remember most about Christmas as a child is going out together to get a real Christmas tree and waking up in the night and realising Father Christmas had been.

If some people see it as normal to spend 5% if annual income on Christmas then I can see why so many families are fucked financially! Think of what that money could do for children’s futures, instead it’s spent on plastic tat. It’s nice to celebrate and spoil each other but with reason!

Last year I went all out to make it the 'perfect' Christmas for everyone after lockdown and spent an absolute fortune. Imagine my upset when Christmas was cancelled by Boris at short notice and I'd spent so much money needlessly.

The big day was only me, my husband and the kids which was a wonderful change instead of catering for our large families! The kids were so unappreciative of all the effort I'd put in to give them a lovely day so I told them this year would be a low cost, low effort festive season. I reminded them this weekend and they were in uproar and not happy, but I'm sticking to my guns and keeping it low key.

My budget for this year's low cost Christmas is still over £1,000. Mainly due to hosting the family and all the social events in the lead up.

I don't know exactly but certainly under £500. But I'm lucky to have a big extended family so the kids get quite a few presents from them, meaning we don't have to get them lots ourselves. We only buy for our parents and siblings and a few close friends.

Ways to reduce costs:
Start shopping early or throughout the year when you see things on offer
Stop buying token £5-10 gifts for friends, work colleagues etc. Suggest a secret santa if you must
Shop second hand, there is a wealth of stuff on Facebook marketplace

£400 on presents for immediate family (me, DH, 2DDs.)
£400 on presents for wider family (4xparents, 2 siblings+partner, 3 nieces/nephews, a few tokens for other people who buy for our kids)
£100 on Christmas day out
£100 extra on food
£50-£100 on fuel seeing relatives

It adds up.

Around 1.5k and that's for everything for christmas

I spend a lot of money at Christmas.
Christmas for us is the whole month of December, we go away for the weekend, do Christmas lights, winter wonderland etc.
I save all year and never get into debt for Christmas, even when I was a single mum I never got into debt, the kids back then only had a small amount of presents but we still did make memories and had a great time.