Skint Christmas for three children

[Wellyscooterwalk]

Please help me with some DIY/ very very cheap ideas for Christmas.

We are in the ‘both working full time but barely scraping by’ bracket this year.
We can only find £100 to cover Christmas for our three children - stockings and gifts and other- and I’m trying to make the most of every penny. (£100 all together not each). I’m willing to spend every spare evening making/baking/searching for things.

I’ve already put together an advent calendar using Christmas themed books we own/craft activities we already had the materials for/‘activities’ such as a walk to see Christmas lights.

I will try to bulk out stockings with primark socks etc. and toiletries such as toothbrushes/bubble Bath which would normally fall within our groceries budget.

Any ideas of age appropriate gifts/stocking fillers that I can make please? Or things to buy cheaply which would be worth while?

Children are 8,6 and 2.

Thank you.

You could wrap an empty box for the 2 year old and they would probably play with that! Mine played with the paper and boxes more than the toys at that age.

Try looking on fb marketplace and maybe visit some boot sales. Toys don't have to be brand new, just new to the children! Also, it's more convenient that they aren't all in the packaging as having three squabbling over who gets theirs opened first won't be fun.

@Wellyscooterwalk

Thank you so much- these ideas are brilliant!

It’s also a nice (well needed) reminder that others have been in this position.

Dough decorations, homemade playdough, chocolate hunt, homemade dolls clothes all added to the list.
Cinema evening also!

I have been trawling the charity shops but we live in an area with a predominately elderly population, they’re not well furnished with children’s toys and are quite expensive! I will keep looking though. Thank you.

Try vinted, that is brilliant. I got my 2yo a pair of second hand doc martens with the box for £15!!!!! which is definitely main pressie worthy! I agree with @Bhappy12 I'd not worry too much about your 2yo as they wont really understand what is going on so much so concentrate on your older two. Would you be likely to get away with wrapping some things they already have but don't really play with too much?

Is your financial situation likely to be the same into next year? if not you may be able to make them a voucher for a trip to a theme park/attraction/trip or something and pay for it closer to the time when things aren't as stretched.

In terms of decorations and activities, you can get paperchain kits in the works for £1 as well as lots of other crafty bits to do, and utilise what you have in already, if you have things for painting and colouring set them out one day and paint some Christmas pictures. Make some hot chocolates and watch a Christmas film one day. Our absolute favourite Christmas activity is wrapping up warm and going on the hunt for Christmas lights that people have put up outside their houses. I can promise you that these will be the things that your children remember, I couldn't tell you what gifts I got when I was 6&8 but can remember doing all those kinds of things

Definitely a cinema evening. We did this when mine were a similar age to yours - we did Elf and had Christmassy snacks
They are now 16 19 and 22 and still want to do it every year

Look at toysforapound and pound toys website for great cheap toys and stocking fillers. I’ve got a jumper and books from eBay as part of my 2 year olds present and a Zog set of jigsaws from the entertainer just £5 which he will love.

Go on argos 2 for £15 gifts. For £90 each child would have 4 gifts each. There's lots of choice. With the remaining £10 buy bubble bath, sweets to fill a stocking

Facebook marketplace always have things like large doll houses, bikes and scooters really cheap.
If you are part of a Facebook group in your local area why not put up a message stating that you are looking for free toys in good condition and you are happy to collect. You will be surprise what people will get rid off. Most of my DDs toys are gifted and they are in great condition.

Ooh and you could do them ‘paint your own cookies’ for their stockings! Make and ice the cookies yourself, you can bake a ‘paint pallet to go with them - stick skittles on finger shaped cookie, when wet with a brush the colour will transfer. wrap in foil for their stockings.

Mine (now older teens) always got the following in their stockings because I was so skint when they were tiny, and now it has become a tradition, albeit with slight upgrades -

Bubble bath/shower gel
Flannel/sponge
Toothbrush and character toothpaste
Pencils/pens
Socks
Packet of balloons
Chocolate coins
Batteries (who wouldn't need those for Xmas!

For individual gifts it then went to clothes - basic stuff that they'd worn out or grown out of, leggings, jeans from asda, tops from primark, coat and trainers (big ££ but in the household budget rather than Xmas, as they needed them, and I was just replacing stuff)

One year they each got a box of their favourite BRANDED cereal rather than asda price that we usually bought. They genuinely loved the novelty.

Then for bigger gifts think joint gifts - I got a Wii one year for buttons on ebay.

It took me ages to reframe in my head that I wasn't giving them such amazing insta-worthy gifts, but at those ages they were so chuffed with the out of the ordinary stuff it made no difference. As they got older they began to appreciate that I couldn't afford the latest gadget so they began asking everyone if they would kindly give money so they could save up themselves.

The happiest Christmas memories I have from childhood are about things we did as a family, not presents. If you fill the days with fun activities, predents become only a small part rather than the main focus - maybe plan a trip to a park, a walk round a lights/advent event, a movie/games afternoon...

Maybe you could get them to make Christmas stockings in advance, and then you could fill them with small things that are cheap/free? I used to get a stocking each year with an orange, a pound coin, toiletries, etc - the excitement was still there but the things in the stocking were mostly things I would have needed anyway!

Charity shops helped us in the past when we needed to spend less, but I see your local ones are expensive.

What about a homemade gift card offering experiences? They don't have to be hugely expensive, maybe just a treat like "go to favourite park and have an ice-cream". Or " this voucher entitles you to make a weekly evening meal menu ( prepared by parents!)". Means they get to choose all their favourite meals for a week and ime they like the feeling of control!

My grown up daughter says her favourite childhood present was a box filled with baking equipment/ supplies. Could be got from charity shop. I think I added a recipe book too but you could copy out suitable recipes from the internet into a cheap notebook with space left to add their own favourite recipes when they get older. My time ( to assist) was also included in this gift.

An art box for the 8 year old? Fill a shoe box with craft supplies, Wilko or home bargains have some good options. Tesco had cute notebooks for 30p the other day. The kids will remember the love and time you spent with them, not the money you spent on them. I'm sure your Christmas is going to be lovely xx

Go on the free samples sites you can get all sorts I recently got a free Beano magazine for a stocking filler, A free personalised book for children and lots of chocolate bits.

Do they have dolls that need clothes? Could you knit something? There are plenty of free patterns for premature babies on Ravelry that would fit a baby doll.

The best Christmas gift I ever had was a huge amount of dolls clothes and furniture that my mum made one year. Clearly they didn't have much money but, as a child, I never even considered that. I played with this stuff over and over and over.

She knitted a load of skirts, jumpers, hats, scarves for my barbie and sewed others out of scraps of fabric she had. She then also made furniture out of strong cardboard and glued fabric to it...so I had sofas, chairs and beds for my dolls house. Honestly, it was brilliant and could have cost very much. You could do something like that perhaps?

For the 2 year old you could make them some musical instruments from your recycling - see if you can scrounge a formula tin from someone and decorate to make a drum, things like shakers are easy to make etc. Most 2 year olds just like to make noise.

If you've got plenty of scrap fabric then a set of alphabet letters for the 2 year old would be good - lots of ideas and how tos on pinterest.

Perhaps see if you can pick up a children's cook book in a charity shop and put together a baking kit for the older 2 - poundland usually have a range of baking stuff and you could give them cookie mixes in a jam jar - again pinterest is your friend here.

Or do you have any scraps of wood that you could make an open-fronted dolls house from?

@Cuwins

Does your town or a very local one have a Facebook freebay group? Mine does and I have seen lots of things on there lately that would make great presents either brand new or in nearly new condition. You have to be quick but can get some great bargains.

I would also say once you've found this local freecycle group you message admin and tell the frankly you're situation. They can redirect items to you first that will be age appropriate.

I remember by parents doing chocolate coin treasure hunts which was a lot of fun.

Could you also spread gifts out during the day too? For our DC they would get overwhelmed with more than a couple of gifts so we did them all at different times too.

Definitely definitely set up Facebook today. Who knows what bargains you are misting out on right now?!

Fake name if have to.

The bargain threads on the MN Christmas page is a treasure trove of bargains (currently up to thread 19) and if there's something particular you want some one will find a bargain for you!
My kids are a similar age to yours. We will make cards for relatives/friends, paper chains and decorations out of card (just needs a pack of mutli coloured card, ball of wool/string and some crayons or paints). Our local library and museum have free christmas activities for kids running again this year. Xmas movie and popcorn nights are always a hit. Local light switch on and garden centre trip to look at decorations are on our list.
For stockings, I always have a £10 limit- this year for the older ones I'm under budget with a book (from 66 book club) some fluffy socks (sock shop sale), sweets/crisps (supermarket), bath bomb and slime (Poundland). My nearly 2 year old has some bath toys, board book, snacks and cars.
For the older ones, I have silver necklaces from eBay (mybumblebeads) from natural history museum which look way more expensive than they are (currently bogof too). I got Harry potter bits for my oldest from there too (with a £4 bargain HP jumper from amazon from the bargain thread).
I also make my kids a present every year- use old clothes to make a teddy, or a rag rug, a cross stitch, or make a personalised poster/picture on the computer to print and frame, or make a photo collage in a frame. These presents always go down really well and can be done cheap (or even free depending on what you have at home). They are always very well received and might mean you can divert most of the budget elsewhere.

I don't have any ideas to add but I was once where you are now with a 10 year old and an 8 year old. They are now adults and have no idea how skint we were for a few years, they often talk fondly of our most skint couple of Christmases. It really is the thought and love that goes in the gifts that counts, not the cost. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas

My favourite Christmas memories as a child are the times my mum spent making Christmas decorations with me (child of the '70's so snowmen made with loo rolls & cotton wool type things!) and the extended family passing around a tin of quality street. The colours, the excitement of choosing which one! Simple pleasures!!

What gender are your children?

Check out Argos with their 2 for £15 and 2 for £30 deals. They had lego at 2 for £30 and one set was £25 on it's own! They also have huge crayola and Playdoh sets.

If you have a girl, I have a box of size 1 pink heelys I would be happy to send you for free. They were given to me by my mum (they were my sisters) but my daughter had already outgrown them.

Check out ebay and facebook for bargains.

The works have a 10 books for £10 offer on at the moment. I would get the 2 yo some bits from the pound shop if you have one nearby?

I'd focus your budget on the older two, do you have any hand me downs that could be wrapped re-gifted to LO?

What are the older kids asking for, I'd try to manage expectations,before hand.

Are there other relatives who'll give to the kids?