Is anyone else worried about how much christmas is going to cost this year

[Wicca123]

I love Christmas and have made a start already....but can't help wondering how much more expensive it will be this year, with the cost of living the way it is. Is anyone else slightly worried?

Jesus got presents for Christmas, although I suppose they were technically for his birthday 😁

I've started buying bits. I only really buy for DS anyway. I'm scaling back. Not doing the lightopia or chester zoo lanterns or whatever. DS hates them so I'll save the money.

Adults get token gifts from DS so he knows it's about giving too.

No.
id only ever spend what I can afford and start saving early in the year for it.
for anyone worried about affording it one of the best decisions you will make is a no gift pact. I only buy a handful of people now.
i find it upsetting that people feel the need to get themselves into Debt for 1 day

No. Our family started a secret Santa two years ago- limit of £35. It’s great!

I don’t buy loads of extra food; we go for an Indian meal on Christmas Day.

Christmas is much more relaxed now the kids are grown up!

We're not doing christmas this year, we're having a family holiday abroad over christmas

How many people actually care?! 🤷‍♀️

OP, I save monthly for Christmas and also save Nectar points for food and / or presents (I've got £250-ish, though I've also spent about £150-ish on mincemeat ingredients, wine and Bailey's so far!).

I'm not hugely concerned this year as I was lucky to fix my gas/electricity prices for 2 years last August. Next year could be a different matter, however.

I hadn't thought of it until now but I am being better prepared this year with money.

I wish I could spend so little on Christmas food but even for just our family I seem to spend between £300 and £400 on the Christmas food shop. I have a mini savings scheme that will be at about £350 by November time and from October I'll use my child benefit to buy bits for Christmas, plus I'll be able to use some money from wages but certainly not as much as usual proportionately, though hopefully this will be offset by a higher wage as I'm starting a new job next month.

It's going to be tight though and my absolute priority will be having enough to pay energy bills in order for the house to be nice and warm and cosy!

No. Our children are adults, we’ll set an affordable limit and stuck to it. Collecting quality, second hand things for grandchild.

I'm another one who never really understood breaking the bank for Christmas.
Me and DP only get each other token gifts and often stuff we need like socks or clothes of some sort.
The kids will get £100 budget each. You can stretch that pretty far, we buy a lot of stuff second hand so bundles of kids ps4 games of ebay an

Sorry posted too soon and bundles of books.
We don't really buy for my family but DP has a small family so will get his sister something but will keep it to around the 50 quid mark.

Food shop comes from also so yeah we buy some extra treats and a nice cut of meat for Christmas day but not extortionate amounts

That works if your an adult with no real responsabilities to anyone but many of us are parents.

You cant suddenly out of the blue wack a no gifts pact on young children, you can adjust budget (no one should be taking loans or credit, theres always charity shops and freesite etc...) and slowly introduce tradition changes but in general you have to essentually keep cristmas in a similar vein to previous years traditions because kids thrive on routine, tradition and familarity removing that can cause severe anxiety.

I’m not worried at all. Christmas costs what you want it to.

Good company and games are the things to go for. Christmas has got out of hand completely with vast amounts of money being spent unnecessarily. Make it a small one that you can afford and do not apologise for it. Your children will be fine. Devise some crazy games and play them all together - much better than more plastic tat to need tidying away, or more devices to be divisive of family life!!

Second hand presents from ebay are another good way to go....

I think everyone will be scaling back on Christmas this year. I will still do lots of decorations because I already have them, still do nice turkey dinner but scaling back on alcohol and gifts. I usually take child to do lots of Xmas activities, ice skating, painting his own clay Christmas bauble, visit to Santa etc. Might cut out visit to Santa this year.

@stitchingguru, perhaps Jesus would do his party trick of turning water into wine. He liked a party didn't he?

No. It’s only as expensive as I can afford.

Why spend more than you have and have a ridiculously ostentatious day when you can’t afford it? Panicking now means you’re putting way too much effort and emphasis on a single day 6 months away.

A nice free Xmas activity I do with dgc is to make a list of Xmas things like reindeer, Santa, Xmas pudding, star, bell etc then walk around looking for these Xmas decorations in windows and cross them off our list. Hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream on return. My GC love to do that and get quite competitive. First one to see it crosses it off there list.

A little, dd is already planning to ask Father Christmas for a trampoline so we will have to see what we can find at a sensible price. I will encourage her to put other things on the list and she does know that he only brings some things not all, but I would still like to do it for her if possible. It's the other things that add up, gifts for others, postage for cars, petrol to visit those we are expected to, special food etc. I know these are not essential but it is hard not to do them, I love a simple Christmas, but there are a lot of expectations. We won't use credit though, we will just save and cut back where we can.

It has influenced my gift choices for immediate family members this year. Practical stuff, kuddlys/oodie, gift cards (aldi, just eat,cinema etc) and I've picked up a few bargains throughout the year (which I always do). We are hosting this year and if turkey prices are crazy we'll eat something else. We will be watching our spending but I know there will be others worse of and I've picked up some extra bits in the sales, toys, smellies, pjs for the salvation army christmas appeal and I'll be adding an extra few bits in the food bank collection point when it gets to the brr months.

Some good ideas for cutting back here, thanks

It's a good reason to scale right back and lower everyone's expectations. Over the past few decades it has changed from a mildly pleasant winter festival to a horrific retail bonanza. Not for everyone, of course, but it is impossible to look at the sheer amount of over processed and over packaged food, and all the decorations which have been shipped here from a sweat shop in China and not wonder how it all went so badly wrong.

I am deeply grateful to not be a Christian.

Not sure what being Christian is to do with it, everyone I know does something for Christmas even those who are Hindu or atheist (I don't have any Buddhist or Muslim friends so don't know if they are...)

But I agree that is has got out of hand with people buying piles and piles of presents, half of which will break or be forgotten within a few weeks. Plus all the decorations, massive food waste, seasonal junk etc. Maybe this will be a wake up call (but I doubt it)

Only spend what you can I say, family should understand. I'm pretty much done with the Christmas gift shop as I am expecting a baby in September, I wanted it all done and to know what ££ I have left for maternity leave. I've cashed in on 50% off stacked codes (gruum, gap, asos etc recently) and ferreted bits away. I have also brought a few bits from vinted like a bundle of hot wheels track with garage and some zuru robot dinosaurs from vinted (£12 for the whole bundle delivered) and hot wheels car pack is £5 at Argos ATM. I plan to build the track/garage for Christmas day so no packaging (or drama on the day) and the dinosaurs can be put in gift boxes with batteries ready to go. They all look near new but my boys are only 4 and 2 so wouldn't be fussed at all tbh. They're quite used to bits from a charity shop etc!

Nope, not in the slightest. I am always amazed at how much people spend on rubbish that they can't afford and the recipient doesn't want. If you're struggling, now is the time to be more sensible.

I love the idea up thread about making a list, star, tree etc then walking round the neighbourhood ticking them off a list. Costs nothing and is something lovely to do together. We will definitely be doing that one