Simplifying Christmas

[Simplepimplechrimple]

I think lots of people are in the same boat this year, but we'd like to simplify Christmas. We have started by chatting to friends and family about reducing gifts, and in some cases giving cash (children). So have very few people to buy for, and everyone left we is immediate so I'm not worried about buying things for the sake of it. Good start!

I can't resist buying new decorations (in addition to existing ones, not to replace them) but instead I'm planning on going to a fancy garden centre/barn type place for the experience and buying one or two small things. My downfall is probably online browsing, and I tell myself it's fine as I buy quality and long lasting products, but there's no reason I need more! So yes, avoid that.

Cards - family and close friends only? I find it difficult with work as some of my colleagues come under the good friends category and some I haven't known long and you can't really only give to some people.

Food - this is very hard for me. I am on a perrenial diet but tend to go mad on holidays/Christmas so when I'm hungry in autumn I start stockpiling treats for Christmas which is frankly ridiculous. I don't host due to space but try to take on a fair load with my mum, I do buy too much. The past few years we have been very happy with good ham, bread and a bit of cheese for our tea, so do we really need all the other bits just in case?! Probably not.

We don't do big expensive events but will catch local free events, the Christmas tree festival in our local church was great last year.

I do love Christmas and we are frugal (in terms of money and food) throughout the year so I don't want to restrict if you see what I mean.

What are you doing this year to simplify?

Dh & I are only buying presents for 5 kids and our mums. And each other.

Not going mad on junk food for Christmas, will buy a few bits as treats but not ridiculous amounts.

I don't decorate. I have a flat wall tree I made out of tinsel, and a few battery powered lights.

That's it really. Not getting sucked into all the commercialism.

More decs the better, festival of tinsel. I never send cards definitely a what's the point issyeyabs stamps are £1 each or so.

We had to cut down massively last year when dh lost his job again- usually go way over the top at Christmas-like you, I have eaten most things before it’s December!
So last year my side of the family didn’t buy each other adult gifts - it was great
me and dh don’t buy for each other
have arranged with friends not to give presents for kids/adults and we don’t give any (have 4 kids so it was costing a fortune)
miss sending cards but don’t do it anymore apart from mil, and godparents
just do one Christmas activity- this year it will prob be ikea ( they do free kids creative workshops if you are a family member) or ice skating

Didn’t buy in advance or bogof. Also didn’t buy any tins of biscuits, quality st or Lindt. No cheeseboard, one jar of pate. We had a ham and lots of pickles toast and celeriac pie from a ottenghi recipe from one of the Sunday supplements for the vegetarians on boxing day and it was much more relaxing than usual and we all still enjoyed it. Bought the luxury Iceland turkey for Christmas Day- last year it was £25, believe me it was absolutely delicious.
Live for decorating though, never giving that up.

Every year I make a note of what worked and what didn't .
I buy a nice notebook every year and everything Christmas gets written in it .

Things we don't do :
Tree - the cats are vandals , we tried the pre-lit , static lights with no baubles . Two years running it staed less than four days .

Presents for the sake of it . They get a Dec 1st Box , DD gets a Beauty Advent . All things they need and will use .
DS get money . DD does a list and we go shopping.
I do send cards to family .

Fancy Desserts - no-one eats them. DD has requested Steamed Syrup Puddings and Sticky Toffee Puddings . I'll do Apple Crumbles too .
Christmas Cake - only I eat it and I get fed up with it in the kitchen.so not making one ths year

We've pared it right down to Christmas Eve /Christmas Day/Boxing Day nice food . Other days are simple foods .

Don't buy cans of soft drink to keep in the garage , they burst my DC tend to drink water anyway .

We've got booked -
ABBA (DD and I) , Sherlock Christmas , Bus Tour (lights)
If there's anything at the cinema then maybe a film.

Love all of these ideas, how wonderful your Christmas times sound!

We do a secret santa amongst the adults in our family. And with our friends we do a Christmas eve walk in the forest and all bring a baked good so it's like a little picnic with some flasks of hot chocolate. Tires the little leggies out and means we get to spend time with our friends!

I have booked a panto in our local theatre (£5 tickets), we went last year and the kids absolutely loved it!
I like taking my girls to the range/garden centres to look at all of the Christmas Dec's and then we usually buy a new one each year as a family. This year we are about to buy a house (3 weeks time woooo!) So we probably won't buy a new Dec, but we might go foraging in the forest and make our own wreath as a family.

With regards to food, I will usually buy some extra bits for christmas baking (and a boxing day pie with leftover meats, stuffing and cranberry sauce!) But will definitely be cutting back on tins of sweets and stuff that we definitely do not need!

I have and will always love Christmas time, no matter how big or small we go. You can't beat a fluffy blanket, hot chocolate and a cheesey Christmas flick!

I've decided to make hampers this year. I'm going to start saving cardboard boxes to put them in.

I like presents that can be eaten, rather than giving people 'stuff' that will just gather dust, and with as little packaging that will end up in landfill as possible.

Depending on what people like to eat, the hampers will include: wine, home made chutney, cheese, homemade biscuits and sweets, and anything else I can think of.

So, rather than getting my mum & dad individual presents, they'll get a hamper to share, which I know they'll enjoy more.

I'll be making 6/7 hampers.

My youngest DCs will be getting an event ticket & a stocking.

My eldest DC & her DH will be getting vouchers for a meal.

DGS - money in his bank account, because he will have a mountain of presents.

I used to snap pictures of things the dc liked in shops. It cut down on a lot of crying when they were small and meant that I always had a range of ideas for gifts and could give relatives ideas. But now they’re older, more mysterious and rarely in shops with me, yet everyone expects me to come up with ideas (and in some cases buy and wrap them too ffs)

This year I’m giving dh and the dc a worksheet to fill with suggestions of gifts they fancy in a variety of price ranges, with links or named shops and correct prices.

I’m buying less treats - we don’t really start on the Christmas treats before the dc get school holidays (22nd this year) and once new year comes no one will want them again til February or March. It’s just over a week but I tend to stock up for the winter.

I’m going to do separate activities with the dc rather than trying to do family activities which get spoiled with bickering, or one person doesn’t enjoy.

I thought I'd update this! So presents-wise, I've stuck to what I originally said, haven't bought anything unplanned and haven't felt guilty about just doing cash and card (yet!)

Haven't bought loads of decorations either, actually only one very cheap one! I think all we'll get are a few candles.

Haven't stockpiled any food yet either. I think we might do quality over quantity so get some fancy chocs/nuts but far fewer. Maybe actually just buy the small carton of roses/hero's rather than the tubs. Last year I bought 5 tubs!! 5! I actually live in the town centre and the shops only shut for 2 days anyway, what am I stock piling for!

So, going well I think!

I’m hoping to see more replies here. The single most amazing thing to me about MN is the angst and expense and hurt feelings surrounding Christmas gifts. We eliminated all adult gifts years ago. I do buy for my DH and he for me but this year it’s ONE gift. DC and DNephew 3 gifts. No gifts for anyone else no gift exchanges no co workers no neighbors. All I hear the rest of the year is …how people are overwhelmed by stuff. I did stock up on Aldi charcuterie items and we cook a fantastic dinner on Christmas and that’s it. I do love decorating and try to mix it up with what I already own from year to year. I want to visit with friends and families not unwrap gifts. I attend a live nativity love see lights and decorations and one very fancy hotel dinner for my (dec) bday where we dress up and enjoy the revelry

The things I love about Christmas and purposefully keep are:

Lights. I wouldn't mind if we didn't have a tree but I do put fairy lights up at home both inside and outside because it cheers me up so much on the dark evenings.

Pantomime. It's our one traditional Christmas outing that we all enjoy and I've got happy memories of going with my own parents when I was young so I want to pass that on for DDs.

Seeing friends and family. But I try to keep it low key. My best friends and I do an annual "fizz and crisps" evening where we go round to someone's house in our PJs and everyone brings a bottle of prosecco and a big bag of crisps and we all just have a natter and a chill out. It's ridiculous but I love it as it's so relaxed!

Things I don't do are:

Overcomplicate the food. I love a traditional Christmas dinner but buy most of it from COOK so I can just put it in the oven and enjoy rather than slaving in the kitchen.

Buy too many presents. We buy for DDs and our parents but with siblings we agreed years ago to only buy for the children. Nieces and nephews are all getting older so we normally give them cash/gift vouchers and a selection box. For most other presents (e.g. for parents) we don't spend a fortune and it's just something like a nice bottle of wine and tin of biscuits or similar.

Send lots of cards. I do miss this as I used to send loads but now I only send them to people that I'm not going to see in person and that I'm still in touch with throughout the year. Unfortunately grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles that I used to send cards to have now passed away and I've stopped sending cards to people that I never heard from all year. So now it's probably only 5 or 6 cards I post.

Likewise! MN feels like a parallel universe at Christmas. The time, money and most of all the STRESS of it all. I really enjoy Christmas but cannot relate to the experiences many people share. Ours is pretty simple.

First and foremost, no token gift exchanging between adults. Just WHY would anyone put themselves through this?

Secondly, start later. Both the kids (teens/tween) and us agree that anything Christmassy before mid December is way too early and actually takes away from the specialness of the Christmas week.

Following on from this, no stockpiling of anything. I'll do a grocery shop in the last day or two before Christmas. I might get a couple of favourites in the weeks before if I really don't want to risk not being able to get hold of something specific, but in general we do it all last minute. We've had many yellow sticker Christmasses where we don't decide on beef or ham or turkey or whatever until we see what bargains there are to be had. At the end of the day, it's just a couple of (hopefully) really lovely meals, not a royal banquet.

Not creating or insisting on any elaborate Christmas rituals that you then feel obliged to replicate every sodding year or risk feeling like you somehow haven't done Christmas properly. In fact this is probably the most important one - just being flexible and not feeling like the world is ending if everything isn't perfect.

Basically, for our family Christmas is just about slowing the pace down, enjoying some time off work and school and spending time together and witt close friends and family and doing whatever we feel like doing.

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update. We are only 9 days away from Christmas and I'm still on track! Haven't bought any useless crap, haven't spent loads of money unnecessarily on decorations and I haven't started overeating. In fact I'm 4lb less than this time last year and have nothing 'stockpiled'. I received a voucher from work so will buy a few fancy but nice bits just before. Definitely not piles as I know there will be edible goodies in stockies. Feel pretty proud of myself!

Well done @Simplepimplechrimple! Frankly I got out of buying presents for anyone outside the family (or extended family) years ago. Only exception would be if I was seeing them very near the holiday.
I can't resist new decorations but limit it to a couple, this year almost got away with just one but then went in to Accessorize in town this week and bought three (2 for 3 deal). I did buy new lights though, and paid for a 'make a wreath' workshop. And I'm only a few pounds down since start of October but lost almost two stone this past summer! I'm going abroad tomorrow and will definitely be putting this few recently lost pounds back on!