Frugal Christmas thread….?

[maskingscrape]

I can’t see one yet, apologies if I’ve missed it.

We’ve had some (lovely) big expenses this year, and more coming next year, and so Christmas needs to be a bit of a budget affair. It’s me, DH, and two kids 9 and 5.

So this year I’m setting out to be consciously frugal but still making Christmas special, so I’d love ideas! So far:

• I’m planning to find a big candle in a charity shop to use as a sort of advent candle and we’ll light it and read the Christmas story in installations over advent.
• I’m saving silver foil yogurt lids etc to make decorations with the kids.
• some useful things that I’d buy for the kids anyway (socks, art supplies, toothbrushes) will be stocking stuffers alongside other more treaty things.
• I’m going to plan food shopping carefully rather than going ‘it’s Christmas!’ and buying 5 tubes of Pringles just because.
• I’m committing to not buying anything new and Christmas themed. If an event calls for jumpers or PJs or a silly hat or whatever, we’ll borrow or make or just sidestep it.

With decorations you can dry out some leaves and paint them.

You can also get things like these to decorate (think you can get them cheaper in the Range):
Daover 36 Pcs Natural Wood Slices 6-7cm, Log Chips Handmade DIY Christmas Decoration Wood Chips Pendant Painting Materials Annual Ring Round Wood Chips : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

Good idea OP! I always like the idea of making foodie gifts for family like mini truffles or something rather than spending loads on presents.

I always go for a foraging walk in December with a big IKEA bag and some secateurs. Get lots of holly and greenery to make wreath and some garlands. I live in a village so plenty of Hedges around though.

Homemade marzipan sweets or fudge are cheap and fun to make for gifts.

Kids always love making those paper snowflakes and if you look on Pinterest there are plenty of slightly fancier paper decorations you can make. Toilet roll tubes can make nice decorations too. Slice into 5 rings. Flatten and then open out again into a leaf shape. Then glue 5 leaves together to make a flower / star shape. Paint, glitter and a string to hang them. Also fur cones can be made into nice decorations.

If you have kids look out for free events like Christmas light switch ons, parades etc.

Go for walks and take flask of hot chocolate and homemade cake or biscuits.

I'm not going full on supersaver this Christmas but am trying to cut back and spend mindfully :)

Bits I'm planning on so far:

Similar to you @maskingscrape some stocking stuffers will be consumables ~ everyone's getting their favourite (cheap) shower gels, socks, notepads/pens. I've also brought DS pretty much all the clothes he'll need for spring/summer '25 on Vinted and will wrap them to bulk out under the tree. Ditto for reading books 😂

Mostly veggie guests for Christmas, or meat eaters who will also attack the nut roast/quorn, so will buy the sliced turkey for £2 instead of roasting a small one which will go to waste! (Understand this is pretty niche) ~ also, for the first time implementing a BYOB request. I don't drink, nor does anyone else who lives here, yet I seem to normally spend £££ on wine/beers/cocktail cans to be a great hostess.

Probs won't buy any new Christmas jumpers this year. Always buy 2 sizes up for DS so they last a few years 😂

I've started putting aside the colourful Christmas flyers and advertising that come through the door, I cut out all the pictures and backgrounds and decoupage it onto shoe boxes to wrap presents in. They usually work out pretty great.

If you buy for other family members ( sisters , brothers , grandparents etc ) then suggest picking a name out of a hat so everyone buys one / receives one present only , that will save loads .

I don't do Xmas, but I do do food gifts. I tend to save jars, jam, sauce, whatever. I have also bought small jars from the pound shop.

Things I have made

Pickled onions, but with a small amount of raspberry vinegar added to the spiced vinegar with extra pickling spice.

Things preserved in oil - I buy pomace oil but if you have more budget a better olive oil.

Get some Greek style supermarket cheese, cheaper than feta but still works and a packet / jar of dried mixed herbs.

Sprinkle the herbs on a worktop / chopping board and press each surface of the cheese then cut in to chunks and again press every surface in to the herbs.

Put the herby cheese in a jar and cover with oil.

I also do a mix of finely sliced olives, peppers, mushrooms that I put in a jar with a clove of garlic and some capers (you could add anchovies but I am not a fan) cover with oil and leave for a week or two to infuse.

Chutneys, I'm in Wolverhampton so lots of Indian shops selling mangoes and other fruit / veg that costs a fortune in the supermarket.

I have also made spice mixes and add a recipe for the curry it will make. This goes down well with people who do not have the same access to diverse shops (my brother lives in Cornwall).

It's not just food that can go in jars, you can get cheap battery powered LED lights that make a nice decoration.

I actually have quite a few LED tealights that I used yesterday to decorate the path outside. They can go in a jar with a bit of holly and ivy (both grow in my garden)

I like your candle idea op.
My friend does similar. She picked up a cheap gold tray and takes her dc to gather pine cones, Holly and sprigs of ferns and puts them in the tray with the candle and a few cheap baubles.
It always looks so nice.

Book your dc into free Christmas activities held by the borough you're in. Usually in libraries and museums but sometimes shopping centres do some too.

Get some Christmas story books from the library.

Make your own popcorn for film nights at home. Mix a few smarties into it.

Buy one treat item with your weekly shop from a few weeks before Xmas, checking the dates of course.
Also buy an extra bag of pasta or a couple of tins or packs of foods that you eat every now and then to stock up for a frugal January so your finances recover well.

Peppermint creams are also easy to make, just need icing sugar, egg white and peppermint essence. If you want you can make half green. Dunking in chocolate is optional.

My local charity shop had a big display of all sorts of deccos, cards and small gifts for not much money. Some lovely hand made tree decorations too.

Go through all the decorations, pile of wrapping paper, cards etc and see what you actually have before buying any more. I often find I’ve put by a few Christmas crackers by from last year, a roll of wrapping paper or two and some napkins.

@maskingscrape Have you got Christmas decorations from last year? We tend to reuse the same ones year on year which definitely saves money!

Maybe consider Vinted if you want to spend a little less on gifts this year. People sell both new and used (but good condition) toys etc on there for a fraction of the price.

I've worn the same Christmas jumper since I bought it 75% off after Christmas about 8 years ago :) I like the fact it comes out every year for its two/three weeks in the sun then retires for another year by which time I am sick of the sight of it.
and it jingles...

i use foraged greenery for a lot of the indoors festivities and we just use the same decorations we've been using and adding to in the sales since 2007 when we got married. DD has MILs old family tree in her bedroom complete with 1980s flower lights.

i like getting out the same stuff every year, it feels like meeting friends you haven't seen in ages.

I'm a quilter so I regularly have leftover fabric. For the last couple of years I’ve made Swedish Stars and tied them to a suitably poncy twig.
Yes, I know it’s a bit like GrandSanta in Arthur Christmas (“a sausage nailed to a piece of bark, ho ho!”) but it’s special to me when I say “that’s from X’s baby quilt and that’s the cushion I made for Y”.
You could make them from wrapping paper, too.

Also needing to belt tighten over here... In the past I've spray painted pine cones gold and silver. Hung on ribbon they make a great alternative to baubles. I've made some chutney with free apples from friend's tree as gifts, using jars I saved over the year. Another vote for charity shops - my local one has a great selection of decorations and stocking type gifts e.g. a boxed Duplo gingerbread house for £5. I'm going to leave food shopping until December, else I get carried away, forget what I've bought, and I end up with vast quantities of snacks that last for weeks!

Tutorial.

Love a frugal thread! Just plonking my bottom down and I’ll be back later.

I admit I have 3 Christmas snacks in the cupboard already and all our advent calendars. Because….. last year the prices of advent calendars went up so high during November. Sainsbury’s had our faves on offer last week so I have them and they’re in the cupboard!

I love making my own decorations each year. And foraging to make garlands. Although I have a dinky 70s house so nothing fancy!

Every Boxing Day I write a little note about fails / successes of that Christmas so I’ll read 2023’s in a moment.

I remember one year in the 1970s my parents must have been feeling the pinch, mum took us for a walk to find a tree branch that she spray painted silver as out Xmas tree.

It being the 1970s it was not out of place.

We also wrapped match boxes in tin foil and tied thread round them to make parcels we hung on the tree.

I would much prefer a silver branch! Good shout from your Mum

I like wrapping presents in brown paper with rustic string or colourful ribbon and I have been known to save the brown paper they scrunch up to protect parcels these days for wrapping. I mean it just goes in the bin after. I sound much more frugal than I actually am though, sadly.

I love so many of these ideas, thank you.

I’m trying to question which of the things are actually valuable to us - do we really need advent calendars, for example? Do my kids actually get anything out of it, it or is it just that they like chocolate? If there’s another way to do the ‘advent’ bit and cultivate the sense of anticipation over December, is that a better tradition for our family? So it’s lovely to read about silver branches, for example.

I feel quite time-poor, and I’m recognising that a lot of the things I’d like to do rely on me finding time to make them happen. I think that needs to be a priority. I think in past years I’ve got to the middle of December and panicked that I haven’t made Christmas special enough yet, and throw money at the problem. That’s not what I want for us any more.

Lots of ways to do advent.

There are alternative colanders that have bits to build something, but you could make your own. Get a small Lego set or a jigsaw puzzle and put a few pieces in a colander for each day.

You can get or make 'blank' calendars that you can re use each year. But you could just buy paper bags and write numbers on them, or not, just put them together and pick one each every day. Or jam jars, or plastic cups or...

I've seen one idea where there was a jar with messages on paper. I think it was those corny 'inspirational quotes' but you could put personalised messages for the children.

You could also have ingredients to make things, so flour one day, sugar the next and then after a few days you get a recipe to use those ingredients. Jam jars would be a good container for these.

You can tailor it to your child(ren)'s interests, if one likes trains then maybe they get a bit of a train set each day, or sewing, craft, badge making...

Baker Ross do craft kits, bracelet making kits, model making. Although if you are like me you suddenly find you have spent £30. I don't have kids but I was a teacher.

https://www.bakerross.co.uk/craft-kits

Lidl sells yummy gingerbread mulled wine for £3.49 a bottle.
Pop corn and thread on strings to decorate the tree or hang outside for the birds.

What a lovely, wholesome thread this is 🥰

I'd love some inspiration from you guys though: I've bought a 1 year old a tea play set (wooden) from Facebook Marketplace but it's currently in an ASDA bag for life.

Any tips on how I could wrap/gift the tea set?

There are some kindness/good deeds advent calendars around for printing.
I have friends who do similar with their kids for Ramadan which I always thought was nice.
Continuing in the spirit of the real message of Xmas, you could get dc involved in choosing a small item for the food bank.