What is your Christmas budget?

[KittyPup]

I’m considering trying to cut back a bit this year as DH thinks I go a bit mad at Christmas. I’m not sure I agree so I’m just gauging what others do.

I put away £250pm all year and everything Christmas related comes out of that 3k. This includes gifts for our 2dc (approx £400 each), gifts for each other and dc in the family, Christmas food shop, Father Christmas trip, Christmas jumpers, any new decorations / wreath making workshop, fresh tree etc. Basically anything Christmas related in December and then the day itself and a few days in between.

Can I ask what your Christmas budget is? Or do you just not track as you’d rather not know?

We don’t do Christmas at all - no decorations or anything as I think it’s all just a big con trying to get us to spend money unnecessarily and we have too much stuff all ready. So, we just carry on as usual but do put Christmas carols on (I hate all other Christmas music)

We don’t have a budget as such (depends on the year). This year we’ll spend maybe £1000 on family gifts because the DC are getting both a new console and pricey theatre tickets, the little one some Lego. Other years it’s probably been £500 between us.
Another £200 on wider family gifts (mainly edibles / drinkables), £300 on pantomime + Christmas lights trip and ice skating, a few hundred extra on nicer groceries all bloody month long!
So, about £2000? Ouch!

We've cut back this year, we didn't need to financially but felt we were losing the magic of Christmas and it was becoming a bit too commercialised and frankly we were becoming over run with shit that nobody needed.
We've agreed amongst family members that we're only spending on our own kids this year, I save £50 a month for the DC so there will be around £300 each to spend on presents. We've planned a big day out with all the children (cousins) for breakfast with Santa and the Christmas festival at the local farm park so we're making memories instead of everyone ending up with tat from each other, that works out around £100 for the day. Then we'll have a meal out just for the adults in the new year.
Christmas food shop is usually around £200 but expecting a little more with the col this year.
all in maybe just under 1k this year.

I don't have a set budget but spend around the same every year.

Food and drink £150 (family come but they contribute)

Outings (£150? a family day out and a low key evening seeing the lights, xmas market etc)

Presents £500 max - about half on the kids, the rest between close family. About £30 budget per person including DH.

Xmas tree (real) £50

Xmas night out with friends if I have one, £50

Xmas cards - now that's expensive these days with the cost of stamps. Probably about £50.

No doubt dribs and drabs with replacing a few decorations and buying foodie treats, and some baking eg Xmas cake that costs a bit. I do a lot of baking for a local charity bake sale.

So that's about £1000, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more - I don't have a different account or keep track.

Between October and Christmas I spend £20 extra in my weekly food shop for Christmas. E.g. baileys one week, variety of crisps, nuts & chocolates the next, largers then meat the following week and so on. So it doesn't feel like one big splurge to pay off in January. The kids usually have £200 each, unless they need a new phone/ipad. I spend £100 in total on other people's presents e.g. box of nice biscuits for the grandads, slippers for me and the husband, and a toy for a relative's child. I don't have to spend lots to enjoy Christmas.

Can you afford it ? I think if you can and you enjoy it and happy to spend it the why not. If you cannot afford it ...it's insane.

About £2000, saved throughout the year. That includes all gifts, cards, wrapping, a light trail and Santa visit, school events, work nights out, food and drinks, food bank and charity donations. We have an artificial tree and tend to buy only one or two new decorations each year if any. We have reusable advent calendars which we just fill with chocolate, and don’t do Christmas pjs or bedding. A good chunk of our budget is gifts although I’m slowly convincing family to cut this down a bit. I adore the whole Christmas season, so although I try not to be too consumerist I don’t regret what we spend.

We don’t have a Christmas budget per say, but probably aim to spend a maximum of around £100 per person because any more seems ridiculous (2 adults and 2 young children) usually end up well below, average out around £30/70 per person. Christmas shouldn’t be about gifts and competing with others.

Christmas dinner we spend less than £50 for a family of 4.

Rarely buy new decorations so let’s just say £500 per Christmas.

Yes we can. Christmas is our favourite time of the year and we always make a lot of it.

Very little

3 DGC - an outfit each - be it a winter coat if needed or new shoes - so anything between 30 and 100 each

DD and Husband - £200 for a fill of oil

Us three adults me, him and mum, very little tbh.We have what we need so just buy token gifts, books, socks, etc,

And the food shop isnt much higher as we dont go for all the choccies , biscuits etc. I buy a decent ham, decent Turkey and make the most of the 15p veg and it does a week so no food shop until the new year

Christmas tree ( singular ) is plastic , decorations for it ancient - at least 30 years old , some older, from my childhood - and Im 60+ We dont decorate the house anymore because between mum, the dog and the cat, someone is going to take a tumble but we do string lights on the trees

We do have a nice Christmas, very low key but still nice. I like to lay the table with the silver, and make it festive looking. We have 3 courses spread over a couple of hours , champagne , wine and liquers and coffee included and opening of pressies at the table. Kings Speech, Christmas cracker jokes , maybe get the cards out - depending on how mother is holding up

Ive worked in hospitality the past 20 years so usually only get the day off so Christmas is low key cos Im knackered from cooking , prepping or serving for thousands of others having their Christmas nights out in the run up

Previous years no budget. This year £200 for DD, tokens for parents and that's it. Can't afford to buy anything for anyone else this year.

I don't track it particularly but then I wouldn't dream of spending £400 each on my children so then spend isn't particularly extraordinary. About £600 total on partner and children. Cards, postage and presents for friends and family is maybe £300. Additional costs are only a good real tree and a quality turkey and a few bits and extra alcohol so no more than £300 extra there. I make my own pudding and cake so fork out for the ingredients around now. We use the same decorations every year. Definitely less than £2000.

I genuinely don't understand these figures. Is it just because people have very young or adult kids? I have a pre teen and a teen. And Christmas is when they get their electronics, whether it be ipad, lap top, games console, phone. None of which would come into anyone's £100/£200 budget. I know almost everyone his age has these things, so how is everyone managing these smaller budgets.

I understand when they're little it's much easier, they don't need much and items aren't as expensive so money goes much further. And I understand that adult children have their own money so don't need much, but I don't understand how everyone that has responded except one is managing it?

£700 all in for everything Christmas related - children’s presents, Christmas food, days out/activities for Christmas, new Christmas jumpers etc.. myself and my DH don’t gift each other anything too big. I allocate about £20 each for my parents. I don’t buy anyone else a gift, my sibling and I agreed many years ago to stop. We actually thought £700 was a huge amount and I was embarrassed that we spent that much!

I think even if you can (and this is me thinking of other people I've known throughout life who are always treating other people so may be way off the mark) it's the why, do you feel obliged, do you feel bad for having money - it's being done because that poster is getting something out of it - what is it?

Ours get their electronics donated from other family members. When they’re upgrading theirs they donate the old one to the children. My children have all their iPads very gratefully donated from their grandparents. They don’t have phones yet, not sure how that’ll work. I don’t think we’d take it out of the Christmas budget though and would have to work out a way to save that that’s separate from Christmas and doesn’t swallow that budget up. Haven’t worked out the plan for that one yet.

DD is 14. She has 2nd hand phones, generic tablets etc. We have never bought branded electronics/designer clothes etc.

@ilovelamp82 you have partially answered your question.

I for one have an adult DC.

I should have said my kids are adults now, so we spend around 80 each on them.
I still wouldn't have bought an expensive phone for them though when younger, they have always had android phones.
Games consoles weren't replaced yearly, maybe a new one every three years, so new games in between that. It was maybe 200 to 300 more expensive when they were teens.

I just spread the cost monthly starting at the beginning of the year.
I put whatever I can aside each month.
I usually buy presents and put them up.

I'd find it too overwhelming if I left it.

I don't have a set budget. Just buy what I can afford as and when.

cost of living hitting us hard, so will be an extra £100 on our usual shop that week for Xmas bits, and then £30 each on presents for our two young kids. No presents for each other or relatives. Possibly might stretch to sending some Xmas cards for family. Same plastic tree as every year. I’m just grateful we have a home, are employed, and have each other. If we had more money, would do more but just can’t justify it when everything costs so much and we live so frugally during the year.

We budget £1k for Christmas and have a great time on that amount.

£400 on presents for our immediate family (£100 a head budget for DH and I plus our two DDs. That feels plenty for us, we have never gone mad on presents.)

£200 on other gifts for wider family. We buy for our parents and our nieces and nephews (we have an agreement that other adults don't buy for each other just the kids) but have never gone mad on gifts. For my parents it's things like a nice bottle of wine or bath stuff, for nieces and nephews a selection box and a small toy or a book. Everyone has so much stuff, I'd rather just put some thought into a small, token gift but leave it at that.

£200 on food. Probably only £50 on Christmas Day food as it's just our family of four and then we host everyone for Boxing Day and that's normally around £150. Most of that is the alcohol and other drinks for the party because for the food I keep it cheap and do shredded slow cooked gammon, rolls, potato wedges, salad, a cheeseboard and mince pies.

Then £200 on other stuff. We don't do lots of trips out but we love the panto so will go to that. Panto tickets and breakfast with Santa tickets are costing us £120 this year. So then it's just miscellaneous stuff like a few Christmas cards, Christmas jumpers if DDs need new ones, a bit of money spent at the school Christmas fête etc. To be fair even things like Christmas jumpers or pyjamas are bought on Vinted for a few quid.

We spread the cost so it never feels like we can't afford it and I refuse to go into any debt for it. I buy things like cards and wrapping paper in the sales in January when they are at least half price. We don't buy many new decorations because we have an artificial tree and use the same baubles and lights each year. I tend to buy one new ornament a year if I see something special, this year I bought a bauble for the tree in France on our summer holiday. I will start buying presents as I see things and I'm on the bargain boards from June time.

From September I add one or two items a week to the food shop to put away for Christmas and keep in a cupboard in the garage or in the freezer. There were some chipolatas on yellow sticker offer at the supermarket yesterday so I bought some streaky bacon, made a tray of pigs in blankets and have frozen them so that's another item ticked off the list. When the 25% off six bottles of wine offer was on at Tesco the other week I stocked up then and have put those away. It works well as long as you can be trusted not to break into the Christmas food and drink stash.

I use all my Quidco savings to buy Xmas food.
I save £500 a year for presents and buy stocking fillers as and when from September until Christmas. I buy wrapping paper and decorations in the sale after Christmas. Christmas jumpers will be bought around now as well.

We used to do £100 for each of our children (2 children) £35 for each nephew (2 nephews) £100 for each set of parents (mine and dh) £100 for dh brother and wife, £50 on decors (reuse most from previous years) £50 for each other and £400 on food. So £1120.

However we too wanted to cut back so we now do £130 for each of our children, £50 for each nephew, nothing for each set of parents or dh brother and wife, nothing on decors or each other and £300 on food. So £660.

All gifts for children bought throughout the year in sales so our children’s gifts are worth at least £260 each. Nephews try to buy in sales but are now more specific so unfortunately bargains can’t be had if your more specific.

Saved us £560 so we’re much happier. Adults can and do buy what they want so it was always difficult for us to buy presents that were appreciated and fed up when they weren’t so this works out much better.

No idea.

I love a decent sized real tree.

DH tends to buy DS's gifts now he's older.

DF, MIL, FIL receive food treats and wine.

DB and family, token gift for adults and money for teens. Basically a swap 😆

DH always buys me great gifts, but there's not much I need.

Food I buy when it comes into the shops.

Gifts for a couple of friends. No budget, sometimes we spend a lot, sometimes not, it depends what we see.

DS always has an advent calendar, he has oddsocks this year and I sometimes have one.

That's it.