How much did Christmas cost you?

[Jbrown76]

And how long will it take to pay it off? Or how long will you be skint for?

It'll be Summer before I'm in the clear 😓

Roughly £500, including some hobby/interest group meals out for me. Would have been far more, taking into account inflation, when we had children and teenagers to buy for and travel to family etc.

Had all the decorations we needed already. Simple presents between us and the adult, earning children, books and some toys to keep here for the toddler granddaughter. Biggest extravagance was expensive but worth it turkey. We don’t drink so that makes a difference. Paid for out of income.

Around 1300, don't owe anything, I save up.

Probably about £500, £300 between 2 kids including santa presents, £150 on gifts for rest of family, and about £50 on food. We were invited to eat at a relatives house, so only brought cheese, wine & a dessert, not a full meal.

I wouldn’t get into debt for Christmas. We put money aside each month and only spend what we have saved.

This year we budgeted £1000 for everything and spent just under £850 so the leftover money stays in the pot for next year and we start again from January pay day.

No kids of my own yet but we travelled 400 miles to see family. We bought for parents, siblings x3, BIL, parent in laws, then our dog plus the other dogs in the family. I also participated in 3 secret Santa’s and my partner participated in 1. We didn’t buy for each other. I think all in all we spent around £850

Forgot to clarify, the £850 includes 800 miles + of petrol, food in service stations, light trail, dog’s visit to Santa paws, multiple Christmas markets, outfit for Christmas party etc etc

We easily spent £2,500
But hosted 20 people one night and 9 for 3 days so more spending on food/ alcohol.
New Christmas tree was bought this year
Presents for adult children and 10 others etc so not too bad!
No debt and all paid for.

Around £900 which included all presents, Christmas outings, food and alcohol. We save every month into a separate account so it’s all accounted for

We save all year for Christmas, for all food for hosting, activities and gifts we've spent 2k.

Around 2k all in. We also save all year so don’t have anything to pay back. I will feel skint towards end of Jan though because it’s a long wait for pay day due to getting Decembers early 🤣.

We spent £100-£150 more on food than normal over December and around £400 for presents but it was also DS’s birthday. This year I’m determined to plan ahead and put money aside!

More than usual because I hosted Christmas day and boxing day so provided all the food and booze. Did not get myself into debt for it though.

I finally roughly added it and it was close to 1k. I’m definitely spending less next year.

Probably about 3500. No trips, no hosting big numbers, just the 6 of us. I am shocked (and jealous) of how some of you spent so little in comparison but you know what.. you are dead right. Things have to change around here.

Not a clue tbh. We don't spend loads on presents compared with some people, but we hosted (10 of us in total) for 3 days over Christmas, then hosted PIL for 4 days over NY, so spent loads on food. We don't go into debt though. We'd spend less if we couldn't afford it. It's easy to say 'Well spend less then!' if you'd be able to do so and still give your children presents and have a decent Christmas dinner etc though.

See for me that's a summer holiday which is probably why we spend a small amount on Christmas as holidays are more important to us. I have friends who comment on our holidays but they spend the same amount as you on Christmas which for me is a crazy amount.

We still have fun I just set a tight budget for presents, no adult presents other then grandparents and joint present between DH and I (usually something for the house)

Also found we got a lot of offers from supermarkets in December from our online accounts and we froze stuff.

I reckon £2.5-3k. Bad.

Over £3600 including Xmas day lunch out for 8 including drinks bill and tip which I paid for for everyone.

I do go overboard with my parents as their birthdays are near Xmas and they have a continuously hard time as my sibling is very unwell so I like to treat them,however I have just set up a savings book for Xmas at £30 a week so will have £1500 and that is going to be the whole budget for everyone this year.

I can recommend a secret Santa for adults in the family as a way to cut costs. Propose it now so early buyers can't say they weren't warned!

In answer to the question I would say we spent a bit less than £2k including a 3 day stay in a holiday cottage and a theatre trip.

If my children want designer tracksuits and £200 trainers then they will need to save up and buy them. I think they do pretty well.

Less than £747 pounds! Don't know exactly. We save £60 pcm for 12 months in a regular saver so that was our budget it includes the £27 odd we earned in interest.

That covered all Christmas expenditure (apart from my gifts to DH and vice versa) and did include food.

We don't go daft and cut back every year actually. Bought 6 fewer gifts this year.

Christmas savings for later this year already at £120...

I'm going to guess around 500 Inc food. But I don't keep track as I don't think I could be much more careful than I am and I like to enjoy the process of Xmas shopping for my kids as well as the actual day itself.

Around 1500 for my wife and I and best friend

About £3000
2 x older teens approx £2000
Family gifts approx £400
Food approx £400 - £500
No debt but hoping to reduce spend on DC's next year as I do get carried away and buy them too much. They are very appreciative of everything they receive and wouldn't mind at all if they received less gifts.

You are dead right! Doing this years now and fed up with it!

About £400 including prezzies and food - in reality it's less than that due to the fact we'd have had to buy food anyway and haven't totally used up our next weekly budget after xmas.