Frugal Christmas 2024

[Liquoricetoffee]

I’m dreaming of a Christmas filled with cheap activities, hanging out with friends/family, baking, crafts, making the house festive with what I already own and lots of outdoor time and music.

Instead every year I get sucked into the opposite. It’s stressful, expensive, over indulgent, soooo much stuff being bought and received, house is in absolute state due to us all being stressed all of December. And food wasted because I get sucked into spending way more than I normally do. (I know this is my own fault and choice, but I’m still resentful 😅)

Advertisment is selling us the perfect dream Christmas (if you buy their stuff) but the reality is making me feel gross and frankly like a mug for buying into it.

Anyone out there that feel similar and want to get involved please do! I thought I’d open a thread where we can share some ideas of how to make this happen.

I do orange slices or whole orange pomanders with cloves, every year and I’ve kept the nicest ones for years. They get darker each year but I like the contrast.

If you can get oranges without pips they’ll turn out better. Take as much moisture out as you can with paper towels before putting them in the oven. I use a sheet of parchment under them and turn them occasionally, but I leave them on a low heat for hours. You could also do them slowly on radiators for days. In the old days we would make a clove pomander, put it in a paper bag, in the airing cupboard for a couple of months.

The key to storing them for future years is to store them in paper rather than plastic.

We love rurally, so I host a wreath making afternoon/evening. I put on Mince pies and wine, we forage for greenery and I collect up a few other bits in the days before. I supply nice ribbon, and the bases/wire and at the end people take their wreath home with my love and best wishes for the season. It absolutely costs about £7 per wreath, we chat and laugh and help each other and have Christmas music, and the fire kit. Absolutely my favourite afternoon of the festive period.

Another nice little activity DC seem to like is to keep this year's Xmas cards to make next year's gift tags. Then at the end of November or first week in December I let my DGC cut up the Xmas cards from this year with pinking shears, hole punch and thread with golden cord and write Merry Xmas with a gold or silver coloured pen and of course the glitter glue to jazz up the gift tags. Also later in the year take them to collect for cones. Then they can spray paint them in silver or gold to make a festive arrangement in a basket with some holly. Baking Xmas cookies and decorating and decorating festive cupcakes too.

My sister's and I always allocate the first Thursday in December to make a Xmas wreath for the graves of my parents, Gran and 2 Aunties. We play Xmas music whilst we do them. Take them to the cemetery, garden of remembrance then go for a Xmas meal together afterwards.

That's a brilliant idea!

Another thing I do with DGC is to make some little cards with pictures of Xmas things on like a reindeer, bells, flashing lights, Xmas tree etc. a bit like a Bingo card. Then each DGC chooses one card and a pen. We go for a walk around where we live and each time they see something on their card they cross it off. First one to finish their card gets the first hot chocolate when we get home and we add squirty cream, baby marshmallows, and break up a flake and sprinkle on top too. We normally have plain hot chocolate so it's a bit special. Sometimes I throw in a candy cane if they are well behaved on the walk. I walk the dogs at the same time.

The Christmas Scavenger Hunt was a big hit for several years here too with DD. She was older when we did this so instead of bingo cards (great idea @caringcarer ) we had checklists on our phones and we had quite long lists. Works really well if there are two or more groups with an adult who can go different routes and get a bit competitive!

We find that things that parents would normally do (move furniture in living room to fit in Christmas tree/ got to the shed to get the little snack table and wash/dry it) can be put Into the advent as christmassy jobs. Not everything has to have a cost. At first, I was finding cheap but not free things (like buying hot chocolate and squirty cream for a hot chocolate night) until I realised that getting a house ready for Christmas can be a joint enterprise and is actually exciting with a bit of music on etc

Great thread!

So far I have gone through spends for last Christmas and worked out how much I need to set aside each week to cover the cost.

I have also picked up non edible stocking fillers really cheap and put away in the Christmas cupboard. Hoping to get ahead on wrapping paper, cards, Christmas jumpers and replacing broken decorations.

I have made a list of things I will definitely be buying for gifts, and have set up price alerts and will buy throughout the year when offers are on. Obviously the kids will have specific requests closer to the time but they often want surprises and are quite predictable.

I have signed up for alerts for ticket releases for local events so we don't miss out when they are released. We will be looking at doing lots of cheap or free days out too. And I'm keen to do a wreath making workshop.

Facebook marketplace and vinted are fab for gifts too. I've bought loads of brand new items, and on vinted I sold stuff to get my balance up to buy. It's like swapping your old stuff for new.
At work, we also did a gift swap and will do it every few months. Everyone bought something they'd received but didn't want and swapped them. It worked really well.