How can we have a nice Christmas

[ZanyPombear]

I know Christmas is ages away don’t shoot me. How do you afford to have a nice Christmas if you don’t have much money to spend? I still want to have a nice time

Assuming you have kids and are a 3-5 person household, including children, I'd do something like the below:

Chicken and not turkey - mostly because turkey always disappoints - with, frozen carrots, homemade potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, usually creamed spinach (super cheap to make and very filling) and runner beans. That would be about £20, I think. It means more prep on the day but it's worth it.

Buy things like a big desert or cake when it's marked down in the store an freeze it (most de-frost very well even 2-3 months later)

Don't do salad the next day, salad prices sky-rocket over Christmas (because everyone seems to want it). Instead, I'd do chicken wraps or something to use up leftovers.

Instead of buying the nibbles you might have, try and make them yourself! You can usually make 3-4 times as many but at 1/8 of the price. It's also a good way of entertaining children the day before and lots of them also reuse the same ingredients. Also you'll likely have the 'core' ingredients (like flour) already!

Adults don't do gifts for each other

Children get one 'big' present (set a limit on whatever the budget can be) and no stocking but instead lots of little presents (£5-10) each. I find stocking gifts are usually just crap anyway unless you're super rich

Buy the smaller gifts long before christmas and hide them away.

Don't bother with big events (I know kids love Christmas lights, but so often they are just overpriced) and instead do things like home movie nights with Christmas music, big bags of popcorn (the microwavable ones are super cheap, not the ready popped ones).

Check out charity shops for cheaper Christmas decorations.

Be careful of places like Amazon (last Christmas one of the presents I got DD1 was £40 more expensive on Amazon than it was in John Lewis) and shop around.

Be clear to extended family (siblings/parents) that you're prioritising your children's Christmas memories this year because of the financial situation (assuming you have kids). A good family member will 100% understand why you cannot give them a new sweater.

Don't be fooled by 'homemade' presents - I tried candles last year. Cost me a fortune to buy everything I needed and tbh I could have got 4 Yankee Candles (which are insanely expensive IMO) for the price of the 40 tea lights I churned out. Also the Yankee ones probably wouldn't have smelt like dead flowers...

Spread the cost over the year. I buy most gifts in sales.
Limit the adults I buy presents for.
Kids get a set amount of money each.
Do things that don't cost money, ie film nights, drive round looking at Christmas lights, game nights.
Most of my Christmas dinner is frozen. I don't bother with big turkey either.

Buy the veg when the supermarkets start selling it for pennies to get people in the door.

Move it to boxing day or even the day after. Buy everything on boxing day for it.

It's not to early to think about Christmas if your on a budget! My tips are chicken not turkey on Christmas day, buy a few cupboard bits per week in your food shop like mince pies etc buy things when they are on offer. Charity shops, vinted, ebay and Temu ( I know I know but needs must) for gifts. Christmas is for enjoying time with your family not about mountains of gifts and expensive trips so plan things like winter walks with a flask of hot chocolate/ board games a walk round your neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.

I'm not sure why my reply has been hidden, that's odd 😕

Any way I basically said the same as above.

I know what you mean op. We say every year we're going to cut down but we just can't seem to! We have dds uni to pay for so it means we have even less money for Christmas.

This isn't so much about making it cheaper but being prepared.

We save every month into a regular saver for Christmas.

Our entire budget for everything (food, gifts, "events") is £600

I realise saving will be unobtainable for many.

Cheaper:

Do a secret Santa for adults and set a gift limit. Ours is £20

Buy in the sales wherever possible.

One year when things were really tight I joined specialist Facebook groups (Lego and Sylvanian Families) and bought loads of second hand sets for the kids. Some didn't even have the boxes so I used pretty boxes to wrap. The kids didn't notice.

Give gifts that are practical. Ie stockings in the Defiant household consist of pants, socks, useful stuff.

Reuse gift bags. We've been using the same bag for the DC for Christmas gifts since 2012!

Christmas can be magical without spending a lot of money. Would be useful to know if you have DC and if so ages, then can help with some ideas.

My sister and I cook and deliver Christmas dinners for people in need, on Christmas Eve. Just reheat in the microwave. We go out Xmas eve morning and the veg is mega reduced. The last 4 years we have catered for 40 ish People and the most expensive part of the meal is the piss in blankets. Costs us about £35-50 including a pudding ( but not including tubs) for 40 meals as everything is dirt cheap on Xmas Eve. Pork tends to be the cheapest so it's very easy to produce an excellent dinner with just £10-20.

My kids always loved festive crafts. You can buy basic festive craft kits for a few £ and add in toilet roll tubess, glitter and paint and make your own decorations. Make and ice your own biscuits, you can buy multipack coloured icing tubes for £1-2 in Poundland. Home made cinnamon rolls for Xmas day breakfast go down really well in my house.

Light some candies and have hot chocolate watching a lovely Xmas movie. Decorate the tree together, go for walks to see the lights. Check out your local churches for activities to, my church does themed fairs with stalls, father Xmas visits and they have carol singing and silly competitions like best home made festive sweater and. Fancy dress for dogs. Xmas doesn't have cost a fortune, chosen will remember tubs you do, the feelings you help to create inside them. Not the toy that will be discarded the day after it's been opened

Tell me how you make the “piss” in blankets.

I usually buy one gift a week from about July! I can’t afford a big splurge all at once. I don’t buy for adults only my parents and set a £30 limit on nieces and nephews. My children get one gift that they have asked for as their main present then they gave surprises that I’ve picked up throughout the year! We don’t do any big days out anymore just trips to garden centres to look at the festive lights and free Christmas library events.

Definitely start now. Spread the cost as much as you can.

Christmas food is often reduced when it first appears in the supermarket as they bring it in far too soon and most people aren’t buying it then. So grab what you can and freeze, and then the rest at the last minute when it’s reduced again. Have favourite treat meals that don’t cost a fortune during the period so you feel like you’re having a nice time anyway.

Buy secondhand as much as possible. There is so much out there when you start looking. Charity shops, online, FB groups. And again, start early, as people start selling to make money themselves. Check out what you can sell yourself.

Can you do jokey gifts for adults? It’s still nice to get something but it might be a silly book from a charity shop or something relating to a shared joke. I buy someone a naff calendar every year for example. Easy to set a low price limit for that sort of thing. Also IOUs for things like a foot rub or cleaning the house etc.

You can do Christmas lights without having to go to official parades that cost money. You can get in the car and drive around areas that you know have lots of lights. If you don’t drive catch the bus to the area or to a town centre and look at the tree and lights there. Maybe stretching to a hot chocolate if the funds allow. Or even take keep cups of hot chocolate with you if it’s close enough.
this obviously depends on your children being young enough to like the simple pleasures.

we took ours to a town and brought them happy meals so it was doubly exciting as they got to see the lights and got a McDonald’s.

as above stockings are usually things like pants socks smellies. We would just put in a slightly nicer smelly like imperial leather do silly ‘flavour’ shower gels like unicorn or dinosaur in the shops like home bargains. And if you have a bath a bottle of mr matey bubble bath. Although I still buy that now for my 22year old in his stocking. Also items like smelly gel pens or felt tips a note book stickers etc. raid Poundland or home bargains. Again do that now and don’t leave it until closer to Christmas.

we are lucky and go to my parents every Christmas so we don’t have the cost of the food but we take dessert with us. I usually order it when they release the Christmas stuff but in years when money has even tight we visit Iceland and get something from the party range each week to spread the cost and then it’s in the freezer.

A very specific tip that might be good if your kids are the right age is that Smiggle has a brilliant sale in November. Great for stocking fillers.

Im on a budget and have done a lot of xmas gift buying already
Also have my mum and my niece n nephews bdays all nov dec

Sell old / unwanted clothes / stuff on vinted / Ebay to raise xmas budget / kitty

Make an amazon wish list and spread over next 2 pay days ?
Ive ear marked some decs that im buying oct 1st

Christmas draw for anyone over 18. With a £30 limit, so only buying 1 gift.
Buy a gift a week, and try to make them nice but needed... for example I used to get new pj's for Christmas eve. Not Christmas ones, but ones that would last all year. Father Christmas would deliver them to the doorstep, along with a dvd on Christmas eve. That's pj's sorted for the year, a magical Christmas eve, and nice smart pj's for the photos in the morning!
I would get 1 gift of choice for each child (set a budget), then 1 book, 1 film, some nice chocolate, some undies, a few bits for stockings. Kids don't need millions of things, mostly they would rather get 1item they've asked for.rather than loads of tat they didn't ask for.

Decorate your house, look out on fb marketplace, charity shops for cheap decorations, or swap with relatives. Make them - hang biscuits, thread popcorn, use bits if ribbon, wrap sweets. Papercraft, pompoms, collect flowers, branches etc. You can decorate foe very little and it can make your home.feel amazing.

Start buying Christmas food early, ans don't fall into.the trap of thinking you need excessive amounts, or tins of sweets, bowls of nuts etc every where.

Have friends over, tell them to bring a.bottle and have a Jacobs join.

Go for walks, look for free local events, lantern festivals, light switch ons, local houses with fantastic displays.

Board games, movie nights, hot chocolates, baking, crafting. There are.loads of ways to have a lovely Christmas without it costing.a fortune.

Make a hamper for Christmas activities by starting to gather together games from charity shops or free groups, ingredients for special Christmas cooking, christmas books, publicity about free Christmas events, any Christmas clothing washed mended and ready eg jumper, socks, fairylights, decorations candles. Just keep your eyes out.

Then on 1st December get everyone to get house ready. Make homemade wreath from garden leaves and berries or go on a forage and wire coathanger. Make the house smell Christmassy. Light an advent candle each day at specific time, if you have a faith you can read or sing something together. We used to sing away in a manger around nativity set and candle when DC little.

Make a hot chocolate station with nice toppings to choose from.

Encourage everyone's own ideas too. Use reusable boxes, bags, fabric and ribbons.
Put shout out on friends’ groups to share resources, borrow, lend, swap or give away what you don’t want.

Fill stockings with little gifts they need anyway like underwear, socks, toiletries, books. We loved always getting fresh clothes on Christmas day morning when we were little.

Read Christmas stories and poems aloud by the fire. Get whole family to go for a walk in wood or forest and gather cones, twigs and branches for fuel.

If they like this kind of thing use imagination to make up rituals and games like Father Christmas visit clues, footprints, bells. It’s often those magical elements that we treasure years later.

If older can you create an escape room game on Christmas theme or murder mystery for over Christmas? Or just a load of boardgames, charades, etc and cards with some silly prizes.

Make own cards and gifts if time rich.

The materialism of Christmas sometimes makes me feel very uncomfortable so it’s great to look at what gives it meaning for your own family OP.

I dont do xmass at all i stopped years ago no tree decs cards nothing.
Now i have a home spa day.
Reading relaxing youtube lounge in pjs all day.
Mic dinner yoga meditate.
Or i bugger off on around the 20/23rd of december and come back in the new year.
Last year i spent the day on a lovely beach reading a book.
Came home to a clean xmass free home.

One of my most memorable presents as a child was a big white stuffed dog. Not memorable for the thing itself but memorable because under the tree was a clue to find it - it was hidden in the car.

I think you can make small numbers of presents feel like more important affairs by doing things like this which 'big them up' in a child's mind.

Are you after cheap Christmas ideas in general, or specifically for your own circumstances? If the latter, we need more detail.

Will you marry me? 😂

I don't buy for adults only my dc.

Me and DH do our presents for each other later in the year when we don't have much to pay for I.e no dc birthday.

I have a limit for both dc. This year dc13 wanted a gaming PC & accessories for it like keyboard, monitor etc so that's literally all I will get for him and I've spent 3 months browsing in shops and online to find the best deal.
Online isn't always cheaper.

Remember the true spirit of it and don't street about all the ridiculous commercial element. It can still be magical ❄️