How are you all managing Christmas?

[malificent7]

I don't want to get into debt and I'm fairly skint. So how are all staying frugal this Christmas?

Cutting down the amount of cards I send, stamps are ridiculous
Giving my children a set amount to spend with the exception of a present from Santa
I usually buy alot of family gifts but I've explained not this year unfortunately apart from the children
Most food I'm getting is on offer and frozen

Have got secondhand toys from market place/charity shops. Little stocking bits collected on his birthday when he had quite a lot of little presents and didn’t need them all at once. Aldi had Christmas pjs for £5 so have got those. Luckily my boy is only 3 so he doesn’t care if the toys are new, he’ll just see Paw Patrol. Anything ‘big ticket’ he specifically asks for- he wants a new ‘big boy bike’ for example- I’ll ask his more well-off grandparent to get. They can have the glory of gifting it to him, I’m not too proud 😅

I don’t buy friends or family any presents because I can’t afford to. I ask them not to get me anything.

Christmas dinner will be mostly paid for with nectar and Clubcard points.

We are doing as many Christmas light switch ons, carol services, church bazaars as possible. There’s something practically every weekend in the run up to Christmas. The Salvation Army one has a ‘free’ (donation) Santa’s grotto and the local Catholic Church has a Christmas tree and lantern festival with a little party tea for the children. I tend to utilise all I can in the local area- there’s a brilliant road nearby that goes all out with Christmas lights- we will do that followed by a Happy meal tea.

for £3 the NSPCC will personalise and send a lovely letter from Santa to your door.

I’ll find out as many cards as possible or send a big envelope home for my mum to distribute to family members nearby 🤣 I won’t buy many stamps

Not hugely helpful now but potentially for next year, I’ve spread the cost over the whole year by either putting money to one side or buying bits every month, and from using the Asda Rewards App have £180 on there which will do our main Christmas shop, definitely worth using that next year if you shop at Asda as we’ve got that amount just literally from doing our usual shopping there every week.

I have bought all the stocking presents on vinted.

Buying presents for my parents and that’s it (no kids).

Declining all invitations to meet for dinner or drinks etc. Not buying any new decorations (have hundreds) and not buying loads of food that’ll only make me fat!

By not doing it at all. We are celebrating the winter solstice with food, drinks, simple natural decorations of Holly and fir, a yule log, and for our daughter, she will get a parting gift from the Holly King. (My husband adorned in antlers, greenery and evergreens.

Pagan family here. We have ditched Christmas due to its toxic forced participation and how fake it all felt. No more worrying about how to afford it all. Just celebrating the return of the sun and some wintery feasting.

I only buy Xmas gifts for DH, 3 DC, foster son, MiL and 2dgc. I'm going out less over December. I'm having a Xmas lunch with my 4 sisters on Dec 12th instead of exchanging gifts. I'm doing an early Xmas buffet lunch for my 3 DC, partners, foster son and 2dgc December 7th. No panto, no Xmas theatre or ballet this year. I'm giving each DC/FS a budget of £100. £50 each for their partners and DGC. This is half that of previous years. Smaller/cheaper stockings. I'm delivering Xmas cards to my family in person so no stamps. I'm definitely buying less Xmas chocolate as DH and I are both on a diet and I'm cutting back on Xmas food in general as I snack too much and we are usually still eating it in January.

I have just massively cut back on what I buy. I don't buy for many people each year, but it will be even less this year and what I buy will be something more useful than just for the sake of it being Christmas. Told my mum she'll receive one small gift from me and not to buy me anything - money or a gift card would be lovely but only if she wants to.

The 2 dc are only getting 1 main present each (a scooter bought through my Very account so I can pay it off over 6 months.) That felt reasonable as they had grown out of their old ones and will get a lot of use from them. Also they'll get a book, plus a small amount of money for gaming, and just a few Santa stocking gifts like sweets.

My partner has his birthday close to Christmas, so we've agreed on doing more of a date/experience together instead of wasting money on tat. I'll get him a token gift for birthday and Xmas, but no 'big' present which he's fine with.

The rest of the family adults I'm just not buying for, and for the young ones e.g nieces and nephews I'm going to suggest I take them to panto or maybe cinema or something in the new year. No point buying endless mountains of toys that they'll look at once and never use again!

We've already cut out buying all the adult relatives presents (and that includes all nieces and nephews now too - they mostly earn more than we do!).
I'm cutting right back on food and drink this year as I always buy too much.
Not doing a wreath making workshop this year - usually costs £40.
Will drag the 20+ year old artificial tree from the loft to save the expense of a real tree.

Most ppl that I used to exchange cards with have now stopped as the stamps cost more than the actual cards. Hand deliver those you can and send a nice message on social media to them instead.
For young kids the charity shops are great as kids get so many books they barely look at and are passed on in mint new condition for a few pence.
Older relatives that don’t really need any more ‘stuff’ but came from a generation that didn’t get much of anything at Christmas really love a stocking filled with little things (a tangerine, nice hand cream, boiled sweets, an address book, some nice biscuits, tea or coffee, soaps, a book…etc and if you wrap some of them up you’ll find they get so much fun out of it?
If you have a lot of nieces or nephews then a box or tub of sweets to share, rather than individual.
We just buy the food needed for the actual day as always left overs for Boxing Day etc and already have mains and starters bought and frozen.
Its just one day and the true spirit of Christmas can be lost in the utter consumerism of it all.
Gather any greenery outside for decs, if you have a garden or near fallen cones. Even ask any gardeners working nearby if anything you could use (that would otherwise be dumped) and apply your imagination.

Don’t go into major debt as so much stuff gifted is forgotten about by the 3rd of January….

We are only gifting small things too. To be honest - everybody has everything these days so nothing is really needed anyway!

We will be gifting things the kids would need anyway such as clothes and some experiences to do in the school holidays when we need the entertainment.

Hello from Grinch Central. No kids, no budget worries really but I refuse to be sucked in to the commercial aspect anymore.

Amongst family, presents for under 18s only. All adults are delighted that we are stopping the mutual present exchange stuff. We all have everything we need and don't need anymore gift bags, ribbons, bows, wrapping paper and dubious repeats of gifts on rotation.

Since I don't watch TV and only watch YouTube on the Brave browser and Netflix there are no ads to annoy me with the sickly sweet shite of the "perfect" Christmas accompanied by hanky music.

And lastly, we are going away for three weeks over Christmas/New Year to a place that doesn't really DO Christmas and is warm but not roasting. Believe me if you do it once, you won't stay home ever again, well if you don't have children anyway I suppose. And the amount of crap that is avoided by legging it away is unreal. And lots of money saved on buying endless crates of beer/wine and acres of food, "Just in case" people arrive at the door.

Yes we are fortunate, but probably spend the same or less when away than we would here.

All the best from Ms. Grinch.

Started saving in January, I've done this since becoming responsible financially for Christmas. I recommend open a savings account in January and popping a small amount in each month for next year.

Four children and single parent here.

Start in September. Set a budget. Mine is 100 from me and about 30 on stocking bits.

Buy things they need and will use like clothes and bath stuff. Then I have to buy less in the year. Books we do a lot and I can get them second hand often.

My bf and I buy for our children each, again set a budget we do about 50 each.

My bf and I do t get each other much we make it fund we have three categories and have to get three presents for no more than 10 per present.

Wider family we do secret Santa with a ten pound limit. Do not buy for adults this is just kids.

I don't buy a shit ton of food! I buy a roast, a box of crackers and a Xmas pud. It's no more expensive than a normal Sunday dinner. We don't need to eat crap for 2 weeks.

I also don't really drink!

Sheriff of Nottingham approach.

No presents (we've scaled back on presents for adults for years). We will celebrate but without the additional consumerism.

Debt is a far greater blight than a scaled down festival that encourages comparison to be the thief of joy.

I have all the decorations I need, so don’t be buying more. I have a some of money in a Naked Wines account that I’ll use for Christmas wine and some of that will do adult gifts. I set a budget for the kids that I’ve already set aside. I will buy the food for Christmas Day from Tesco vouchers saved over the year. Family members are giving panto tickets, tickets to a light show so we’ll have a couple of outings, the rest will be visits to garden centres, National Trust places. School holidays will be long dog walks, baking and board games.

Much of that won’t help you this year but planning through the year takes the sting out of December.

Massively cutting back on everything. Not sending cards. Cash sent to older kids. Only buying what the youngest has asked for (not a lot!) and won't be bulking out with lots of unasked for/unwanted stuff. DP and I only buying token gifts as we're both skint and he's out of work following illness.

Pooling resources....DP's kids and ExW all coming to us and we're all chipping in with food/cooking/drinks.

Reusing outfits for Christmas do's. I'd normally have something new....not this year.

I know it’s a bit obvious to say, but writing down everything, with a cost, and adding it up is an eye opener for me. It shifts things from “and just this little extra thing” to “I don’t really need that”.

I have a practice in the supermarket of always taking something out of my trolley before I go to the tills. In December I take out 2 things, and Christmas week I take out 3. If sounds miserable but honestly it can be a relief because I very often have an ill considered impulse and it’s helpful to have a pause and time to think.

supermarket stress is really costly this time of year. The traffic is heavier, there’s more people, the queues are longer, it takes longer, and people are lost in thought and a bit (or a lot) rude. Schedule extra time, eat before you go, make a list (or better yet don’t go at all). If you shop in the aisle of crap supermarkets you can have said “no” to some fripperies so many times, that it’s easy to feel like you’ve earned it in a weak moment. That’s where the pre till check helps.

I have to actively remind myself that the goal is peaceful stress free Christmas and buying more stuff is almost never the way. I don’t need more clutter, two extra side dishes to cook, more gifts to wrap. It’s not just money - it’s almost always going to cost more time and energy too.

A life changing gift tip I’ve learned is to ask people what they’d like for Christmas, face to face so you can say “ha ha wouldn’t we all, but seriously! My budget is…” to the greedy ones! Saves a ton of stress thinking about the hard to please ones, and cuts out the extravagant wish lists. If someone says they don’t want anything I just say “oh that’s great. Me too. Let’s do lunch in the new year” and if they say “surprise me” they’re getting a gift card. End of.

I recently discovered The Works. I got 2 plastic battery operated lorries, a couple of art sets and a pop up book for under £20. That will do great nieces and nephews along with some felt finger puppets and little toys I bought in the sales last year.

Otherwise I need to talk with extended family about expectations, DH usually spends circa £1 k on his nieces and nephews and a godchild (all adults) and we just can't this year.

Going away for the winter, won't be doing Christmas.

No cards, at all, bar MIL who is 85 and would really be upset if we didn't.
No gifts beyond MIL who has asked for some wee earrings, under £15, and a garden voucher.
No fancy food or drink. We're treating ourselves to a bit of beef, and will have a roast dinner on the day. Rest of meals will be ordinary. No chocs, no piles of luxury shit that we find in a cupboard in March, no excess, no waste.

Lots of time spent together, walks and game nights with friends, time to read, watch a few movies, etc.

Im sick of it all and refuse to play.

Don't send any cards, haven't for a few years now

Don't buy any adults in the family presents; we stopped this a few years ago

Save up every month so there's a nice pot by November. I then write a list of everything that we will need to spend on including day trips etc and allocate a budget per item

Use Tesco/Sainsbury's points for the food shop

Have had the same decorations for 10+ years

We are very low key but still have a lovely time; lots of fires, few walks, loads of films & games, general unwinding

We've never gone OTT on Christmas. Like others have said, it really is 1 day. My favourite day over the holidays is boxing day lol 😆

Our boys get 1 main pressie and a couple of other bits plus a stocking. I buy for my mum, her partner and MIL, but it's just a couple of small pieces I know they like such as a new calandar for the year, chocolate, Books, candles etc. Our cat has a stocking with a couple of bits and I always get MILs dog a couple of a treats. Me and OH don't buy for eachother, we'll do something later on such as a gig or something instead 🙂 I'm making our family Christmas cards this year as the prices are pathetic now for family cards.

Stopped cards a few years ago.
Excessive food and drink a couple of years ago.
This year is a no present Christmas.
Like a pp, we also celebrate Winter Solstice.
Christmas is a lot of pressurised bs and we're seeing it as a positive that we're going to enjoy time with family rather than getting stressed for weeks on end trying to afford, buying and wrapping presents.
When my dcs were little I used to get quite a lot of stuff second hand and clean them up.