How much do you spend on Christmas, all in?

[walkwalk]

Just wondering as growing up we didn't have much, so didn't spend much. Now I am a bit more financially comfortable and we have a budget of £750 this year - that's for absolutely everything (tree, food, booze, gifts, treats, activities...). It feels like a LOT but then I read on here about some peoples traditions (Christmas Eve hampers with new games, treats and pj's for whole family), and very impressive gift lists for the kids etc.. sounds lovely but it's kind of blowing my mind, doing the mental math, they must be spending thousands??

Just curious, obviously look away if you prefer not to talk money! :)

[quote CuteOrangeElephant]@willsantabecomingtotown

Soup
Beef Wellington from a kit for 15 pounds
Carrots and roast potatoes as a side
2 bottles of wine
Festive ice creams

Breakfast will be some croissants/breads with nice cheese and orange juice. Plus stollen.

Plus there will be a cheese board in the evening.

That should be more than doable for 15 pounds. I don't like turkey. Only 2 adults and a 3 year old.[/quote]
No chocolates or sweet treats?
No turkey or Christmas pud?
Crackers? etc

Not really doing Christmas- more like a typical weekend dinner?

So £70 isnt really Christmas?

About £350 on presents for family both sides , then about £150-250 ds1 & 2 each , varies from year to year. Was a lot less when younger now teens so just a couple things add up
Then about £100 helping contribute towards xmas dinner / drinks at my mums .
Myself and dh rarely buy for each other as we can't afford it .
I try to put £50 a month away to help come xmas, but been tough to do this year as I lost my job so just dh wage , although stated some temping and all gone on xmas so far .

@WillSantaBeComingToTown maybe that's what they like to eat. I don't think beef Wellington is typical weekend dinner

We spend between 2-3k, we buy new iPhones every other year so that will be a 3k year. This year is a non iPhone year.

Around £1,000 all in. I have quite a few people to buy for.

Not really sure, probably around £750-£900 all told including quite a lot of days out / hosting (though not Christmas dinner itself) and usually a theatre trip or something between Christmas and New Year. We don't have a budget as such, it costs what it costs and we are lucky we can afford it.

I do love these threads. I love how some people need to mention spend on alcohol. I think that is so glamorous and grown up to have proper wine and beer and stuff. I got DH a ten pack of Stella which will last until January

I always go over the top so a lot.

I usually host so Christmas dinner for 15, the meat costs the best part of £500 for two days.

I also have a drinks party on the 23rd: a few crates of champagne and the caterers cost a bit - that will sadly be a saving this year

I’m extravagant with gifts, fill the house with flowers. It’s a really big deal for me

We normally budget £1k but have gone totally overboard this year and are also hosting (just PILs and SIL) for the first time ever this year. What we aren't spending on party nights and days out this winter has probably gone on extra gifts so I think we are looking at £2-2,5k. We are fortunate that our disposable income covers this however I will just be returning from mat leave next Christmas so will need to seriously scale back.

About £450, that includes presents for dd, parents, pets and my boss who has been amazing this year, Christmas food and drive in Panto.

Had budgeted about £800 so extra is going into premium bonds.

I have a monthly standing order which goes into a savings pot I use for Christmas.

Just worked it out and I spend roughly two weeks of my salary on Christmas, it'll be less this year as no pantos etc to go to.

I’m horrified to find it’s now probably around £500-£600 with half going on my children.
I love treating people and buying gifts for people but I don’t exactly have the budget to match!

This year I reckon it's about £2k

£1000 on gifts for the 5 of us (mainly dc!)
£300 other family gifts
£250 additional food/alcohol
£60 tree
£120 new outdoor lights
£100 Christmas santa lunch/experience
Couple of hundred for the extra bits I'm probably forgetting about

I'm really impressed at all those people who do it on a small budgets.

I'm also wondering whether this this thread is representative of mumsnet in general or whether people just dont add the bits I do?

I know covid has changed a lot, but normallyn loads of people I know would spend money on visiting a Santa's grotto/xmas experience?

We never buy a tree or decorations- but obvs lots of people do that.

I dont hang around in particularly rich company, but it's not uncommon for xmas to be the time when chn get a laptop/console. Bought new, these gifts alone would take up most of a £500 budget.

Then theres stockings. Just because you've been buying bits for it all year, doesnt mean you didnt have to pay for it??
Likewise those people who say they'll only spend an extra £50 on xmas food, cause they've been chipping away at it. You still spent the money! That's no different from people who put away money each month then spend in december.

Then theres shopping. Even if we dont host, we still would visit families and never go empty handed - not much a bit if booze/soft drinks plus anything I'vebeen asked to contribute. So I'd consider xmas food costs to be more than just the meals on the 25th.

I have no doubt that lots of people here are being genuine and are doing it quite cheap. I think that's especially true if your dc are young.

However, I do wonder if people add up the numbers dif to how i would add them up as the my experience suggests people spend loads more.

DD £500
DS £500
£200 on both DC stockings
DH £350
DN X 3 - £80ish combined
DM, DF, siblings and partners approx £150
Food £350ish (that’s all in)
Don’t generally buy booze at Christmas as we are well stocked, probably just a bottle of Baileys/champers is needed.
So roughly a couple of grand.

Ok - last few posts a bit more realistic. I was responding to the first few pages where everyone was saying £300 - £500.

I didnt include xmas socialisin⁷g, as I dont know if that counts but it's not uncommon for people to buy a new top as well as costs of going out.

We will spend £1400 this year. We're spending more on tween dcs than we normally would do but spending lot less travelling, visiting, hosting etc

This year about £1500 I’d say, which is more than usual, but then again we’d have spent more on going out round Xmas most years and this year we’ll spend zero.

I put down £500-£600 and I didn’t think that was cheap particularly.
£300 on children, £200 on other presents (£90 family, £110 friends).
We don’t buy new decorations other than 1 new one a year (usually something for the tree at around £5).
Not seeing anyone for Christmas Day so it’ll just be a bottle of wine and I’ll do a chicken roast and that’s it.
No socialising this year. No new clothes / outfits either.

About 4/5k I think. Just scared myself after totting that up.
We do have a wonderful time though so it's worth it.

About 3.5 - 4k.
Hideous but after the year this has been I don't really care! Plus we had a house fire earlier this year so all our decorations in the loft were burnt / smoke damaged, so we've had to replace all of them - the only thing I kept was my vintage 1960s angel for the top of the tree. I had lots of vintage decorations, all destroyed, so expensive to try to replace.
Gone overboard with DC gifts, DS wanted Ps5 (got!) and Samsung tablet. Dd getting cash plus a designer bag she wanted.
Wouldn't normally spend as much but we've had no holidays this year, plus house fire, corona virus, so thought we'd push the boat out.

We are about 1300 all in. Prob about 500 each per child (2) then food shopping and relative gifts. I’m on a min wage job but I saved since July. My partner is more sensible with spending while I get carried away with the kids stuff. They are only young once. That’s my motto lol

I have been thinking about this. We don't spend a great deal on gifts compared to many families. DC are grown up now and about £150 each x 2 although things like laptops were bought during the year and when needed and I wouldn't count them as "presents" nor would I have counted "vests and knickers/pants" as presents. £60 each on our parents x 3 and £30 on an aunt. Godchildren of which there were many got a £10 Amazon voucher up to 21 x 11. DH about £100 and vice versa.

I'm shocked that adds up to more than £800.

We will still have trees and I am afraid I have them delivered and decorated because we usually have so many visitors and they look soo much better than when I do it. £450

Cards - have spent £140 on cards and postage

The big spends are on food and drinks for 24th to 27th when we are usually at least 8 adults per meal. DH sorts out the wine but I definitely spend an extra £350 to £400 so let's say £800 all in. I imagine this year it will be about £300.

Pre Christmas party for about 25 to 30 with a little help - £1000.

Carol concert - Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall type thing £100ish plus dinner.

Opera or ballet £400ish plus dinner

So, we will spend about £1800 this year compared to about £3600 usually. As we will have few visitors the trees could have been cut out but two big trees would still have cost £200 and would look rubbish if I dressed them.

Just added it up:

£50 tree
£100 food and booze
£100 Christmas Eve ice skating/ meal out
£700 on gifts for everyone (4 dc plus family)
going to cut back next year

No idea, at a guess I'd probably think around £300. To have a brief tot up:

£60 on our two DC including a book each for Christmas eve. At 2.5 and 6mos, they have no concept of Christmas. We've brought them some good quality wooden toys between them as well as their books. I could have spent a fortune on toys and books that DC1 would adore, but as DH pointed out, they don't understand it, they will have lots from our parents and the toddler gets overwhelmed so easily. Last year it was 3 days before his gifts were all open to go at his pace. Plus we are trying to save so it makes no sense to splash out.

£100 across 4 nieces and nephews.

£30 friends children

£20 on DH.

£50 on parents/grandparents so far but probably another £30 to go.

Probably £15 advent - nice calendar, candle. We're practicing Christians so advent is important to us.

Probably £50 for the food bank.

We'll travel to see our Christmas bubble so a tank of petrol - £65.

We brought our main course in our monthly shop this month (veggie not turkey), but will need potatoes, veg etc closer to the time. I will probably do a few nice additions to 'christmas' it up - yorkshires, a pudding, DH will have some beer, so I'd say another £30 or so.
We'll have a dinner with each of our parents in our bubble at some point over the few days, so I'd say another £20 or so for drinks, ingredients etc to take a contribution.

£475! well that's more than I expected. It's affordable, so that's not the issue, just more than I anticipated, especially as the treat days out haven't happened - a train trip for the toddler, a grotto visit etc. We're quite low key anyway - we're not into parties, big gestures etc and our kids are small so no big gifts needed - tech, expensive clothes etc.

About £1200 normally. About £600 on presents (kids are 13,16,19 so usually want technology or branded clothes). The rest goes on days and nights out (a show, concerts, going out with friends etc) extra petrol for visiting, cabs, and a new outfit or two.

I don't really spend much extra on food as I tend to cook from scratch over Christmas and save on buying lunches. We don't drink much and visitors are usually driving so only tend to buy a couple of bottles...we spend way more on booze in the summer for bbq's.

This Christmas will be a cheap one - haven't even bought new clothes as we're not going anywhere.

@Timshortforthalia re your comment in food, not everyone, and in fact lots of people have small families and don’t host or go to family for Christmas because they don’t have family to go to, maybe a parent but that’s about it.

So for us and many an extra £50 is probably about right.

@FreshfieldsGal what a nightmare! Wishing you a lovely Christmas 🎄