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! :)

Around £1500

I'd estimate around £350

2 children about £50 each on gifts
Stocking each about £10 each

That is it for presents

We bought new fairy lights and some window stickers £12

Christmas dinner - can't imagine more than £50. We buy reduced turkey Christmas Eve.

Puddings are all done earlier in the year and we just tend to have a lot of baking stuff in

We buy ham joint for Boxing Day. -nothing fancy. Maybe some side bits but again no more than £20

We have loads of booze in

I would struggle to see above £200 certainly no more than £250 to add in replacing baking ingredients

We buy a board game - so £275 very tops.

We have days out but using national trust or English heritage membership. We take a picnic and so don't spend anymore than we would at home.

Threads like this make me sad. No one way is right, it’s all relative etc. but I just wish there was a fairer sharing of wealth at times. I always feel very guilty about my good fortune at Christmas . But I know Christmas isn’t about the money

I'm only planning to spend £200. I can't afford more to be honest. It's only 1 day and I refuse to get in debt for 1 day.

@Didthatreallyhappen

I'm only planning to spend £200. I can't afford more to be honest. It's only 1 day and I refuse to get in debt for 1 day.

I grew up with my parents spending a fortune on Christmas and then lived with them screaming at each other over money for the rest of the year. It just isn't worth it.

We are not loaded but have comfortable above average incomes. We could spend more but it would seem like we were spending money for the sake of it. We adore Christmas and it is a massive thing in our house but compared to most we spend very little - it seems.

4 kids, £500 ish each, I also spend a lot on my parents and Dh, then food and drink, decorations, outings...
Probably about £3-4000 but if I had a budget I know that it would be possible to have a lovely time on far less.

@tw1nset. Exactly. If we are warm with lovely TV and films to watch, a nice Sunday dinner style roast and a few little presents to open, a sticking each. I will be happy. I hope the children will be too. I have a well paid job, but due to a complicated living situation, quite high outgoings. We have brought a tree in from outside in a pot that we bought last year. I will make a home made wreath for the front door. All will be well.

Stocking not sticking 😁

Also massive materialism feels wrong for me personally this year though each to their own if course.

@Didthatreallyhappen

Also massive materialism feels wrong for me personally this year though each to their own if course.

Can I ask why you think it is massively materialistic to buy your teenager 2 things that they really want that come to £500 vs 2 things are meh about that cost £50?

The only 2 things my teenager wants are expensive. There is nothing cheaper that they really want. It makes more sense to me to buy the things they actually want and will use all the time than to spend less and buy something they are meh about? I'm not really sure why this makes us more matialistic though?

We can afford it so I'm not sure what type of point we would be making by buying cheaper for the sake of it.

Tree and decorations are from previous years.

Only buy for kids in my family...I'd say no more than £500...I buy throughout the latter half of the year.

Food if I'm just cooking for our family, no extra really..its just a roast dinner with a few extras...if I'm hosting then about £200 depending on numbers

I don't care enough about Christmas to spend more

About £1000 saved for throughout the year

Working it out I spent about 1300 or so this year, not much over.

I save throughout the year though so 1000 of that comes from a specific Christmas pot, then will top it up in December for food.

I also agree that cost doesn't necessarily equate to materialism. We don't buy the kids toys or presents throughout the year and they don't have much extended family so the costs fall largely to me and I do a mix of nice stuff they need anyway and toys that are developmentally appropriate and wanted. Then we have the food which is never wasted and always appreciated and we still buy decorations as I've only had my own place for a handful of years so still need to accummulate things and am happy to do it year by year.

And then as a PP said, buying a few key more expensive presents might cost more but would be well worth it.

I was worried this autumn this autumn that I might have to spend our Christmas pot on something essential instead of Christmas, so I spent time working out what I could manage as a backup if I couldn't afford any of the things I had planned to get for the DC. I could have got a ton of affordable toys for a fraction of the price of what I did spend.

I'm not saying that people who spend less than I have are not as thoughtful or are buying tat at all. I'm just saying that monetary value does not necessarily correlate with masses of goods bought.

@OuiOuiKitty I was referring to our family, not your teenager. I don't want Christmas to be massively about stuff this year as a family (partly because I can't afford it)

£3.5k for me, DH, DS and presents for family. That includes £400 for food. It’s the same every year. We don’t have holidays every year and splash out for Xmas.

I don't spend a lot on Christmas but am quite materialistic in other ways to be fair. My children don't go without the eldest who is now almost 20 had a laptop, iPhone, x box or equivalent.

Our youngest gets very little that is new but again he doesn't go without.

We spend what we have in different ways.

I’ve used a gift tracking app this year and it has definitely reduced my impulse purchases because it totals amount spent so far.

If you’d asked me I would have estimated £150 on presents but already getting close to double that and still not finished.

Food I’ll be aiming for £200 as we host GPs for just 1 day but they will bring some stuff.

its hard to work out everything but under £500

£120 per child (xmas eve, gifts, stocking etc...)
£60 DH
£50 family
then all the other little bits that add up
foods never that expensive about £20 (we dont do 3 day worth of feasts and theres only 4 of us)
all ready have all the decor and tree

for those say we miscalculate if its under £1k lol... I do keep a detailed spread sheet of EVERYTHING (except food which I know we dont spend much on) my 'estimate' is based on the fact that I havent finished everything yet and im not going to bore people by listing the cost of every single item with over 100 items.

but saying:

Hosting any meals costs a shit-load. Some of that is in the usual December grocery spend, of course, but it adds up. Making sure you have all the booze, soft drinks, snacks, napkins, crackers etc.

Outings, charity donations, wrapping paper & Sellotape, postage, presents for teachers and brownies and unexpected Secret Santas, extra travel (petrol, hosting gifts, meals en route if long distance), the tree, an extra set of lights, that bauble you couldn't resist - it all drip, drip, drips to add up.

*

is rubbish because we dont do any of that

not sure why its so unbelievable that a family would happily have xmas at home by themselves (no travel, no hosting) and I have never bloody bought napkins lol

there practically no outings this year (tier 3) but most previous years they where free if we did anything

wrapping paper cost £1 for 3 rolls and we only by sellotape every 3-5 years (they come in multipacks and last ages)

we dont post anything

dont do presents for teachers

kids arent in brownies (and no clubs have run this year anyway but we have never given a gift to a club, my uncle runs cubs and never recieves anything)

how do you have an unexpected secret santa? thats not even a thing

our tree is reusable as are all the decorations and lights

not sure why its so unbelievable that a family would happily have xmas at home by themselves (no travel, no hosting) and I have never bloody bought napkins lol
I'm with you.

I have a set of fabric napkins that get used each year, don't have lots of random gifts to buy, friends take it in turns to host and none of us do the apparently mandatory chocolates and flowers hosting gifts.

Why would 'outings' be in my christmas spending budget? I do nice things with DC every month because they are nice to do. There's certainly no additional super expensive extras, nor are there lots of baubles that I just 'couldn't resist' because, well, I am perfectly capable of buying decorations when we need them.

Christmas is a massive deal in our family. We spend around £1600-1800. This includes:

• About £1200 on gifts (large family, adult gifts are edible or experiences, and with one side of the family it’s a weekend away together where we all pay for our own family).
• Around £300 on festive outings with DD and work nights out for me and DH. We are quite rural so taxi fares bump this up. Obviously we have spent less on this side of things this year!
• probably about £200-£250 on food and drink. We host every year, though guests tend to bring a bottle or two.
• £50ish to the food bank/gift collection

Decorations wise we have an artificial tree and plenty of decorations already though I might buy a new bauble or two and I’m considering a wreath from the local florist. I always buy cards, wrapping and crackers in the January sales - this year I got everything for £3

I save a set a month every month to fund it all without stress. I also have a plan of where we would make cuts if anything happened and we needed the money elsewhere. Could definitely do it cheaper and appreciate that we are lucky at present that we don’t have to. For us if it was a choice between Christmas and a holiday Christmas would win.

Maybe £50? Just the two of us, we buy token presents for each other, don't bother with tree etc. Sometimes go to inlaws on Christmas Day, they don't come to us in return though.