What are you not going to buy this year for Christmas that doesn't really matter anyway?

[Travelfairy]

I am going to forego the beauty advent calendar. As much as I like the novelty of it, I only end up using about half of it.
Not going to do an elaborate Santa visit. DS no longer believes, DD does but will be just ss happy to see Santa at my husbands work family party.
Not going OTT for teacher & SNA, I usually do, got DD teacher a 50 euro soa voucher in June and never even got a thank you 🙈
Things i will continue are gifts to bin men/pist man/Dr's secretary etc as i think its good to show gratitude to people who make our lives easier all year round. What will you stop buying? And what will you continue to buy?

I initially thought pist man was to do with skiing

Last year was the first year I didn’t buy the boxes of supermarket party food, dp was a bit put out at first but he survived! It’s all rubbish and makes me feel quite ill.
I cut down on celebrations etc a while back, I tend to buy 2x of those pouches (one of heroes, one of celebrations) for us, as we get sweet presents from other people on the top.

We gave up on these years ago. Wasteful rubbish.

Wow that seems a bit mean.

I've never understood the tubs of quality street and celebrations. I agree the useless plastic tub feels wasteful to recycle, the chocolates are shit and in the case of QS they don't even have the nice wrappers any more. There are much nicer chocolates to buy at Christmas!

I've cut out 6 presents so far for some family members. They were all more than happy and ssaid hey loved the idea and were all looking at ways to save money so it was a win win for all.

Presents (except for the kids )will either be money,vouchers or edible. No gift sets or crappy candles that will be regifted next year.

No more alcohol required. We've accumulated loads and we've got plenty. Sister is on a ban on buying any oddly flavoured baileys.

We've all agreed to only pick one choc choice each for the house. I always over buy and hopefully what we but will actually be our favourites.

I start buying as early as possible to utilise any special offers and the kids student and blue light discounts. This way I dont end up paying full price for hardly anything.

I also think crackers are a complete waste if money and materials but unfortunately no one else agrees. I refuse to buy but someone else always buys them anyway.

I agree too. I’m just going to buy Lindors this year and put them in a pretty glass bowl. We all like Lindors and don’t buy them the rest of the year.

I’m already pretty streamline:

Decs: Wreath on front door. Glass baubles and fairy lights along the mantelpiece. Real tree - NOT huge.

Food - just the important, classic (classic for our family) things done well. Eg homemade mincemeat/ mince pies.

Plans - We go to church and then out for dinner on Christmas Eve. At home on Christmas Day - traditional lunch/ games/ telly etc. Walk with friends and then cold (leftover) turkey and ham on Boxing Day.

Presents: I buy for my husband and kids only. Adult kids - one or two decent presents each (they know my rough budget and will let me know what they want) plus a stocking with half a dozen nice things in - no tat.

Cards - I’ve got it down to about two dozen.

Everywhere you look Christmas is so loud, brash, tacky, OTT. One big headache. By paring it back to just what’s important to us it keeps it all within manageable limits and helps me not to feel overwhelmed.

Will you please tell my DH?

I've cut right down on the amount of treat food I buy as it just seems to go on forever (we still have a tub of QS that we were gifted last year). As I'm buying less, I prioritise buying the things that we genuinely love, even if they are more expensive.

I've cut right down on greetings cards, and the ones I do still give I try and pick up half price in the post christmas sales.

We've cut down on the number of people we buy for. Where possible we gift experiences rather than things, and failing that we aim for consumables. This helps ensure less clutter, less to wrap, less money on gift wrap. DH and I enjoy doing each other a stocking, but we swap wishlists to give each other ideas of things that would be gratefully received. We've got a stack of reusable gift bags from etsy which has again cut down on our use of gift wrap.

We reuse our christmas jumpers year in, year out.

we bought a good quality tree (balsam hill) which still looks brand new several years later. I only buy new decorations if I come across something I really love. Bringing out our old favourites year after year is part of the joy of the season.

I made a tree out of branches I found in the woods before lockdown. That gets used every year now. We go to an Indian restaurant for lunch on Christmas Day, so I don’t really buy lots of special food in. Presents are things I’ve seen throughout the year for my family, and I always give the kids (grown up) a short break or an experience they’ve talked about (a voucher for a restaurant they want to try, or such).

Scaling back Christmas has been a really wonderful thing for me because I used to get so stressed. Now we just have a big walk in the morning, then meet all the family at the Indian- it’s lovely!

Quality Street or Roses. They both depress the hell out of me now. I wish they would bring the old ones back just for Christmas. I miss the foil-wrapped, bright coloured ones and all the flavours that have been decommissioned.

Im reigning in the gifts, doing cards instead to cut costs, but got these pocket hugs little token gifts im slotting in the cards. Saving of £60-100. Forgoing my little advent calendar :( which ive always had..but life has got so busy I never opened it last year and gorged on the chocolate in one go haha. Ive been a bit more creative this year for family gifts, like instead of paying for bouquet of flowers, I got these craft decorative gin bottles for a fiver and popping in dried flowers and pampas grass so I have 5 snazzy bouquet gifts for a tenner, rather than 50 quid for everyones popping over with flowers and wine.

I got all the christmas cards in January this year sales haha

I used park christmas this year, so using that for Xmas food shop and the kids gifts. Money is so tight this year i can't stand the thought of starting new year paying stuff off.

Not doing the Roses / Celebrations/ Hero’s tubs this year. They taste like utter crap and the prices just make them look a rip off.

Cutting back on treat food. Only one teen DC now and DH & I are more conscious of what we eat so lots goes to waste.

I haven't bothered with Christmas crackers for years. Pointless waste of money and resources.

Radio times or any other tv guide
Tins of palm oil infused chocolates
Christmas cake - no one else eats it but me . And I eat it with cheese . That can never end well so no cake purchase .
Mince pies from supermarket / M&S might purchase one from a lady who bakes them and sells for charity
‘Starters’ it’s not a 1970s dinner party .
Otherwise merry & bright .

It's my first Christmas on mounjaro (50 pounds down) so there's a lot less food in our house and I'm actually really excited about not pigging out! We have 2 small cheeses, one box of party food. And Christmas dinner of course! Alot less alcohol too.

I've also not bought a poinsettia in the first time for a long time as the always die quick as our house is so cold!

Not going to cook a gammon joint.

Turkey! DD 6 wants chicken and Yorkshire pudding, DH and I are doing a sharing board for Christmas Day.