Christmas Budget - how much for the entire period?

[Ebedee]

Just wondered how everyone worked out their budget for Christmas? I've some savings, and don't want to blow the lot on tat, but would like to enjoy nice food and get some decent presents for 4 young adult kids. I'd also like to upgrade home decor a little (Maybe a new telly for myself & hubby if possible). Is £100 per kid reasonable?

I budget £500 per person for gifts (me, DH and our two DC) which sounds a lot but we don't get gifts from anyone else as we had a tiny extended family to begin with who are now all dead. £500 for food and about £250 for any misc expenses and trips/activities.

Everyone has different priorities. We spend about £150 on the dc, £100 on their partners, £200ish between the remaining grandparents. When we used to host, probably £600 on food for the three big days. £100 on cards and postage, £250 on a concert in London, £600 on the ballet or opera which is our big treat.

We never went overboard on presents when the DC were little because they had the big stuff they needed when it was necessary throughout the year: bikes, laptops?, etc.

I start by adding things to the shop in October about £5 a week and this covers things like roses, crackers, gravy, stuffing, crisps, fizzy drinks. Then I save my nectar points and this gives another £75 or so to go towards my Christmas shop. We don’t spend more than this on food as otherwise it’s too much.
Other than that I aim for around £1000 to cover gifts and Christmas activities. It does range though depending on what I have saved

I tend to spend £75 average on each of my close family members so DH, DD1, DD2, SIL and DGDs and a £30 hamper or flowers for my 90 year old mum as she doesn’t want gifts. So about £500 on gifts. We then gift DDs money usually amount to about £500 so £1k in total. We don’t really go mad on extra food or drink though so maybe an extra £100 or up to £250 if entertaining.

As a percentage of disposable income we save about £100 a month (5% of disposable income) then top up in November and December especially if we are doing a theatre trip. We don’t go mad as we normally go abroad in November so most of our money from August to October is saved for that.

Just done my figures for another thread. £2500 all in.
£800 for 8 family presents
£300 for 25 friends and relative presents
£200 trees
£100 on redecorating sunroom where we have Christmas meals.
£60 on incidentals. Postage, cards, wrapping etc
£500 on my solo annual trip to see family in London
£500 on food and drink for 10 people for 3 days.

As a % of annual income hmmm. 2.5%. I think. We are long past the child rearing age and take enormous joy from the next generation and love hosting the extended family.

Spend what you can afford. We don't set an actual budget but it's a huge amount we spend when you consider lots of extra eating out/drinks in December, food, and gifts. I don't think we buy the kids loads but we have 5 plus various others to buy for and it all adds up.
During Christmas we will be a house of 12 for the most part and that's constant food and booze. Everyone chips in but you can get out of control with it.
Don't waste your budget buying crap, is my suggestion, and it doesn't matter what anyone else does. Or about a percentage either- that's meaningless when household incomes are unusually high.

Hopefully under £1k which is affordable for us. Ideally we’d trim it further.

We don't set a budget, and tbh it'd be hard to add up everything as spending is done through the year, and in previous years. Eg I bought some PJs early this year in an M&S promo (it was such a good deal that I bought some for next Christmas too), and some concert and Disney on Ice tickets were booked 6 months ago when they were released. Some items in their stockings and Christmas Eve boxes will be from multipacks that I got a couple of years ago.
Other days out are just normal weekends out for us (we go to kids theatre a lot through the year) so I wouldn't necessarily file them in a Christmas budget.
I've got some gifts from Vinted this year so they have been quite cheap, but haven't done that in previous years as I wasn't used to using it. We have things like wrapping paper, cards and stamps bought in bulk years ago so we won't spend anything on that for a few years.

I am very budget orientated as I could easily spend thousands and thousands without any parameters! (By easily I mean I’d want to, not that I could or should!)

We save a set amount per month, in the early days it was £50 a month, nowadays as our income has grown so has our Christmas budget. We now save £200 a month. We spend about £500 on each child now they’re teens (was much less when they were younger, obviously). But things like phones and tech are expected to come out of this budget, also things for their hobbies. We’ve always been quite generous at Christmas and birthday but don’t do much else during the year except a small sum of pocket money, and usually something around end of school year/report time.

Just to add, £200 a month is about 2% of our net monthly take home so affordable for us. As well as presents for the kids we have food, presents for others and each other, Christmas activity etc.

I save around £1500 but don’t always spend that amount. I have 3 x DC and all adults or young adults but I still spend the same as when they were little. I also have 3 old school pals to buy for (don’t buy for their kids anymore), 2 x god-daughters, 2 x nieces (adults) and 1 nephew (toddler). Also a couple of local friends / dog walker. This year my mum and brother / SIL have agreed no gifts which does help a bit. Only DD (17), the dog and I for Christmas dinner this year so having chicken and watching my sugar intake anyway so won’t be buying any chocolate / christmas alcohol.

I must admit I find December so stressful. Roll on Jan!

We save £70 a month into a Christmas pot and probably spend £900 including food and alcohol. It's a bit cheaper now my children have outgrown pantos and light trails.