Just curious. We are a small family of me, my husband and our almost two year old.
We bought:
Tree - £30
Stand - £20
Wreath hook - £6.50
Gifts (4 family members, one toddler, choccies for nursery and tip for cleaner) - £110
Stamps - £20
Poinsettia - £12
Advent calendar - £26
Batteries - £5
Christmas night out - £35
We were fortunate enough to spend Christmas Day with my parents who live locally, so didn’t have to spend any money on transport, accommodation or Christmas dinner. We used leftover wrapping paper from last year and last year’s decorations. I did buy a few festive treats, like booze and chocolates so probably about £20 extra on groceries.
Most things I have purchased in previous years like Christmas tree, decorations etc. My work decided to have our Christmas party in the school building, which was a blast, but it also meant that it was free and I brought alcohol I already had purchased and my school is rural so didn’t go out on town. No secret Santa. Luckily, Christmas Day is just dinner at my mum’s with my brother and step dad and I have no children. Again, bring food/drink I would already have or was given as gifts from the children at work which I don’t drink or is too much for just myself to eat.
If I include what I spent on my class, it starts to shoot up.
New lights for class Christmas tree = £90
Cards for children - 5 x £6 = £30
Gift for children - £1 x 30 = £30
Advent Calender x 2 = £10
Christmas Jumper = £20
During Christmas people spend really more money than usual… Other crazy day is Black Friday probably I spend around £1k for food, decorations and presents. But I enjoyed this holiday and look forward to celebrate New Year. 2020 will be really crazy as I will buy property, already checking flats for sale in Portugal Algarve. My wife just wants to move there and that’s it…
Food - Used what we already have in the freezer so £0 Drinks - Again, what we already have in the house £0 Decorations - We don’t bother £0 Cards - None £0 Presents - gift vouchers for parents £40. We don’t bother with presents for each other, preferring to save towards our joint passion of travel. (although she doe’s normally get a small gift, so another £25) Works Party - All covered by our boss, except 1 round of drinks, about £20
Total… £85
I also worked today, which at double time meant, I actually came out of Christmas in profit
I did pretty well this year, I pretty much told everyone not to buy me gifts and I wouldn’t buy them anything either… i.e. my gift to you is that you’re a little bit richer and I haven’t bought you something that you may not care about. I also spent Christmas in Vienna with my girlfriend’s family this year so my costs were reasonably low.
Christmas tree: £29 (£9 + a £20 IKEA voucher)
Cards: £10.69
Christmas parties - all on expenses so
Flights: £96.99
Train to airport: £4.10
Transport in Vienna: £6.63
Total: 147.41 (£127.41 if you exclude the IKEA voucher).
Decorations - £0 had the same last year
Food - £0 went to parents
Drink - Around £20 for a bottle of vodka
Presents £450 for kids (9 Year old and 6 year old) - £200 for other family members