Christmas on a budget

One of the things I hate about Christmas and the commercial crap that comes along with it, is it makes people feel rubbish if they can't afford to splash out so let's share ideas !

Secret Santa instead of everyone buying for everyone

Fake tree

Homemade decs

None traditional food

Homemade wrapping paper

Treasure hunts

Traditionally church activities

Sleepovers, spending more time with family

Board games

Elf on the shelf

Make a big deal over small things like magic keys, believe bells, mince pies and carrots, reindeer food

Watching cheesy films

What food do you have @littlesez? I'm thinking we might do something different this year....

I don't like overdoing presents but I'm happy to spend on a good tree/theatre trips/ great food

Weve had the same fake tree for 8 years now I told dh it was worth paying a bit more for as it would last (cost 60 he wanted the £20 one)
Were having beef done in the slow cooker as prefer it to turkey.
we make a big hamper of yummy food for our relatives costs about £40 but does for everyone.
pips is already talking about ernie (santas elf) coming back she loved finding him hiding in school bag/shower/fridge.

We just have a normal roast dinner and Rob usually has pork, beef or ham. Then we have salmon. We have veg but don't have trimmings as such like cranberry sauce. We also don't buy traditional puddings like Xmas cake or pudding coz they are just rank lol and we don't get all that extra food hanging around the house like crackers, nuts, chocolate it's just all extra and unescessary

We have a xmas tradition in our family, we have a 3ft tree with goodies on them e.g crayons, books, sweets ect
We stick raffle tickets on them and sellotape the goodies to the tree, pass round the tickets too all the children under the age of 16 (folded up in a tub) once they have all gone, it's the youngest that goes first. We never spend more than £1 on each goodie apart from the star price
Hope that makes sense, it's great fun for little children