What is a reasonable Christmas budget?

However, a common guideline is to allocate around 1-2% of your annual income for gifts. Again, it's super important to set a budget that aligns with your financial health and priorities, which ensures a joyful holiday season with minimal financial stress.

How to do Christmas on a very tight budget?

Start buying early . Your budget will greatly appreciate you buying one or two gifts each month all year, instead of waiting to buy it all during December. You can also take advantage of sales all year long! Don't forget to use cashback sites to get some money back on your shopping.

How much should you spend per person on Christmas?

Financial experts often recommend allocating 1% of your annual income for holiday spending. This includes not just gifts, but also decorations, food, and other festivities. This recommendation could be a good starting point for your holiday budgeting.

How much do parents spend on Christmas per child?

According to a November 2022 study, most parents are budgeting $220 for each child —with the highest budgets for 7 to 12-year-olds, though 28% of those surveyed are trying to keep it below $100.

How much do couples spend on each other for Christmas?

If you have been dating for less than a year, it is appropriate to spend a maximum of $50 . A budget of around $100 is standard for longer relationships. If you're married, $100 is the median amount, and the top 25% of couples spend $300.

What percent of income should you spend at Christmas?

Clearpoint, the credit-counseling nonprofit, suggests a simple target for holiday budgeting: Plan to spend 1.5% of your annual income . For a family that earns $75,000 a year, that works out to $1,125. Sliding buttons allow you to allocate shares of the total to gifts, parties, travel, donations and food.

Which country spends most on Christmas?

UK consumers can pride themselves on having the biggest Christmas budget in Europe. According to the 2019 results of Deloitte's annual Christmas shopping survey, Christmas expenditure per household placed the UK ahead of seven other countries in Europe with an estimated budget of 639 euros, or 567 British pounds.

What is the average spend on Christmas cards?

This statistic shows average planned holiday expenditure on greeting cards and postage in the United States from 2004 to 2021. In 2021, consumers in the U.S. planned to spend 29 U.S. dollars on average on greeting cards and postage.

How many people go into debt for Christmas?

As it turns out, many consumers are giving themselves this gift: Just over a third (34%) of Americans went into debt for the holidays, continuing a downward trend from 35% in 2022 and 36% in 2021. But that's not even the most noteworthy figure falling: The average amount of holiday debt has plummeted.

What percentage of income should go to Christmas budget?

In more normal times, the typical advice is that you should spend no more than 1% of your annual salary on holiday gifts and travel. That means that if you earn $50,000 per year, you should plan to spend about $500.

What is the average Christmas movie budget?

A typical Hallmark movie costs $2 million or less to produce. For perspective, a typical Hollywood blockbuster budget can stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Give them a Christmas to Remember...on a Budget! (2024)

I quit my job right before the holidays.There went our Christmas budget… (Or so I thought!)

I had hoped to work until the end of the year to help pay for Christmas. However, my workplace had become toxic, soas a family we decided it was best for me to leave.

It was absolutely the right decision for us, but the timing meant that we would have to tighten our belts and really watch our spending during Christmas.

I worried that we wouldn’t be able to provideas nicea holiday for our family as usual. Tomy surprise, we had an AMAZING Christmas!I wanted to share some of the things we did to have an awesome Christmas on a budget — it IS possible!

How to Have an Awesome Christmas on a Budget:

Plan the menu in advance and stock up!

Grocery stores will often have sales on traditional holiday food items in the weeks leading up to the actual day.Take advantage of these major markdowns and stock up!

As you get closer toThanksgiving, and you’ll findcoupons, deals, and rebates on many turkey-day staples: stuffing mix, canned pumpkin, etc. We’ve been planning our menu and grabbing things to keep in our pantry or freeze.

Meal planning has helped save us a ton of money in our daily lives, and it is a lifesaver for holiday feasts too (Need a boost with your meal planning? Check out my Ultimate Meal Planner Bundle and make meal planning easy!)

Cards for everyone!

Call me old-fashioned, but Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about the season! I love to receive and display them in our living room, but I love to create and send them just as much.

Every year I find a favorite family photo and design a personalized photo card OR I will print the photo itself to tuck into a regular Christmas card. I send one or hand deliver to all of our family and friends.

Personalized cards arethe perfect way to acknowledge people that you might not have the budget to buy a gift for, like workacquaintances. Even in today’s technology-based world, people still love getting a hand-written note, perhaps even more so!

Homemade Gifts

We have a large extended family, so buying expensive gifts for every single person just isn’t an option. However, we DO want everyone to know how much they mean to us!

Homemade giftscan be just as meaningful (if not more so) because they have that personal touch.In the past we’ve made ornaments, picture frames, and paper-mâché snowmen painted withour favorite football team’s colors. This also lets the kids get involved! (Plus, a homemade gift from a kid automatically gets a little leeway to not be perfect, if you’rea “novice” crafter like me!)

Food = Love

It doesn’t matter how much food there is laying around, I’m always excited to get a special holiday treat as a gift. Every year, my Grannymakes a big batch of her chocolate chip cookies for us for Christmas.Though we’ve eaten a lot of other desserts at family gatherings, we love gettingher special cookies to take homeand enjoy later.

My husband Matt is also known for his holiday treat gifts: from cookies, to pies, to his famous Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars. You can often find cute (and cheap) Christmas tins or plastic tubs at the dollar store in which to deliveryour treats or you can decorate plain tinswith the kids for that extra-special touch.

Make the Holidays about TRADITION and not THINGS

Our girls are still young, so they’re not yet asking for designer clothes and expensive gadgets. (That definitely helps for now!) But they stillsee commercials and advertisem*nts that fill their minds with the want for toys, toys, toys! To deflect from making Christmas being just aboutstuff, we have created traditions that they will remember and look forward to each year.