How to Save Money at Christmas

Looking for affordable Christmas gifts, food and decoration ideas? You can still celebrate in a suitably festive way without overspending by making smart shopping choices, avoiding unnecessary purchases and reusing what you have. Read our ideas to save money at Christmas for a cost-savvy, more sustainable festive period you can enjoy while keeping costs low.

How To Save Money On Christmas Gifts

Budgeting at Christmas is important. If you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas that will offer savings and be more eco-friendly, here are our five gifting tips.

Switch To Secret Santa

One effective - and fun - way to reduce your Christmas budget is by opting for a secret Santa. Instead of everyone buying presents for every person in a group, everyone picks one name at random from a pre-arranged list and just buys for them. Tweak your Secret Santa however you want - for example, you could have a Secret Santa for the adults in your family only; while still buying gifts for children - you can set specific budgets or select a theme e.g. everyone buys second hand gifts.

DIY Your Gifts

Help your children to craft hand-made gifts that friends and relatives will love. Pinterest is a good place for ideas, and you don’t have to be a skilled crafter to help them make something great – why not get them to draw a picture of or for the recipient which you can frame? Or you can add a paper calendar to one of their paintings, or make some Christmas decorations for close relatives – such as these handprint ornaments – which are thoughtful keepsakes they can use every year.

Shop Smart - Take Advantages Of Deals And Offers

Take advantage of price-tracking sites to get the best deal on bigger items. Look out for pre-Christmas sales, offers and Black Friday deals for items you are looking to buy – but don’t be swayed into buying items you didn’t plan to buy! Look out for our Vitabiotics.com 2-for-3 offers and Black Friday deals to save money on your Pregnacare and Wellbaby favourites, leaving you more spare to spend at Christmas.

Shop Second Hand Where Possible

Second hand is officially cool, with online reseller sites experiencing strong growth in 2025. As well as vintage options for presents, sites like Vinted are a great option for new or nearly new items at a fraction of the usual price. Filter by ‘new with tags’ to pick up bargains and save on your Christmas budget. Items like Christmas outfits and costumes for babies and toddlers are only worn for a small amount of time, so it’s easy to pick up barely worn bargains online. You can also potentially sell them on again after to recoup the cash.

Give Experiences, Not Things

One way of reducing the amount of presents, and inevitably more things around the house, is by giving someone an experience instead of a physical gift. Cinema, theatre or museum tickets, and even promising to make someone a meal or for a night of babysitting can be a much appreciated present, and one to look forward to in 2026. You can use sites like Canva to design a paper voucher to hand over on the day.

How To Save Money On Food – Your Christmas Menu On A Budget​

Everyone loves indulging in favourites at Christmas, but you don’t have to go overboard. Want to save money on Christmas meals? Read our tips to help you plan a Christmas menu on a budget.

Plan Your Christmas Menu Ahead Of Time

Festive meal planning is an effective way of helping you save money on your Christmas food. Plan your meals and write your shopping list based on what you will need for each meal, checking what you already have at home first. Planning effectively will stop supermarket impulse buys; make sure you only spend money on what you need and it will also help to reduce food waste as you’ll be using and eating everything you buy.

Ask Guests To Bring A Dish

If you are having visitors over the Christmas period, help share the cost by asking people to bring along a specific dish or an entire course. This is a great way of reducing your costs, adds to the fun of having a shared meal and means you don’t have to cook everything!

Supermarket Shop Online

When you shop in person it’s easy to give in to supermarket special offers and displays of treats you’d not budgeted for, especially at Christmas! Shopping online for groceries removes this temptation as it’s easier to only see what you need. It will also save you time and a lot of effort during the busiest period of the year.

Save Store Card Points And Look For Offers

Stock up on supermarket loyalty points throughout the year to allow you to save money on your Christmas menu in one go. Make sure you load up your card with any seasonal points offers and look out for money-off discounts.

Cook From Scratch

While it can be tempting to stock up on expensive treats, try and make some dishes from scratch instead of buying pre-made, which will work out cheaper. This is also a great excuse to get your children involved in cooking - BBC Good Food has a great selection of Christmas recipes for children with ideas for sweet and savoury festive favourites.

Save Money On Decorations – How To Decorate Christmas On A Budget

You can save money on your Christmas decorations by reusing what you have, festive DIYs or adding simple tweaks. It’s easy to make your home feel festive without spending much, follow our five simple tips.

Reuse What You Have

Don’t buy new decorations – you are likely to have more than enough already at home! Ignore magazine or social media festive trends and reuse what you have instead. One way of making what you already have look fresh is by picking out and only using items in one or two specific colours, for a more cohesive, colour-themed and coordinated look.

Upcycle Decorations You Have

Another way of saving money on Christmas decorations is by upcycling older decorations, giving you a fresh festive look for a fraction of the price. Repaint ornaments or dip baubles in paint for an alternative colour scheme, or paint on glitter or add ribbon bows. You can also repurpose items you have around the house like glass jars, trays, and candles.

DIY Your Decorations

Get crafty with your children and make new decorations instead of buying them. Making shaped salt dough ornaments from a simple flour, salt and water mix is easy, and once dry you can add paint and glitter. Paper snowflakes cut from folded pieces of paper and paper chain garlands are also simple and fun to make.

Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

An easy way of helping your kids to get crafty - and saving money - is by making your own wrapping paper. Save brown wrapping paper used in online deliveries, smooth it out and then let your children decorate it with stamps, glitter and paints. Not only will it add a personalised and individual touch to presents, but it’s also a fun, screen-free activity.

Plan Ahead And Buy In The Post-Christmas Sales

Make significant savings by planning ahead for next year and bagging new decorations in the post-Christmas sales, when there are likely to be significant discounts. Try and stock up on Christmas items like wrapping paper, lights, wreaths, ornaments, and tree accessories for a fraction of the price – just make sure you remember them next Christmas!