Imaginative ways of celebrating Jesus’ birth, without fearing the credit card bill in January

Christmas can be a wonderful time, especially for those of us with small children. But it can also be an incredibly stressful time. The pressure to find and buy that ‘perfect’ gift for our friends and family, as well as create a warm, welcoming, clean, and calm home for our Christmas visitors can just be too much. I have often listened to the lyrics of ‘Santa Baby’ and longed to give (and receive) a list like that. Who would not want a Tiffany decoration for their tree? I have fallen into the rushed pace of the cultural world that we live in many times in the past.

According to Finder.com the average UK person will spend £602 on Christmas presents this year. This is an increase of 40% on last year’s average spending of £429. This differs between different generations, with Generation Z predicted to spend an average of £828 whilst the Baby Boomers will spend an average of £390. The average UK monthly salary is £2730, so that means that we are roughly spending a quarter of our salary on presents. Finder.com also stated that 43% of us plan to use our credit cards to cover this year’s spending with a total spend of £14 billion on credit cards alone. With average credit card interest rates of 24% APR, that is a lot of interest that needs to be paid back, and a lot of money for the banks.