We’re All Dreaming of a Cheap Christmas

Christmas in my family home has usually started by now and the clues flag up the season like a “SLOW: ICE ON THE ROAD” sign. Christmas paper rolls sneak into drawers, with hideous clashing designs. The card boxes and gold pens are left out and the stereo hums The Pogues in a familiar drunken style. But not this year.

I visited my grandma’s home last weekend, ready to confront a fully decorated lounge and garden with trees literally flashing with premature excitement to find, well, nothing? My grandma snorted: “Don’t you know dear, it is a recession” – and images of her eating a meagre nut roast from a paper bag and giving us oranges as presents suddenly haunt me. “I know” I reply, “but surely you’re going to decorate – it’s not that bad?”

But, perhaps it is that bad? My grandmother reminds me that she is expected to pay £500billion to the government for the banks (I have to explain to her that it is the whole country and not just her handing a big fat cheque to Mr Brown), but maybe there is something in her budget anxiety?

With David Blanchflower of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee warning us that tens of thousands of people could be laid off every week in the run up to Christmas, perhaps Grandma has a point? I personally think presents wrapped in newspaper actually look pretty chic, but that is just the journalist in me. So how will our houses be decorated this Christmas? Will it just be coal and oranges under the tree, and more importantly, will there even be a tree?

The centre of all Christmas decorations in our house has always been the tree. Every year my mother used to spend hours and hours coordinating it with whatever room it was to feature that year. Christmas without a tree is like Easter without the Bunny, or birthdays without the cake: Christmas trees are Christmas.

One thing my grandma said that they did in the last recession was have fruit and flowers hanging from the trees, but frankly I do not understand. Unless you went outside and picked fresh flowers everyday, you would end up with maggots under the tree and a wriggling infestation under the tree is not something I desire this Christmas.

A report, published last year 'Banishing Scrooge, the Cost of Christmas', published by grant-giving charity The Family Welfare Association, explained that a family on an average income spent a staggering £564 on the trimmings - food, drink and decorations - on Christmas Day alone. And that figure doesn't include presents. We spend a ridiculous 15 hours hunting for the perfect gift and two hours queuing!

Perhaps this year will be a little more modest. Browsing the internet, I come across a few bargains that, after last year’s explosive Christmas, will allow cut backs without losing the important things.

So back to the tree. The internet has become a treasure trove for decorative bargains. Last year the British public spent £7.66billion in the 10 week run up to Christmas, and although purse strings are taught this year, the spend is likely to fall from the streets and straight on to the net.

Wowestores.co.uk offers tons of Christmas bargains. They estimate that more people will be turning to them this year not only as their prices are highly competitive when compared against high street stores with an extremely low delivery price.Alex Wakefield explains that: “Online shopping means you can start browsing and buying for Christmas without bouncing from shop to shop, dealing with the roads, parking, the high streets and carrying bulging shopping bags. A cheap Christmas does not mean a bad Christmas; you just need to know where to shop and where to make your savings. We like to think that online at Wow eStores is one of the better options.”

There is significantly more to choose from than offline too, and with fuel prices high and eco-guilt becoming a defining feature of modern Britain, shopping online seems to tick all the boxes.

So how low can they go? Well, according to Wowestores, you can buy a tree and decorate it for under £50 and that includes 200 multicoloured fairy lights and tree decorations!

In these trying times we should look to what the World Wide Web can bring us and how modern technology can ensure the bells still jingle in your home this Christmas!