A bit of old-style spirit

PRESENTS OF MIND: Along with her brother, Gemma Tiptonlong ago tired of lavishing silly amounts of money on unused, unloved gifts. Now they set price limits every year and challenge one another to find gifts that provide fun and games.

I REALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS, I always have. But when, a number of years ago, my brother pointed out that Christmas wasn’t, well, Christmassy any more, I had to admit he was right. The excitement of surprises, the secret planning of presents, and the ingenuity and thought spent in getting exactly the right thing for each person in the family, had been replaced (probably so slowly we didn’t even notice it happening) by an over-spending scramble culminating in Christmas Eve purchases of expensive shiny things that nobody really wanted.

Come St Stephen’s Day, we would be faced with a pile of vaguely unpleasant-smelling body lotions, monogrammed luggage tags, pointless gadgets, extravagant glossy books on the semi-detached houses of Ireland, a wrought-iron thing for holding large hams, and the inevitable board game that nobody much wanted to play. And this disappointment would have emerged, piece by piece, from festive parcels that had seemed to hold so much promise.

We can’t quite remember when the slide started, but Christmas in the Noughties had come a long way since the days of a new bicycle being given for “birthday and Christmas for the rest of your life”, and stockings stuffed with the shampoos and soaps you get from hotel bedrooms. And even though it had come so far, it didn’t seem half so good. “Christmas,” said my brother, “should cost under a fiver.”

And since then, it has.

Okay, so sometimes (well, often) we go over budget, but the idea is to spend as little as possible in order to get the best presents you can. We’ve also been putting some of that saved money into get-a-goat appeals, or the collection boxes you find around town – not because we’re particularly virtuous, but (to be perfectly honest) because it’s all in the “Christmas Spirit”.

As times change, and money gets tighter, what we’ve been doing for fun, may well become a necessity in many families, but it’s worth telling the kids, and reminding ourselves, that Christmas doesn’t have to be all about Transformers, Lu Lu the Cuddlin’ Kitten or PS3.

Think differently, and it can be a million times better.

Home-made Christmas

This was the first "different Christmas" we tried, and it was probably the best. Mum knitted me a scarf (in secret), and wrote out a recipe book for my brother of all his favourite meals. There were compilation CDs of everyone's favourite music, biscuits and sweets, a hilarious (and hilariously wrapped) table, and to round it all off, Dad found old Blue Petermake-and-do projects on the internet, and gave a set of instructions to each of us, together with a sack of materials: washing-up liquid bottle, empty cereal box, egg box, pipe cleaners and sticky-backed plastic for everyone!

Great for: Planning and anticipation.

Lucky dip Christmas

We got an enormous bin, and filled it with polystyrene packing pellets, and in went all the presents. To add a little extra spice, we wrapped forfeits up in boxes too: “set the table”, “feed the dog”, “do the washing up” and “make the next round of drinks” were all mistaken for presents as things went on. Some gifts were obviously meant for particular people, so swaps and trading continued into the night – as in “I’ll give you the hot-water bottle you wanted because yours exploded in return for that pair of man’s socks in my size, but you’ll have to take my ‘put the bins out’ ticket too.”

Great for: Small presents, lots of fun.

Charity shop Christmas

You’d be amazed how much there is to be found in charity shops, and also, as it gets closer to Christmas Eve, how little. There was a rumour of a great one at the top of the main street in Bray, a tip-off about new arrivals at Oxfam, and a hastily added embargo on any books written by Dan Brown. Limiting your shopping options makes you think laterally, and each purchase became more treasured for being all the harder to find.

Great for: Jigsaw puzzles and jumpers.

Supermarket Christmas

It was harder to stick to the under-a-fiver rule on this one, and there are limits to the number of power tools and socket sets any family can usefully use. For food shopping in Lidl and Aldi, it’s useful to borrow a German, and bring them along to pick out some of the brands (I discovered Lidl’s strudel that way, it’s fantastic). Both have organic sections, and you can get frozen goose, smoked salmon and occasionally excellent wines.

An unexpected variety of things emerged from the parcels under the tree, including a crème brûlée carameliser and a rather brilliant bicycle repair kit.

Great for: Gadgets.

eBay Christmas

Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s inventor, once said that people should look at the online auction site as “an enormous cupboard”. He said you put things you didn’t need any more there, safe in the knowledge that if you did want them again, you could always get them back out. Our eBay Christmas was absolutely brilliant for re-finding those things we thought were gone forever: Goldrush (a game we used to bicker over so much, our parents gave it away), records lost at parties, books long since gone out of print. Run out of inspiration on eBay and type in words like “thingy” or “weird stuff”, and you’re right back on track. The only disadvantage is that you need to be organised in time to allow for postage.

Great for: Everything you could ever think of, and more.