00:00Well, the biggest things to think about are food and presents. That's where the money can really spiral out of control if you don't have your wits about you.
00:08So if you're trying to deliver Christmas, the good news is if you're trying to deliver a brilliant Christmas on a budget, it is absolutely possible to do that this year.
00:16If you're smart and you shop around, you can get really, really great quality food at brilliant prices.
00:23So do check out kind of if you make the time, check out where you're going to get the best deals, because price is not necessarily equating to quality.
00:31The more expensive stuff isn't necessarily the best. So that's the first bit of good news.
00:35The second bit of good news, I think, on gifting is that it has become very, very normal.
00:40And in our Christmas research at Good Housekeeping, lots and lots of families, instead of going for everybody gets lots of presents, are opting for the secret Santa approach.
00:49So you basically agree a budget with whoever's going to be in your house on the big day, and it could be £5, it could be £50.
00:57Considering the age of social media and Instagram and stuff like that, these declarations of being showy and saying, oh, I've got all this.
01:05Do you say that that's kind of just growing out of fashion and we're going back to like more traditional values and roots when it comes to like the Christmas spirit, like away from the monetary value of everything?
01:18We did find a little bit of a shift in that the generation of women, and it does tend to be the women who kind of run Christmas in their houses, that are in charge of the planning for the big festivities.
01:32They absolutely love Christmas. Christmas is every bit as important as it ever was.
01:37But there is a much greater acceptance that there is no such thing as the perfect Christmas.
01:41So that idea of the Instagram perfect, beautifully curated, colour-coordinated tree where everyone's smiling and happy, I think we're old enough and wise enough now to know that that's not really the reality.
01:53And I think that's really freeing for everybody because your tree doesn't match, it's chaos.
01:57There's weird old baubles that the kid made when they were four that have all fallen to pieces, but they're emotionally important to you.
02:03And the idea that Christmas can sometimes be a little bit of a sad time, it's bittersweet, it's a time when you miss people that aren't around anymore, it can be difficult for families, you know, broken families and mixed and blended families.
02:16I think there's a much greater willingness to accept that Christmas can be magical and wonderful, as well as being quite difficult and quite challenging.
02:24But a secular Christmas can still be one that is full of meaning.
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