Charging your family for Christmas dinner? Don’t be a Grinch!
13 December 2024, 08:08
Making your family pay for Christmas dinner is strange - it’s hardly in the Christmas spirit.
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Christmas is a time for goodwill and cheer, but charging your loved ones for a turkey roast screams ‘Grinch.’
I was shocked to learn that over a quarter of Brits would ask guests to contribute to the cost of the festive meal.
Nationally, the average charge is £17 per head, climbing to £19.80 in London and a whopping £27 in Scotland.
It’s hard to believe a roast costs that much to make. Some must be turning Christmas into a money-making scheme!
Take Cardiff grandmother Caroline Duddridge, who made headlines last year by charging adults £15 and kids £2.50 for her festive roast.
Caroline defended the fees, citing the “horrifying” cost of food shopping, and enforced a strict payment deadline of 1st December.
Treating your family like customers feels so cold and transactional, especially at Christmas!
But it gets worse…mum-of-four Carla Bellucci plans to charge her family an eye-watering £200 per person this year.
The internet personality says the fee covers fancy champagne and a private chef. This is just getting ridiculous now. What ever happened to Aunt Bessies and a bit of Bisto?
Yes, the cost-of-living crisis is real and many are feeling the pinch, but hosting shouldn’t mean handing out invoices.
If a big turkey roast is unaffordable, there are plenty of ways to trim the costs without putting a price tag on family time.
Cheaper meat options or cutting back on gifts are perfectly reasonable compromises that don’t drain the festive cheer.
A NatWest survey highlighted this trend, with the bank oddly praising families for “finding clever ways to keep Christmas affordable.”
“Brilliant”, says NatWest. Hardly! There’s nothing brilliant about people acting like Scrooge with their own family.
This growing habit of charging relatives to celebrate together feels wrong.
Let’s ditch the invoices and rediscover the Christmas spirit!
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