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Speaker 1: Now Christmas is just around the corner, and if you

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Speaker 1: haven't braved them all yet, it's probably time to start.

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Speaker 1: But a new survey out shows that keys are quite

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Speaker 1: skinned to this Christmas. The average person is going to

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Speaker 1: spend about one hundred and forty dollars on presents this year.

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Speaker 1: That's down from about one hundred and sixty three dollars

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Speaker 1: last year. Mary Holm is a personal finance journalist and author,

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Speaker 1: and with us Hi Mary Hi Hi hea that this

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Speaker 1: is just a sign of financial times, isn't.

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Speaker 2: It you look, I suppose it is. Although every year,

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Speaker 2: you know, you get some people saying, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 2: I haven't got enough money to spend on Christmas, and

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Speaker 2: I look up. Basically, what I would love families to

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Speaker 2: do is think about how putting financial pressure on themselves

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Speaker 2: in order to perhaps buy more presents for the children

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Speaker 2: must end up with them being not such nice parents

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Speaker 2: in the long run, you know, if in January they're

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Speaker 2: stressed and all of that. And so I mean, of

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Speaker 2: course you can't put the quick into the child and

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Speaker 2: say would you rather have a happy mummy and daddy

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Speaker 2: in January and fewer presents? But in fact I suspect

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Speaker 2: that is what the kids would prefer. Really, yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: just awful.

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Speaker 1: So what's your advice, Mary, don't spend as much on

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Speaker 1: the Christmas presents?

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Speaker 2: In my weekend here on Q and A column a

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Speaker 2: few different times over the years, I've said to readers,

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Speaker 2: you know, what are your suggestions on cutting back Christmas spending?

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Speaker 2: And some of them just quickly. There's a secret center

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Speaker 2: which we all know about, where you all pull a

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Speaker 2: name out of the hat for next year and buy

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Speaker 2: only the one present, and that can work well. Or

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Speaker 2: there's buying only op shop gifts YEP, or second hand

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Speaker 2: books only, which you know could be quite fun going

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Speaker 2: and rummaging around bookshops to find the right gift for people.

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Speaker 2: Or making your gifts, you know, you have to either

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Speaker 2: do some baking or perhaps put the plant from the

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Speaker 2: garden in a pot, or do some knitting or something

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Speaker 2: like that. I mean, another one that my family has

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Speaker 2: done is, apart from the children, don't give one another

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Speaker 2: Christmas presents, give a nice birthday present instead, and that

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Speaker 2: means that you can actually concentrate on that one person

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Speaker 2: when their birthday comes round, and you know, give them

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Speaker 2: something decent for their birthday and what do you think.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that it's better for the kids, Like,

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Speaker 1: can you trick the kids with lots with a bunch

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Speaker 1: of much cheaper presents or is it better to go

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Speaker 1: for one most more substantial present.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, obviously the more substantial good present in

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Speaker 2: the long run is the good one. The trouble is

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Speaker 2: could see all the all the stuff their friends get it.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, it's not easy and you know, controversy about

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Speaker 2: the colored sand at the moment, people go out by,

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Speaker 2: you know, cheap toys for kids and they don't always

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Speaker 2: turn out to be good quality. There's no really easy

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Speaker 2: answer for the children. I think. I think it's much

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Speaker 2: easier to limit your spending on adults and teenagers, you know,

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Speaker 2: give them twenty bucks and then they can spend it

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Speaker 2: their own way. Yeah. Look, yeah, I haven't got a

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Speaker 2: magic answer about that. For children, I have to say, yeah.

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Speaker 1: What are you hearing from people? Marry Well, no, and

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Speaker 1: I you know, that's why I was asking you, because

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Speaker 1: it is this is always the difficulty, and parents put

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Speaker 1: themselves in difficult situations out of the goodness of their hearts,

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Speaker 1: right because they're trying to do the right things by

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Speaker 1: the kids. And you just your heart breaks if you

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Speaker 1: can't even afford presents for your kids. What are you hearing, Mary,

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Speaker 1: Are you hearing that people are finding it tough this year?

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Speaker 2: Yes, but you know, yeah, I think perhaps you know,

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Speaker 2: a bit tougher than last year for some. But you know,

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Speaker 2: on the other hand, and it sounds like there might

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Speaker 2: be some signs that the economy is actually picking up.

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Speaker 2: And so look, I don't know whether food is certainly

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Speaker 2: one thing that keeps coming into the limelight is costing more,

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Speaker 2: doesn't it. And you know the amount of money that

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Speaker 2: families spend on food at Christmas, you've got to wonder about,

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Speaker 2: you know, could they perhaps just all get together and say, look,

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Speaker 2: what's something lovely we can do that doesn't cost and

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Speaker 2: perhaps not a traditional thing because the trouble is the

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Speaker 2: turkeys and the traditional food. The prices go up then

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Speaker 2: because the shops know they can put.

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Speaker 1: No, no, you can't be doing I mean, we can't

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Speaker 1: be doing Christmas turkeys. Can we had summer for God's sake?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Well that's quite right, yes, And so you know,

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Speaker 2: if family can come up with I don't know, you know,

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Speaker 2: some lovely fish dish or I actually end up doing

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Speaker 2: vegetarian because I'm surrounded by vegetarians and that's fine and

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Speaker 2: and very lovely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very bloody healthy and the end. Mary, thanks very

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Speaker 1: much appreciated. Marry Holme, personal finance journalist and author.

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