HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

When it comes to festive budgets, two mums share their very different takes on spoiling their kids at Christmas

- MISHAAL KHAN

‘For us, the importance is on creating family traditions, not spending a fortune’

Imogen Tinkler, 39, is co-founder of Bangers and Balls, an online sustainable food business, with her husband Duncan, 39. They live in Whitstable with their four-year-old daughter Xanthe.

Growing up, like most children, Christmas was always a magical time of year. As an only child, my mum lavished me with gifts and spent a lot of money on me. But it’s not the presents I remember, but more the memories I shared with Mum and Dad. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we’d make chocolate together and decorate wreaths, then we’d go foraging for berries and pine cones to decorate the house. On Christmas Eve, I was read a festive story and would go to bed by candlelight. It was my favourite time of the year.

So, when my daughter Xanthe was born in November 2017, it was memories like this I wanted to recreate for her. ‘I want her to remember the things we did with her, not the gifts we bought for her,’ I told Duncan.

For her first Christmas, I recall being out shopping and shocked by the amount of parents spending a fortune on their children. I hated how commercialised the holiday had become and I didn’t want Xanthe to get in the habit of writing a list for Father Christmas each year and expecting everything she asked for. For us, the importance was on creating family traditions instead.