Research reveals what the average family will spend on Christmas

Sophie Collins

New research has revealed that the average Irish family will spend over €2,300 on Christmas this year.

The Irish like to “treat themselves” at Christmas according to Price Watch research carried out by The Irish Times.

Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Conor Pope, revealed to Newstalk this morning what the “12 costs of Christmas” are for the average family of five.

“I tot up the cost of the food, the cost of the booze, the parties, the Pantos and all the other stuff.

“I really try hard not to lose the run of myself, because you don’t want to be accused of being alarmist and saying, ‘oh, you’re going to spend 700 on your Christmas dinner,’ so if anything, I’m kind of cautious about the pricing.

“At the risk of spoiling it, it’s going to cost an awful lot of families… well in excess of €2,300 for Christmas.”

Speaking about the biggest driver of this cost, Pope said he foresees it being the Christmas dinner.

“Now, one of the really telling things about Irish consumers is that even at the height of the financial crach in 2008 and 2009 we didn’t slack off when it came to Christmas dinner.

“People, when times are tough, they want to really reward themselves and their families as they should, and it was the same last year and all the official figures showed that Christmas spending was up.”

Speaking about more specific costs for the Christmas dinner, he said: “I priced it for €58 for a seven kilogram turkey.

“Now, you can buy them for cheaper than that, obviously, but a lot of people spend money on a ham, a tenner for two kilo Turkey, then the biscuits, mince pies, melons, plum pudding, breakfast stuff, vegetables and a few other Christmas Day essentials, like your sweets and all the rest.

“The basket of goods to feed a family of five comfortably on the big day, with a few leftovers for grazing on Stephen’s day, and the day after Stephen’s day came in around €225.”

He then noted the need for an additional €175 for the days before and after Christmas when you’re “sick of Turkey,” and this will move the total cost of the food and the grocery shopping to €400.

Then, there’s the spending on alcohol, which Pope sits at €217 for a “generous” amount of alcohol that would also go towards those last-minute visitors on Christmas.

If you added two trips to the pub with friends and family, you’re also looking at additional costs, which Pope adds onto the drinks bill; bringing it to €321.

Among the other costs included in the €2,300 tally was the tree, christmas parties, presents, the Panto and other days out, cards and stamps, christmas jumpers and then general bills.

However, he went on to say that it’s important not to get caught up in the marketing around Christmas and to just enjoy it.

“We are sold this myth of perfect perfection and a perfect Christmas, and we have to have the perfect table scaping, and we have to have the perfect this and the perfect that and the perfect present, and we all put ourselves under enormous pressure to get that perfection,” he said.

“You’re never going to have same table as you see on some fancy retailers Christmas ad, because they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of euros dressing up that table to make it look like that.”