The pressure to spend at christmas is crazy... the kids want everything and as the family grows the list of people needed presents grows too.

I love christmas - so not trying to sound negative, but with so many people to buy for it become soooooo expensive....

Totally off topic but seeing as the <insert expletive> Trafford Centre has been mentioned, I must add my 2p'th. This place should never have been allowed to be built. Not only has it helped ruin countless town centres in the region, but causes huge traffic congestion in the area, seeing as planners who approve such monstrosities never do any planning on the roads that feed them. We are at saturation level with shops, and any new development will lead to the closing of shops somewhere else. All those approving of the Trafford Centre will be moaning in the future when your town centre is derelict and contain nothing other than pound shops.

Rant over..aah.

I'm with you on this one, mooreaz. Happily, my better half seems to go into meltdown whenever she goes near the Trafford Centre, so it's off limits. Liverpool One on the other hand and she's positively bouncing up and down, clapping her hands at the thought of it!

As for the question: Do we spend too much on Christmas? Many people do if you ask me. It's been a long, hard year/18 months after all. But who says you need to go overboard to enjoy yourself?

Yep, I do live within crying distance of the Satan's Lair that is the TC. I would rather drive round the far side of the M60 in order to avoid the missus asking to 'stop off to pop in quickly'!

Mind you, I did do 2 extra laps of the M60 a few years ago because the kids were asleep and I was enjoying the peace and quiet...

Ahh, are you up north too? I have previously queued for 40 minutes just to get past the Trafford Centre! Especially this time of year.

I'm doing almost all my shopping online.

Is that really a big surprise though?

I am sure that most of the people that do spend too much still realise that they are doing it but it has become expected.

My question is, what planet are the 25 people that think 'most people only spend what they can afford' on?

I can understand people answering #1 & #2, after all I did just that. I can even understand people answering #3 - I mean if you can't have fun at Christmas, when can you.

But #4, come on people, we are in the middle of a recession and the queue for the Trafford Centre runs 3 times round the M60!!!

Wow, I am surprised at the level of feeling over this - almost nine in ten of you think we spend too much.

Well, I had deleted the post until next week but Graeme says it can stay open. It's a Christmas miracle :)

Access, you're so right! It is always 'shops fear worst Christmas ever', then a thousand sales that drive us into shops, then the 'best Christmas in 10 years'.

With the exception of a tiny minority everyone spends too much at Christmas because they spend my money given to them through an intermediary. Still to be fair, if memory serves me correctly, the Good Book does say "Go forth and underpin the retail sector on this religious occasion and looketh for the announcement saying 'likely to be worst Xmas ever' followed by 'oops it's turned out to be the best Xmas ever'".

Flis

You could wait until about a May to repost the poll. Apparently it took the 3 wise men about 6 months to deliver their presents.

Huckster

*ahem* please forgive me but we're going to carry a different poll this week after requests from up high :)

I shall reinstate this question next week (sorry!).

Felicity

That's incredibly kind of you cmk, but I think the others will be jealous...;-)