Three envelopes that take the sting out of December

Last year the average Norwegian spent 24 900 kroner on Christmas across November and December, according to Virke's 2024 holiday shopping forecast. For quite a lot of households, that is roughly an entire month's after-tax salary.

If the whole amount has to come out of December's pay alone, January gets rough. The trick is not necessarily to spend less on Christmas. It is to spread the cost across several months.

What does Christmas actually cost?

Christmas is not one expense. It is three expenses that happen to land in the same month:

• Presents for family, friends, godparents and perhaps the kindergarten staff
• Christmas food, drinks and a few extra dinners with visitors
• December's electricity bill, which for most people south of Trondheim is the largest of the year

Each of these on its own is manageable. It is the total that becomes a problem if you only meet it on 15 December.

Three envelopes, not one pot

Instead of setting aside "a bit for Christmas", it pays to build three separate pots that you top up from October onwards. Call them envelopes, sub-accounts, savings goals or simply their own line in the budget. What matters is that they do not bleed into each other.

• The present envelope: anything that ends up under the tree, in a Christmas card or as cash in an envelope
• The food envelope: the extra cost of Christmas food and drink, that is, what comes on top of your normal grocery budget
• The electricity envelope: the difference between a normal month and a cold December

Once you split things this way, you quickly see which envelope is bloating. For a lot of people it is the present pile that has crept upwards year after year.

An example: three months, three envelopes

The table below shows a sensible setup for a household that wants to put aside roughly 12 000 kroner for Christmas, split from October onwards. Adjust the amounts to your own situation.

Envelope	December target	Oct payment	Nov payment	Dec payment
Presents	6 000 kr	2 000 kr	2 000 kr	2 000 kr
Christmas food and drink	3 000 kr	1 000 kr	1 000 kr	1 000 kr
Electricity (above normal)	1 500 kr	500 kr	500 kr	500 kr
Social, wrapping paper, taxi	1 500 kr	500 kr	500 kr	500 kr
Total	12 000 kr	4 000 kr	4 000 kr	4 000 kr

Four thousand a month for three months is a different beast from twelve thousand in one go. Not because the money is less, but because you meet the amount before it meets you.

The numbers above are illustrative. The electricity gap depends on price area, type of heating and how well-insulated your home is, but a December bill of around 2 000 to 2 500 kroner is fairly common south of Trondheim even after the strømstøtte (the Norwegian government's electricity subsidy).

Checklist before November rolls in

Before November starts, give yourself ten minutes for this list:

1. Write down who you are actually giving presents to, not just how many
2. Set a cap per person (for example 300 kr, 500 kr or 1 000 kr)
3. Pick a single date for the big shop, so you avoid seven "small shops" that quietly leak money
4. Agree with partner, parents or friends whether to draw a single name instead of giving to everyone
5. Set a date in November to check the envelopes against reality and adjust

The most important item on this list is point four. A short, honest conversation in October does more for the Christmas budget than every app in the world.

If money is already tight

Not everyone has 4 000 kroner spare to put aside in October. In that case, different rules apply:

• Cut the number of presents first, not the quality of the ones that remain
• Swap some "bought presents" for "made presents" or second-hand finds from Tise and Finn
• Talk to your bank about an instalment plan for the electricity bill if it gets steep (many providers offer "jevn faktura", an even-billing option that smooths payments across the year)
• Check whether you qualify for Christmas assistance through Frelsesarmeen (the Salvation Army), Kirkens Bymisjon (a Norwegian church-based social charity) or NAV (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration)

Frelsesarmeen's poverty barometer last year showed that nearly one in five Norwegians worried about being able to afford Christmas. If you are one of them, there is no shame in asking for help early enough that the help actually reaches you in time.

In closing

You cannot magic away the fact that Christmas costs money. But you can move the amount away from December's salary by starting now.

Set up three pots at the bank (or three lines in the budgeting app), schedule a monthly transfer for payday, and forget about them until November. That is the whole recipe.