Paul Hopkins: Tightening our belts, but still making the memories

The build-up to Christmas, despite its joy and celebration, can be an expensive time as banking figures annually show —Ireland spent €26 million on Black Friday last year, according to AIB. That's €5,700 a minute. The Dublin riots put paid to that this year.

This year, half of us expect to have less money to spend – but the cutbacks are likely to be smaller than a year ago when elevated energy costs hit households hard. Consumer sentiment is up modestly for a second month, but people remain cautious, according to the Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Survey for November.

Those under 35 years-old plan to spend more than older people. This is probably because increased household bills have drained the discretionary spending power of the squeezed middle, says economist Austin Hughes, who compiled the index

"As buying plans remain subdued, responses to the questions asked [last] month hint at a Christmas of caution rather than cutbacks in household spending," he says.

The Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Survey for November increased to 61.9 from 60.4 in October.

This means consumer confidence is still running slightly below the levels seen through the summer and remains notably further below the long-term series average of 84.8.

However, Mr Hughes says it may be that small improvements in confidence in each of the past two months point towards the possibility of a more positive trend in Irish consumer sentiment and spending over Christmas and into early next year.

Meanwhile, just more than half of us expect to have less to spend than last Christmas. Only one in 14 of us say they we more to spend.

These responses are slightly more positive than last year when the full shock of the cost-of-living crisis was being felt, with rapidly accelerating food and energy prices.

As a result, more of us are planning to spend more on Christmas presents than we did last year. That said, half of us intend to cut back on presents, with a similar proportion set to scale back expenditure on entertainment

Where I was boy, money for most families in Ireland was tight. My parents fervently looked after the pennies, in the hope-to-God the pounds would look after themselves. I know this from personal experience.

It was the Christmas of my 10th year and I so wanted to emulate Bruce McLaren in his Grand Prix winning Cooper Climax that I desperately wanted Scalextric for Christmas.

I was wavering between believing in the man in red and dismissing it as hokum-pokum, particularly having burrowed my way the previous year into the back of the wardrobe in my parents’ bedroom, but decided it was to my advantage to continue with the charade and I so I duly wrote my letter to Santa.

My father muttered some-thing about Scalextric being very dear and that maybe Santa would not be able to afford it as he had so many children to visit and "things like that don't come cheap''.

But, believer or no, I had every faith Santa or whoever would deliver and I could give McLaren a run for his money.

Scalextric was on the go about six years by then. I t was a vehicle set on speed, life in the fast lane, leaving my Dinky cars in the shade. I just had to have it and hoped against hope that I had been mistaken when rummaging in my parents' wardrobe. Well, Christmas morning 5am arrived and I awoke starry-eyed with anticipation of the stocking weighing heavy on the bottom of my bed.

I never got my Scalextric that Christmas of my 10th year.

I do not remember now what I got instead, only the disappointment that my future as a McLaren was truly dashed.

It was probably too expensive for Santa, my father said. Johnny down the road is getting one, was all I replied.

But I swore there and then, young as I was, that if I ever had children I would make sure that whatever they asked from Santa they would get. It's a promise that to this day – even though the boys and their sister are long-since adults, and I have four wonderful grandchildren – still costs me a tidy sum.

Perhaps, though, Christmas is not about the cost of presents – and so many have little money – but more about your presence, at all costs, on the day, around the table. Celebrating surviving another year.

Making for memories of another Christmas that too will pass...