Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Homemade budget-friendly Christmas desserts are necessary when hosting a budget holiday party this season.
Don’t Get Caught At The Bakery When You Can Make Inexpensive Christmas Desserts At Home
When you host a holiday party, you must consider the costs of the food you prepare in your meal plan.
Apart from the main meal, Christmas desserts can get as expensive as dinner.
Prices for baked goods and ingredients skyrocket during the Christmas holidays, which means some planning goes a long way.
The other day, I found a lady selling Christmas shortbread cookies on Facebook that were gorgeous to look at and, I’m sure, delicious but not for $20/dozen—nope, not happening.
Mrs. CBB and I have never hosted a Christmas dinner at our house because we don’t have any family here to invite.
Every year since I’ve been in Canada, we’ve celebrated Christmas at my in-law’s house, which has become somewhat of a tradition.
Below, you will find many great Christmas desserts you can make at home for a fraction of the cost of buying them pre-made at a bakery.
I’ve also included below the Ultimate Guide links to past articles about holiday baking, including tips for stocking your pantry with baking needs.
Finally, I searched for some of the best frugal Christmas desserts I could find.
They are easy to make and recipes that I would make for our friends and family for the holidays.
Learning To Bake With Nanny
Before I met Mrs. CBB, she was already well into making nostalgic Christmas desserts that her grandmother used to make for her family.
Her grandmother passed away just last year, and an avid baker she was in her younger years. “Boy, could she bake,” Mrs. CBB told me while we discussed Christmas desserts to bring home this holiday.
While staying with her grandparents to complete a job placement for school, Mrs. CBB took the opportunity to learn as much as she could from her grandmother in the kitchen.
First on the list was making homemade pasta, meatballs, stuffed green peppers, and chicken noodle soup.
She can never forget hearing the pressure cooker on the stovetop (we have this now) with some magic going on inside.
I read a meme once that said the problem with people today is that they don’t spend enough time shelling peas with their grandmother.
I found that interesting because life isn’t as traditional as it used to be.
Life is faster, and most families don’t have the time to cook homemade meals or even bake.
We are a world of convenience; if it saves time, it’s a winner.
The problem is that buying quality homemade foods and baked goods is pricey.
If you want to compare apples to apples, you can always bake at home for less.
Christmas With Boarders
In her younger years, Mrs. CBB’s grandmother hosted many male workers in the area looking for room and board.
This is why cooking and baking was her specialty.
Back in the 1950s and 60s, money was tight for everyone, so homemade was the way to go.
Her grandmother would talk about her borders as if they were family, even though they would come and go.
For her, feeding people was part of a family affair, no matter who they were, mainly in her home.
She would serve the men homemade breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily.
She also included baked goods for them to snack on and fruits in a large basket on the basement table.
My grandmother had the biggest table I’d ever seen in that basement.
It must have sat 30 people easily.- Mr.CBB
Some of these men had no family to go home to for the holidays, so she would invite them to stay for Christmas dinner.
This meant that she had a tight budget, but as an avid coupon saver, she managed to stretch funds to have enough food for everyone.
Meal planning was essential, as was creating a holiday baking plan that included all the favorites everyone had come to love.
Popular Christmas Desserts On CBB
If you’ve read CBB for the past six years, you will likely have seen many of the traditional Christmas desserts we’ve shared that belong to Grandma CBB.
During this time, we’ve added a few of our own, but this year, we’re focusing on keto desserts such as our low-carb holiday biscotti, sugar-free chocolate coconut balls, and keto snowballs.
Mrs. CBB’s parents are both diabetic now, so bringing home the traditional Christmas desserts is no longer.
- 5-minute Hazelnut Fudge
- Chunky Chocolate Walnut Cookies
- Classic Date Squares
- Nuts and Bolts
- Dundurn Castle Shortbread Cookies
- Classic Madeira Cake
- Zeppole Potato Donuts
- Anginetti Lemon Cookies with Sprinkles
- Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo Truffles
- Traditional Carnation 5-minute Chocolate Fudge
The plan is to revise the Grandma Snowball recipe to be keto-friendly, which means sugar-free.
For example, we will use our Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, which are sugar-free and keto-friendly, and turn them into Keto Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls without the cherries or dates inside.
We also have sugar-free White Chocolate Winter Macaroons on the Christmas desserts menu.
Related: 20 Baking Essentials to Power Up Your Kitchen
Savings tips for Christmas baking
One of the most important tips I’ve ever shared on this blog is to plan. If you are reading this post as I’ve published it, you’re too late.
I hope that by reading this today, you’ll be on top of your baking game next year.
Most Christmas desserts can be frozen and brought to room temperature when you host your Christmas party.
This makes pre-baking an intelligent move for anyone who has some time but knows they will be super busy for the holidays.
Related: Inexpensive Christmas Baking Ingredients to stock up on now
Inexpensive Christmas Desserts for You- See recipe links
Gingerbread Bars with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting
Holiday Wine-Filled Gummy Bears
Holiday Pillow Shortbread Cookies
Gingerbread Gooey Butter Cookies
Related: Holiday Baking on a Budget
Discussion Question: What are some of your favorite nostalgic Christmas desserts that you make at home year after year? How do you keep the costs low?
Check out our complete Free Recipe Index on CBB for Gluten-free, Sugar-free, and Low-carb/keto-friendly recipes.
December Grocery Game Challenge
Join in the 2017 Grocery Game Challenge (GGC) fun and post your grocery shop in the comment section of each GGC blog post. Post your shop, and you can be next.
2017 Grocery Shop Results
Yearly grocery budget for two + 1 Toddler 2017: $3180 or $265/month (The above total does not include the stockpile budget of $300/year or $25/month.Points Overview (add any other sections you need to show us your savings)
- Total Grocery Budget for this Month: $265
- Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs:: $265
- Total Gift Cards used to date: $0
- Total Rewards Points redeemed this week: $0
- Total Rewards Points used to date: $0
- PC Points Plus Earned to date: 750,000
- Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0
- Shoppers Optimum: 995,000 points
Coupon Apps (add any other apps you use to save money)
- Zweet to cash out: $18.25. I do not know where the money went, but we have $0.
- Checkout51 to cash out: $24.50 we cashed out, so we’re back at 0.
Our Grocery Shop This Week
Costco
- Double Pack Extra Large eggs $4.99
- Milk 2% $4.27
- 6 x 10% Cream $2.05 each
- Bananas $1.49
- Mozzarella $20.99
- Avocados $7.99
- Caesar Dressing $6.99
- 2 x Almond Flour $16.99 each
- Portobello Mushrooms $4.99
- Blackberries $3.99
- Pillers Sausage Whips $10.99
Total Out-of-Pocket: $112.88. Yikes!
Note: All totals below already have tax factored into them.
- Total to spend this month: $265- $2.25=$
- Stockpile budget 2016: $25.00/month
- Stockpile budget used this month: $0
- Total coupons used this week: $0
- Total coupons used to date: $1
- Total in-store discounts this week: $0
- Total in-store discounts to date: $756.15
- Total spent this week: $112.88
- Total spent so far this month: $112.88
- Total over/Under spend this shop: under
- Total over/Under spend for the month: n/a
- Total left to spend for the month: -$2.24 or $2.25
- Total Spent To Date 2017: (does not include stockpile budget) Jan $231.06+Feb $255.16+March ($5 budget increase) $263.60 + April $273.83+ May $257.15 + June $65.43+July $226.84+August $283.51+September $208.69+ October $226.58+ November $267.24 + December $
Weekly Overview (your final thoughts)
We will be stocking up on a few bits, but not too much, as we will head to the in-laws at the end of the month.
Our freezer is still packed with the garden’s tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and beans.
The almond flour was a dollar cheaper this week, so we stocked up as we’ve been using it more lately.
Mozzarella is the best deal at Costco and far better tasting than any bar cheese you can buy at the grocery store.
DECEMBER – Dec 4-10, 2017
2017 GROCERY BUDGET / STOCKPILE BUDGET AND US RESERVE:
•Total Grocery Budgeted For Year: $190.00 x 12 = $2,280.00 for 2 adults
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REMARKS FOR THE MONTH:
Hubby is on holidays now so it’s a perfect opportunity to make lots of wonderful soups!
I have lots of RCSS Points that I can use for my New Years grocery shop… so I am moving our entire grocery budget for the month of December into our reserves.
REMARKS FOR THE WEEK:
Since hubby is vacationing now, this week I have planned a Wings Night at our local pub, haircuts, a treat night with frozen items from M & M Foods, our quarterly blood tests at the lab, a holiday visit with hubby’s mother and sister, a road trip to check out the Christmas displays in Kilby, a lunch at one of our favorite deli’s in Chilliwack and hopefully a coffee get-together with my Dad.
With all the running around…it’ll be perfect having a quick bowl of soup when we get in! The plan is also to bake a few items for some holiday treats as well…I have all the ingredients so it’s just a matter of “some assembly required”!
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OUR “CANADIAN” SHOPPING:
OUR NEXT SHOP IS SCHEDULED FOR AFTER CHRISTMAS
==========================================================================================
OUR “US RESERVE” SHOPPING:
OUR NEXT SHOP IS SCHEDULED FOR AFTER CHRISTMAS
==========================================================================================
2017 Y-T-D GROCERY SAVINGS:
•Total Loyalty Card Price Reductions This Year: $308.47
•Total Coupons/Rain Checks Used This Year: $0.00
•Total Price Match Savings Used This Year: $0.00
•Total More Points Earned This Year: 324 Points
•Total Air Miles Earned This Year: 58 Air Miles
•Total PC PLUS Points Earned This Year: 20,000 Points
•Total Optimum Points Earned This Year: 4,100 Points
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SUMMARY OF FUNDS Y-T-D:
$ 2,280.00 Grocery Budget JAN-DEC
($ 604.57) NET RESERVE SAVINGS
($1,675.43) Actual CASH SPENT
$ 0.00 AVAILABLE Y-T-D GGC SPENDING NOT INCL RESERVES
RESERVES Y-T-D:
$ 505.69 Re-Stocking Fund
$ 170.70 Holiday Season Fund + $210 RCSS POINTS +
$10 Dream Air Miles + $10 RCSS Gift Card (TOTAL $400.70)
$ 649.59 Summer Season Fund
$ 511.87 US Shopping Reserve
$ 41.56 GGC Savings Reserve
$ 0.00 Points Redeemed Reserve
OUR CURRENT TOTAL UNUSED RESERVES ARE $1,879.41. This means the $1,274.44 that we carried forward from 2016 PLUS AN ADDITIONAL $1,635.94 that we have added in 2017, LESS $1,030.97 that we have drawn out for use in 2017.
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Week 46 – Dec 1 – 7, 2017
Name Your Store: Superstore
Total Coupons Used: $
Total Points = 1,450
Total Out Of Pocket: $65.75
Human
Quaker Corn Squares = $2.48
4 Stove Top Stuffing – $1.99 (PM Food Basics @ $0.99) = $3.98
450 g NN Cheese = $4.97
2.5 Dozen Eggs = $5.00
2 Astro Yogurt = $4.96
1.13 Kg PC Chicken Lasagna – (1,000 PC Points) = $9.98
907 g Shepard’s Pie = $4.98
907 g Chicken Lasagna = $4.98
St. Hubert Tourtiere = $7.98
St. Hubert Chicken Pie = $7.98
In-Store Cinnamon Raisin Bread – (450 PC Points) = $3.00
PC Hot Cross Buns = $2.98
Name Your Store: No Frills
Total Coupons Used: $
Total Points =
Total Out Of Pocket: $36.20
Human
4 Heinz Pasta = $4.00
3 Habitant Pea Soup- 3/$5.00 = $5.00
4 L 2% Milk = $4.27
3 – 750 g NN Vegetables – 3/$5.00 = $5.00
5 lb Clementines = $2.97
Bananas – 1.215 Kg = $1.49
2 Acorn Squash – 1.380 Kg = $2.95
Thomas Cinnamon Raisin Bread = $2.50
Cats
2 – 18 Kg NN Cat Litter = $18.01
Grocery Game Challenge Results
Total Grocery Budget for the 2 Adults ($1820.00, for the pay period – $70.00)
Total Human (Adults) this Week Period: $93.94
Total Human (Adults) to Date: $1,521.64 (minus Debt pymt & Gift Cards) = $1,355.25
Total Grocery Budget for the 3 Cats ($364, for the pay period – $14.00)
Total Cats this Week Period: $18.01
Total Cats to Date: $368.40
Total Grocery Budget for Stockpile ($507.69)
Total Stockpile this Week Period: $
Total Stockpile to Date: $163.05
Total Grocery Budget for the Personal Hygiene ($182)
Total Personal Hygiene this Week Period: $21.85
Total Personal Hygiene to Date: $249.25
Total Grocery Budget for Meat ($499.98)
Total Meat this Week Period: $
Total Meat to Date: $407.10
Total Coupons Used this Week Period: $
Total Coupons Used To Date: $22.48
Total Grocery Savings for this Week Period: $
Total Grocery Savings to Date: $89.64
Total Price Match for this Week Period: $4.00
Total Price Match to Date: $81.48
Total PC Points Received this Week Period: 1,450
Total PC Rewards Points Used this Week Period: 20,000
Total PC Rewards To Date: 2,878
Overview: Did more stocking up so we should be good now, except for the little items that we never seem to have enough of.