Christmas is unaffordable this year and Rachel Reeves is the Grinch

Christmas is set to be unaffordable this year and prime ‘Grinch’ Rachel Reeves is to blame, hard-pressed families have claimed. 

Just weeks after the Labour Chancellor’s long-dreaded budget, families across the country will be forced to take part in toned-down celebrations because of spiralling costs and never-ending taxes.

Some claim they will swap chicken for now-unaffordable turkey on Christmas Day, while others fear they won’t be able to provide presents for their children.

Ms Reeves, who has been branded the ‘Christmas Grinch’, last week dropped a £30billion tax bomb on Britain while shattering Labour’s manifesto pledges.

The Chancellor, who has faced pressure after being accused of misleading voters over the state of the public finances ahead of the Budget, was accused by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of presiding over ‘a Budget for Benefits Street, paid for by working people’.  

Ms Reeves admitted the 43 added taxes, ranging from milkshakes to mansions, are hitting ‘ordinary people’ who will be forced to ‘pay a little bit more’.

Asked if Christmas was cancelled as she unveiled her Budget outside Downing Street last Wednesday, she declined to answer. 

But hard-up families have blamed her for ruining their Christmas, as one in six parents claim they can’t afford a present for their children this year. 

Some say they will have a ‘cheap Christmas’, with frozen vegetables and smaller presents. 

One woman, named Daisy, said she would be doing a ‘cheap version of Christmas this year’.

She wrote on Mumsnet: ‘I’m going to cook a chicken this year as it’s cheaper.

‘My teens are looking forward to Christmas as it’s a family event. I’ve told them I can’t get them big presents and I’m just making a cheap version of Christmas dinner.’ 

Others have accused the Government of wrecking their celebrations as their pockets feel emptier. 

‘How can Labour say they are for the working people. Absolute rubbish,’ X user Andy Robinson wrote.

‘I know many people who work are not looking forward to Christmas as they can’t afford it.’

Another fumed: ‘Can’t afford Christmas this year. Thanks Labour!’.

‘Well Reeves is certainly stealing our Christmas. Grinch of 2025,’ another person said.

In one AI video, posted on social media, the Grinch is superimposed onto the Chancellor’s face.

‘Rachel’s at the door, she wants a little more. She takes our hard earned cash and throws it on the floor,’ a character sings along to the theme of Jingle Bells.

‘She stands there with a grin and puts the taxes in. She robs all the workers for the mess she is in,’ it adds, before a chorus of ‘Labour lies, taxing us all day’. 

One in four households are struggling to afford food for their celebrations, charity Family Action claim. 

While 32 per cent say their children are worried about the cost of Christmas and family finances and 31 per cent have made up a story to explain why a gift did not arrive. 

One woman, writing on Mumsnet, said there was no point in her ‘bothering with a tree, decorations and all that goes with it’ because she could not afford to do any of the shopping. 

She said she was considering not inviting her children home, telling them to visit friends for festivities instead, because of her financial burdens. 

The disabled mother, who is on benefits and suffers with physical and neurological issues, said she is only eating two meals a week and using minimal heating because of the cost of electricity.  

She added: ‘All you see in the news is all about how those on benefits are so better off and living a life a luxury…. Well can someone point me in the right direction cause our life sucks.

The woman said she has cancelled insurance policies, subscriptions and her internet, adding she is unable to get on a council and that her life is ‘miserable’.

‘All the local help has stopped applications and I can’t even get a food bank referral. There is nothing left in our town and trying to find work is impossible. Just keep getting refused. 

‘So no Christmas for us this year and the kids have all been told not to bother since there is nothing.     

The increase in the National Living Wage has also piled pressure on businesses, with some owners claiming they are now ‘at breaking point’.

Andrew Goodacre, the chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association blasted the timing of the Budget.

‘You go through a tough year and think hopefully you’ll have a good Christmas, or a good festive period, or a good Black Friday, and they lump a Budget in the middle of that.

‘If you really wanted to hurt us, you couldn’t have chosen a worse time of the year.’

But others have praised the budget, claiming the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap will see them receive a ‘Christmas windfall’.

Introduced under the Conservatives in 2017 it meant parents could only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.

But Ms Reeves removed it, at an estimated cost of £3bn a year, claiming it ‘pushes kids into poverty’.

More than half a million families will get an extra £5,310 a year, with workers expected to foot the bill. 

Tory leader Badenoch said it was proof of a ‘benefits Budget’ bankrolled by working people. 

But It has sparked relief for some parents who will benefit from having more children and staying at home.  

Chelsea Lealand, 28, an unemployed mother of three, has claimed Universal Credit for three years.

She is set to see her benefits soar from £28,628 to £32,480 a year.

The former hairdresser, who lives in a Nottingham council house delighted at her ‘Christmas windfall’.

She told The Sun: ‘This is brilliant. I’ll get money for my third child and more cash when I have my fourth baby. It’s a Christmas windfall.

‘Don’t blame me, blame the Government and Reeves. It’s her decision, not mine.’

Meanwhile, Claire-Marie Bray, a pregnant mother-of-four, said the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap will see her enjoy her first ‘magical Christmas’ in years.

The 27-year-old from Nuneaton, who receives Universal Credit, said she was surviving on £200-a-month after her essential costs.

She said the changes would ‘help massively’ and allow them to celebrate on December 25.

‘It will mean the world to me to see their little faces. It will be a magical Christmas,’ she added.