A UK granny is cracking down on Christmas dinner.
Grandmother Hayley Garbutt, from Filey, North Yorkshire, is expecting to host about a dozen family members, including three adult children and their partners, four grandchildren and even some of her friends. So, she’s planning to charge her guests about £35 ($43) a head to join the decadent Christmas meal.
According to Garbutt, 52, the door price for dinner will help her cover a smorgasbord of gustatory delights, with multiple main dishes, homemade sides, artisanal cheeses and Champagne.
The eccentric grandma plans to take whatever cash is left over from dinner and put it toward gifts for her loved ones — meaning her family will essentially be paying, at least partially, for their own presents.
But Garbutt, who has collected about $544 so far, sees nothing wrong with her Grinch-like scheme.
“I get all of my family to put in before I go and do the shop,” she tells Caters News. “This year I spent £300 online … doing the big shop and making sure I had a variety of things in.”
For her, the charity mandate helps ensure that Grandma gives the best gifts of all.
“It’s not that I’m being tight,” she explains. “It means I get to spend more in other aspects then too, like presents — this year the tree has so many presents stacked around it, that you can’t even see it.”
On the menu, her guests will find “all sorts of different meats, from beef to turkey, pork and chicken,” she says. She promises to slave in the kitchen all day making everything from “King prawns, to pizza, to homemade quiches,” she says.
Garbutt, also an end-of-life caretaker, has been known for doing a little extra during the holidays, often going to work on the day dressed up as one of Santa’s elves or reindeer, then coming home to entertain her family.
“Christmas is such an important time of year for me, I love to see the kids open their presents, and love being close to all my family,” she says. “In truth, I’d probably say my family are [spoiled] at Christmas — but that’s part of the fun of it.”