Christmas cover on home insurance

When you’ve shelled out for a Christmas to remember, extra cover on your home insurance can help protect the indulgences you’ve bought to mark the occasions.

We’ve called ours ‘Celebration Cover’ to include more occasions, but other insurers offer it specifically for Christmas and simply name it ‘Christmas Cover’. We’ve put together this quick guide to help you decide if this extra cover will benefit you.

Home insurance and gifts

If you’ve invested in a crackerjack gift worth over £1,000 for a loved-one, you can declare it on your policy as a specified item, if it falls under our definition of a high-risk item:

“Any high risk item or collection exceeding the ‘unspecified item limit’ must be shown on your Home Policy Schedule as a specified item.”

You’ll usually have to declare a gift that’s high risk and worth over £1,000 as soon as you buy it to be sure it’s covered up to its full amount. Though, with Admiral Platinum Home Insurance, it'll automatically be insured for 15 days after buying it under the 'New Purchases' extra cover.

If the loved-one in question lives at the address insured, you'll probably want to declare it anyway so it's covered while they're living there. Examples of high-value items include:

• Any collectible articles which are rare or unusual 
• Musical instruments or audio visual, photographic or sporting equipment 
• Computers, laptops, mobiles phones, tablets and notebooks
• Jewellery, watches, pearls, precious metals or stones 
• Pictures, prints or works of art 
• Stamp, coin or other collections

Even if you’re not spending that much, you may also want the item insured. Some policies cover personal possessions you wear or carry about your person even while you’re away from the house. And until you physically give the gift to the recipient, it counts as a personal possession of your own.

Admiral Platinum offers £2,000 personal possessions cover as standard with the option of extending this to £20,000.

Insurance for guests’ possessions

Celebrations mean friends and family, and if you’ve got people staying for a few days their possessions may be insured too. You’ll need to check this with your insurer, but Admiral Gold and Admiral Platinum Contents Insurance covers up to £500 and £1,000 respectively.

Freezer food

The deep-freezer is a great way to save money at celebration times, especially if you’ve managed to buy up party foods and joints of meat when they’re on offer.

Many policies protect the contents of your freezer, including every Admiral Contents Insurance policy. The amount covered varies depending on what policy you’ve purchased, and is outlined in your documents.

Gifts of cash

Cash is an easy gift, and while securely transferring money electronically is easier than ever, there’s no escaping that feel-good moment of opening a card to see Her Majesty staring back at you.

With this in mind, money in your home is insured up to the limits shown in your policy documents all year round. This limit is anywhere between £250 and £1,000, depending on which level of contents insurance you have.

We'd always recommend banking cash as quickly as possible, because the insured limit does not increase around celebration times for most policies.

Where to store gifts

Celebration times, and Christmas in particular, provide rich pickings for thieves. Every year we seem to spend more and more money, and you're not alone if you think the cost of Christmas is on the rise.

We took a look at the average costs of Christmas 'essentials': food, presents, advent calendars and drinks, and compared the costs from the past 40 years. Take a look at how much the costs of your festive favourites have changed over the years. 

It’s not a good idea to store gifts under the tree in the run up to the big day if this is in plain view; if you’re living above ground level or your tree is situated away from prying eyes, this is less of a concern.

Lofts are great at deterring thieves, but be careful where you place your footing; we deal with several cases each year where people have fallen through ceilings retrieving either gifts or decorations.

Outbuildings are less secure, and while you may be insured by your policy for theft from them provided they are securely locked, it’s unlikely to extend to high-risk items (excluding sports equipment). It depends on your level of cover, so be sure to check your policy documents.

Increasing your contents insurance cover 

You may want to increase the total value of your insured contents after the celebrations are over, especially if you’ve received lots of gifts (for instance, after getting married). In this case, you may be able to amend your policy mid-term.

This is simple and is likely to result in an increase in your premiums, which you may decide is worth paying for the added peace of mind.

If you received a very expensive gift for Christmas that’s worth more than £1,000 and that falls under our definition of a high-risk item, you should make sure it's listed on your home insurance policy as a specified item. And if a few people in your house received expensive gifts it's worth checking if you still have enough contents cover or if you need to increase it. 

Head of Admiral Home Insurance, Noel Summerfield, said:  “Make sure your contents policy is updated when you buy any high risk items (worth over £1,000), such as jewellery or a new television, so you know they’re covered.

“The value of most items can be searched on the internet, but antiques or jewellery should be valued by a professional before being added to your policy."

Admiral Celebration Cover

If you’ve taken out an Admiral Gold or Admiral Platinum Contents Insurance, it includes the extra Celebration Cover as standard. This automatically increases the value of the contents insured at your property by £5,000 for Admiral Gold policyholders, and £10,000 for Admiral Platinum policyholders for 14 days either side of the date.

What counts as a celebration?

Here at Admiral we know that there are countless reasons to celebrate throughout the year. With this in mind, our cover insures:

• Religious festivals
• Your wedding day
• The birth of your child

Anything that falls outside this, like birthdays, anniversaries, housewarmings, plus religious celebrations not linked to festival dates (such as christenings and bar mitzvahs), aren't covered. 

If you’ve got a wedding or birth coming up, you don’t need to tell us in advance for the cover to be effective, but we may ask you to provide some sort of evidence in the event of a claim (like a venue booking receipt or a doctor’s note).

A recent survey by Admiral Home Insurance reveals wedding gifts are falling out of favour, with brides and grooms preferring money instead. Take a look at the changing face of wedding gifts, and compare the popular gifts from the past 60 years... fondue set, anyone?

If you want the perfect Christmas tree this year, be sure to check out Bauble Calculator to ensure you've got enough decorations!