Christmas and the Holidays

Ok - everyone curl you toes back and take a deep breath.

I was going to wait a little longer before I addresses this one, but the retailers are pushing the ads and the sales have already started.

Ahhhh Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter Solstice. Holy days of peace and love celebrated around the world.

Anyone remember the holidays of our youth? If you're around my age, do you remember seeing an add for a toy during the Saturday morning cartoons and that item became the focus of your little universe? How about the Sears Christmas catalog (I'm very old - it was the Christmas catalog, not the Holiday catalog) and the visit to the Santa at the Mall?

Welcome to marketing that seems to have started in earnest in the 1960s.

I have attached a copy of a picture in the late 1930s of my father's family's Christmas tree. Can you count the number of gifts underneath? 4 maybe 5. They were a family of 4. One gift per person.

I know. I know. But, but, but, but, but.

Well if you are in the same boat as me, we do not have the resources to fill the Christmas stockings of the retailers this year.

Christmas during The Depression was very simple. Homemade gifts. Stockings filled with fruit and nuts. And they used actual socks from their feet, not the 6 foot long red felt thing my daughter tries to con me into buying!

But the best part? Family without apology. Good Food. Warm Fellowship. Simple Gifts.

So now would be the time for you to have the conversation without the kids. What is our budget? No Credit Cards. No Overspending.

This is how we do it in our household.

1) After Christmas is over (last year) I make any notes about what is new about our extended family and friends and if I had any ideas for them. This goes on our master Christmas list on Excel.

2) Before Ken and I have our Christmas meeting, I update the list with any gifts I have found thru out the year and any notes from conversations I have had (new hobbies or upcoming travel, etc)

3) We set our budget. Our Christmas list and budget include the food gifts we give. Soup jars, cookie jars, breads, cookies and pies. At the end of Christmas each year, I note how many cookies, breads and jars I made and what it took to make them so I am not re-creating the wheel every year.

4) We make the decision on the list and divide up who is purchasing what.

5) Finally, we only use cash. Yep, green stuff. When it is gone, you are done. Very budget friendly.

After the adults in the household are in agreement, then you sit down with the kids. I try to make it a festive time around the table and we talk honestly about what can and can not happen. Our children are familiar with and comfortable with the conversation, so it is expected and there is no drama. If this is a new adventure for your group, it could be more challenging. I would say the most important part is to let your children have a voice and participate. We are really conditioned into having a very materialistic holiday. If you listen to what your children are saying they would like to do to celebrate, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I understand that extended family might present the biggest challenge. I can only encourage to you make your decisions and stick by them. My brother gets homebaked goods every year. I love making them for his family and he has always been very gracious with his thanks and praise. His family is thoughtful in sending us beautiful gifts each year. From the outside, it may seem unequal with my simple handmade gifts vs his beautiful gifts to us, but we are not keeping score. We are both grateful to each other for the thought.

Our house rule to keep Christmas in check is one "gift" per person. Yep - one. Anything else must fit in the person's stocking like body butter, socks, fishing lures,undies or candy. Also, new jammies on Christmas Eve. We unwrap them and do something Christmas-y on Christmas Eve and then all go to bed. We are a little flexible on the exact activities depending on where and with whom we are celebrating the holiday.

We do fun inexpensive holiday activities thru out the season. We are going to see snow at one of the malls on November 24th. (Quite an event in central Arizona!) We will spend one afternoon making our Gingerbread House from a $15 kit available at most craft stores. (note: put a shower curtain on the floor if you anywhere near carpet and make the kids take off their socks before they leave the decorating area. Saves a lot of time not scraping up the Royal Icing.)

We will have a time together making and decorating the cookie and soup jars. Kids participate in all this. We will work the time for baking into the schedule. OH MY! I almost forget! Part of the meeting with the kids is the CALENDAR. We mark holiday parties and church events on it and decide when the other activities are taking place. We usually have a "live" tree, so getting it in place and decorated is an important factor (we actually buy it thru our vegetable co-op!). We work together on the decorations - inside and out. And since our tree is a mish-mosh of handmade and heirloom ornaments, we talk about where they came from and why they are special.

We stay busy thru the holiday, but we all seem to enjoy it. Not having a raft of bills in January is the best holiday gift.

Happy Cheapness!