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1. Use cash
Buying gifts, decorations, and food with cash will guarantee that you don't have to remember the Holiday Season every time the credit card bill arrives. Buying with cash means you can relax and enjoy the time of festivities without worry about consumer debt. .
2. Plan Ahead
By saving a specific amount of cash each month throughout the year, you will know your Holiday allowance, and there will not be such a temptation to use your credit card for just one little present.
3. Compromise
Between what you want to spend, and what you can afford to put aside from each paycheck.
4. Cut your Holiday Spending
If you are spending more than 1% of your pre-tax income on gifts, parties, decorations, etc, you are probably spending too much and should find ways of reducing the cost of the Holiday Season. If you spend too much in the Holidays you are shorting another area of your spending plan the rest of the year. Watch your gift giving ' do you really have to give a gift to every person in your life, or can you stop giving to the school librarian, the meat cutter at the market?
5. Scale back
When you do give gifts, try to give something meaningful or edible. If it is meaningful, like a framed picture of you and your best friend it will be used or displayed. If you give something edible, it will be used up or thrown out and the gift-receiver will not have to deal with one more piece of clutter.
6. Make your own gifts
Simple holiday wreaths, special cards, and my favorite ' homemade hot chocolate mix with a box of homemade Christmas candy. Why limit yourself to the generic store bought gifts, make your own customized ones this year.
7. Be realistic
Every one already knows that you can do it all if you want to, but why should you? If you prioritize your activities, delegate some responsibility for the party planning will you not be able to relax and enjoy your family and friends more?
8. Name exchange
Instead of giving everyone in your family a gift, everyone can exchange names and only buy for that member of the family. This practice saves money, increases the quality of the gift and can be a lot of fun. Everybody wins!
9. Tradition elimination
Every family has some absurd tradition started by great-great grandpa what's his name. If your family has a tradition that doesn't mean anything special to anyone, stop doing it. This will allow a little more time for those family traditions that do carry special meaning for you and yours.
10. Family charity event
Get together as a family and help someone like a charitable mission, soup kitchens, or the local rescue house. There are too many people less fortunate than us, so what could be better than starting a new tradition of helping them? Serving a meal, shoveling snow, do together for someone else.
This is not an exhaustive list, you have probably already thought of one or two that was not included here. When you get together with your family and friends before the Holiday Season for planning parties and gift exchanges, don't forget to ask them about ways to make this time of year more enjoyable. They might be able to supply some of their own ideas for cutting costs, reducing stress, or having more fun. Be willing to be creative, and look for the fun of doing things different from normal. This could be a season to remember for years to come. One more thing about this list, it will work for Halloween, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and Hanukah gatherings as well. Family and friends get together for the people, not the gifts and food.
About The Author: Roger Sorensen is a Financial Literacy Speaker and Author - his book 'You Don't Own Money' is available online at (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595186815/brighterfutur-20) He is also the editor of the website http://BrighterFutures.Com . His work is copyright protected material, so if you copy, print, reproduce, etc., please give proper credit.
By
11/27/2008
Less is more! I make a homemade spice tea mix, put it in small canning jars and deliver to the extended friends. We get to have a short visit, they have something to warm them and I usually get requests for more. We try to decorate minimally, less stress and more time to play games, have impromptu parties (Ritz crackers with frosting cookies) and enjoy the glow of the Christmas tree.
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By Norman Prather (Guest Post)
