Frugal Christmas ideas
Here are a few things you can do to create a wonderful Christmas for the kids but not end up completely broke. If you have younger kids, this is a lot easier than if you have teenagers who think they have to have all of the latest items.
The first thing I suggest is finding out their top 2 or 3 items that they are wanting and do your best to get at least one of them. If you can’t afford to get any other presents, then that one will have to do.
You can take a calendar and depending on how many children you have, add a child to each month on whatever day you want. Then this child gets to pick what they want to do for the day, within reason of course. Going to the movies (it could be the cheap movies if needed), a picnic at the park, the zoo (a family pass is a great family gift), he could choose to spend the day at home and pick out the meals that he wants and then play games as a family. The list is almost endless. If you live near mountains or the ocean or other great natural areas, this could also be a choice that the child could choose. Spending the day hiking and packing a picnic is a wonderful day to spend as a family. If money is tight, then having a list for them to choose from, might be best. With this gift, you children are receiving gifts throughout the year. With us having 5 kids, each child would have their name on the calendar twice. Another variation to the calendar idea are coupon books. You can make them yourself or buy them. This could be put in a stocking for a stuffer or wrapped and put under the tree.
For girls, you can get various girly type things to put in a stocking. Things like lip gloss, fingernail polish, earrings, lotions, perfume or body sprays, make-up if they wear it, hair things, etc. For boys, little cars, comic books, any kind of small toy, action figures, yo-yos, etc. There are things that can be for either- stickers, pens, pencils, little pads to write or drawn in, candies, nuts, watches, cds and dvds, cards, gift certificates to a store, etc.
One of the things that I do is try to make the entire day a fun day. We start off with a fun breakfast- overnight frenchtoast bake, fruit tray with a dip, sleigh ride hot cocoa and maybe a breakfast meat. I try to get as much cooking done during the preceding days so that I don’t have to spend so much time cooking. We spend the day with family or with just us, but either way, the kids get to enjoy themselves the entire day. If they want to play games or watch movies, I try to make sure we do that. There are lots of goodies to eat and of course, plenty of things to play with.
I know there are more ideas to add to this, but I will have to end it for now. I am in the midst of goofy kids, spelling tests and an empty coffee cup. So, I will have to stop for now.
