You are currently browsing the Christmas category
Today is Boxing Day in Canada, our version of Black Friday. Buy Xmas cards, wrapping paper, bows and decorations in the post-Xmas sales. I have picked up four giant rolls for $1. Even $10 will get you a lot of supplies that you don’t have to buy at full price in December.
Keep a box in a closet or the attic for stocking stuffers. If I see something on sale or drastically reduced, I buy it and put it away. When I go to trade shows, I look for show specials or freebies and they make their way to the box. By the time Xmas rolls around, I have the makings of the bulk of the stockings.
Cut coupons and look for those items on sale. I have gotten a $5 coupon for those ultra-fancy (five blades!) shaving razors and then found the razor on sale at Wal-Mart for $5 – thereby getting it for free.
By December, you’ll have most of your stockings filled. Add some chocolate or candy canes and a lottery ticket and you’re done.
Yesterday, I went to my friend, Liz’s, and we made oven mitts for Xmas presents. Mostly we talked but we did manage to make a number of pairs of oven mitts.
We used the Savvy Seams website and their downloadable pattern. If you have leftover fabric, as we did, you can make a few pairs of oven mitts. I bought ironing board lining fabric as one of the layers.
This site - Everything Your Mama Made and More - has easy edible mixes to use as gifts. I particularly like making the brownie mixes (under Cookie & Brownie Mix Recipes). These look interesting all layered in a jar and tied with a bow (don’t forget the directions). There are soup mixes and seasoning mixes as well. They make good, last-minute gifts.
I have seen children madly rip open gifts at birthdays and on Xmas with a wild look in their eyes, scrambling to open the next and being disappointed when the frenzy is over. I prefer a method that is more leisurely. One Christmas, my then three-year-old son ignored all of the gifts and played with a couple of unshelled walnuts and a packing box for a good part of the day. He remembers building all of those snowmen on the front lawn before he’d remember any of the gifts that he received. My friend, L, gave her young boys a homemade “tool” box complete with big thick ropes and a few junior tools. They were thrilled. We always had a jigsaw puzzle in some stage of incompleteness that anyone could tackle.
Start some traditions - maybe it’s the smell of apple cider on the stove or playing a board game on the living room floor that you want to remember.
And just a tip – my mother would always “forget” to give us one present and “find” it two days after Xmas, “Oh, look what I found” and it would be something like a game or drawing supplies that we could occupy ourselves with for hours.
I watched about five minutes of Til Debt Do Us Part the other night. In the segment, the father banged up his credit cards to put on a lavish Christmas for his kids. Unfortunately, he was overspending by thousands each month so really couldn’t afford the spread. The host said to him, “You’re just feeding your own ego doing that.” Gosh, I thought, that’s harsh. But I watched the expression on the father’s face and it really hit home.
The dad chose to wow the kids with gifts rather than pay his mortgage and food. Would his kids love him less if he chose security over the holiday flash? Should that even be a concern?
My mother raised four kids on her own. Good Dutch sensibility. We always had a good time together and she got what she could afford. Every year, without fail, we received a huge tin of maple syrup from our old aunt in Vermont. “Wonder what this is?” we’d say as we looked at the wrapped tin under the tree.
Don’t compete with your friends and live within your means. It’ll mean you’ll have a roof over your head and food to eat and you’ll be able to sleep at night.
Yes, it’s the 25th. I was reading an online forum the other day. A woman was complaining that, although they had very little money, the relatives still expected them to bring fancy gifts. She said that she didn’t want to go through last year where the teenagers looked disappointed at the more humble gifts.
I think this is pathetic. It demonstrates a communication breakdown in families. No one should be expected to spend money they don’t have. And if it involves talking to teenagers about the realities of the workaday world, this might be a good time to have this conversation.
I remember one year my mother got some homemade truffles from one of her grandchildren. She said it was one of the best presents she got. I have received a box of homemade cookies and I know the time that went into making them.
Perhaps families need to get together and draw names and figure out what everyone can realistically spend. For many years, we had a “Beggar’s Xmas” where we could only spend up to two dollars (really) and you had to write a poem as part of the gift.
The holidays shouldn’t be a downer, huh?
It doesn’t take a very shiny object to get my attention. I noticed that when I’m out shopping, I can get into the holiday frenzy just like anyone else. I get home and there’s a bag of stuff that I bought.
How do you prevent yourself from buying some glittery objects or gifts that you just can’t resist?
MAKE A LIST.
And stick to it. Write out everyone’s name who is on your gift recipient list. Write out what they are getting, where you’ll buy it and what it’s going to cost. I’ve talked to people who are doing “Secret Santas” this year and are drawing names. Some are just doing it to save on the amount of “stuff” that comes through the household.
With Christmas a mere six weeks away, I have gone through my posts on gifts.
This year, with my friend Liz, we’re making oven mitts for a few of our friends.
Last year, you’ll remember I took on making birdhouses which was a bigger job than I thought it would be. Unless you are carpentry oriented, I wouldn’t recommend this project. This took us DAYS to make these.
My daughter-in-law made microwavable corn bags and I still have the one she made from last year. Great project if you have a sewing machine and a few hours. Very inexpensive.
For stocking stuffers or just a fun gift, I whipped up some hacky sacks last year.
I’ve made soap, buckwheat pillows, pear jam and even stilts at my mother’s insistence.
Look through Martha Stewart’s website and you’ll find some easy to make gifts for anyone.
With the holiday season fast approaching, you may be spending more money with your debit card. It’s a good idea to keep track of your debit card purchases. This is good idea year round.
According to Yahoo Finance:
A new report finds 50 million Americans overdrew their accounts at least once in a 12-month period, and 27 million incurred five or more overdraft fees. At an average of $34 a pop, that’s a lot of beans — literally. By one account, Americans spend about the same amount on overdraft fees as they do on fresh vegetables.
Check your account at the bank or go online regularly.
A few years ago, I was cruising through Craigslist in early January. There was an ad for boxes of Xmas decorations. Cryptic, one-line ad and I answered it.
Turns out, she had a very upscale food shop in a ritzy part of town. Every year, she had to decorate the store window and bought a whole new theme of items. I bought two huge boxes for $20 that she had stored in the attic of the store. One box had about 100 decorations that I later priced at about $500. I used about half the decorations and resold the rest of the box for $100. (Just as an additional tip, I carefully took photos of each of the decorations for the Craigslist ad.)
Check out upscale shops that decorate for the season. They often won’t reuse the items as they have to turn out a new window every year. Most often, they’ll keep the twinkly lights but sell off the decorations.
« Older Entries
