We changed our focus and priorities to have a simple, debt-free holiday.
Christmas should be about family, experiences, Jesus. Not stuff. {Tweet this}
How can we have a debt-free Christmas?
Pay cash.
We don’t do adult gifts.
If we don’t have enough money, we don’t buy it.
Stick to a budget. Plan for the holidays year-round by putting a portion of income each month into a savings account.
We’ve prepared the kids that we well have smaller Christmas than in the past. We don’t do Santa. We don’t do that ridiculous Elf or any of its cousins.
We don’t have piles of gifts like our parents provided us. I shop sales and have been very careful. I find great items year-round and store them away for the holidays.
Planning is key. I keep an Amazon wishlist updated throughout the year and watch prices with Honey.
Set a standard.
I only buy a few gifts for the kids.
I send my parents a gift card because they have more stuff than they could ever use and they like to eat out at restaurants.
My husband and I don’t give presents to each other or extended family.
If you have to do gifts with others…Organize some kind of swap with extended family, like a name drawing. Send money to a charity in family’s name instead of a tangible gift. Be creative.
We don’t watch TV.
By not being exposed to commercials, we don’t have cases of the gimmes.
It almost makes gift buying difficult and I have to be more creative and search for the perfect things. We’ve downscaled a lot. We’ve simplified. We’re picky.
I prefer quality over quantity.
I love this gifting plan:
something they want
something they need
something to wear
something to read
But, for us, there’s very little we need (such a blessing!) and I don’t often buy clothing for Christmas gifts.
We don’t know what the “popular” toys are. When someone asked if my girls wanted a particular toy for Christmas since it was “all the rage” at her daughter’s school, I had to Google it. My girls probably would enjoy it, but not because it’s popular. But then they would discard it too soon or it would break.
We don’t strive to keep up with society and it’s so much more relaxing not to have to compare.
We focus on the meaning of Christmas: Jesus.
We read through Advent studies each day. We love the books by Ytreeide. This year we’re reading Bartholomew’s Passage. We light candles and pray and sing carols and we’re together.
We read about and celebrate St. Nicholas day on December 6. The children know this is the base for the legend of Santa Claus.
We learned about and celebrated Hanukkah during our Ancient Studies history and it has become tradition now.
We decorate simply.
Our house doesn’t look like it’s out of a magazine or store catalog. No Anthropologie or Pottery Barn here. We live here; it’s not a museum.
We have an artificial tree. We have a lovely Advent wreath and a new Jesse Tree this year! We’re making do with what we have. Alex wanted the outside of the house decorated and we managed to do it well with lights we bought on clearance years ago. Win!
Our church has an ornament exchange so each of my children gets a new ornament each year. They love it. And their hearts are better than mine that they’re never disappointed in the ornament they receive.
We just don’t go shopping.
It’s really that easy.
My mom used to love to go shopping as entertainment. I don’t. I don’t need retail therapy.
I don’t subscribe to store emails. We don’t get newspapers.
We stay home on Black Friday. We don’t go online all weekend long. We find other stuff to do.
We have a budget and are doing better sticking to it. I go to the grocery store when we need to stock up (and honestly, this is where most of our money goes! We like to eat well).
We go to stores when we need a particular item.
I do most of my buying online long before November. If we don’t go to stores, we’re not tempted. But I’m also learning to get offline when all the sales start. That’s becoming a temptation too. Just because it’s a deal, doesn’t mean we need it.
We read lots of fun and meaningful Christmas books.
I keep books with the holiday decorations and we get more from the library.
A favorite this year is The Dinosaurs’ Night Before Christmas. The accompanying CD is a parody of Christmas carols with hilarious dinosaur fun. The kids love it.
I hope to do some useful crafts and homemade baking projects to share with friends this week. The kids love that and it fits in with our servant leadership goals. We don’t eat many sweets, so these are fun and frugal gifts.
Check out this Essential Guide to a Crap-Free Christmas.
Resources:
- Debt-Proof Living: How to Get Out of Debt & Stay That Way by Mary Hunt
- 31 Days to Radically Reduce Your Expenses: Less Stress. More Savings by Kalyn Brooke
- Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After by Cherie Lowe
- 31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero: Freeze Your Spending. Change Your Life. by Ruth Soukup
- Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind, and Soul by Ruth Soukup
- Clutter Free: Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space by Kathi Lipp
- The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living: How a Spending Fast Helped Me Get from Broke to Badass in Record Time by Anna Newell Jones
- The Year without a Purchase: One Family’s Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting by Scott Dannemiller
- The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders
- Make Room for What You Love: Your Essential Guide to Organizing and Simplifying by Melissa Michaels
How do you stay of debt during the holidays?
What are your priorities?
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These are some fabulous and simple ideas that would cut way back on holiday stress! I will share this! Thank you! Stopping by from Family Fun Fridays!
These are great points for putting the meaning back in Christmas. Even if you aren’t Christian you can still focus on love, family, and friends instead of things during the holiday time.
Absolutely! Thanks!
Encouraging children to make cards and decorations are my tips #merrymonday@_karendennis
Great ideas. I have been wanting to have a smaller Christmas and focus on the important things for the last several years, but every year under the tree was filled with tons of presents, half of which came from their Grandmother. She died this year and my kids are having a really hard time with the fact that there are so many fewer presents this year. Hoping to work them through this. Visiting from #AWiseWoman.
Sounds like we are kindred spirits! I feel like just my not going in stores and not watching TV we eliminate much of the pull toward the spending and more, more, more that leave me worn out and dismayed. Reading great Christmas books is one of our favorite (and free) holiday pastimes. That dinosaur book sounds like it would be a hit with my crew. Thank you for the recommendation!
We didn’t do Santa or the elf either. We had a budget which included a few gifts for each child, and I’ve asked my kids as they grew older if they ever felt like they missed out. The answer was a resounding, “NO.” Staying in a budget seemed like the right thing to do, and looking back, I have no regrets. Love this call to living within our means, even during the holidays.
I really like the way you think! Simple seems to always be the best. I also do most of my shopping online before November as well…but on occasion, I may sneak in a gift or two just before Christmas. But that’s probably because I watch the commercials LOL. This post was great thanks so much for sharing. #livelifewell
Great tips! I vowed not to put any Christmas stuff on my credit card this year and only buy what I already had the money for. So far so good!
I also paid all of my bills for December early so that I could focus and see exactly what money I had to be able to spend. I got everyone a few unique gifts rather than lots of little things.
Great post! Thank you for sharing. I know that our life has been a lot less stressful since we got rid of the credit cards and paid cash for Christmas. Next year I would like to start saving so that the cash is completely on hand without ANY stress. November is a slow work month so that means less cash in December.
Thanks for linking up @LiveLifeWell!
Blessings,
Amy
We have totally cut back on holiday spending. And since we don’t have cable tv anymore, we don’t see the ‘it’ items and that helps a lot.