Christmas

[Gruntina]

Re: Christmas

There is a chance I will be laid off in Dec or Jan so I am not planning any Christmas shopping. Instead I am planning free events to take family and friends during the holiday season. I live in an area conjested with cities (Bay Area) and many cities have free events going on and will do research and planning in advance. I will make the best out of it with a goal to have wonderful memories and quality time with my friends and family.

[PauletteGoddard]

Re: Christmas

I may get my boy a share of Union Pacific.
For the man maybe a massage.
For my gift-exchanging friends (all long distance) I rely on their Amazon lists.
For the in-laws, niece and nephew, stepmom I'll have to ask.

I am hoping to spend no more than $400 on Xmas this year (includes cards, postage).

[geojen]

Re: Christmas

We haven't started shopping or saving, but it is on my mind. We are planning on using the 200 bucks we should in cash back rebates from citi cards on presents for the family. We want to spend about 300-400 on each other, as last year we only got to spend 50 and it really sucked. We don't buy gifts for each other any other time of the year, so we really like to spoil each other over Christmas. I'll start putting away as much extra cash as possible on Sept 15.

[Ima saver]

Re: Christmas

[Wealthizfreedom]

Re: Christmas

We draw names out of a hat at thanksgiving so we don't need to buy everybody something just 1. We then all buy gifts for the nieces and nefews and for our parents. We have everything done except for 2 of the 4 N & N's and the pick. We all have too much junk already anyway so we try to buy for hobbies and experiences... we are taking our parents to the theatre on Christmas eve. Paid for months ago!

[debtfreeme]

Re: Christmas

we also draw names from a hat. i always get the hard person to shop for and i hate that! I have gotten her three years in a row. I told my sister that this year i want to pick someone else for a change! at least she has loved the things i have found.

[Ima saver]

Re: Christmas

Well, it is september, christmas is getting closer!

[cashqueen]

Re: Christmas

We have too many to buy for. I wish DH's family would be open to a 'pick a name' thing or just make it children only. I have all the money saved so at least nothing will be charged this year. The problem is that everyone is so damn hard to buy for. I can't really shop in advance because I don't know what everyone wants. Because we travel at Christmas we tend to do alot of gift cards. Soo boring. DH haven't bought each other gifts in years. He only wants bass pro gift cards and I can't ever think of anything I want/ need. I'm not sure what we'll get our son. A few small things and a deposit in his savings acct. Especially since I don't want to haul or ship any more crap than we have to back home.

[cashqueen]

Re: Christmas

Gee, I really didn't mean for my last post to sound so Bah Humbug. I love the family part of Christmas and hate the gift part.

[melissalt]

Re: Christmas

We have a very small Christmas list since we don't buy for siblings or parents (nor do we want gifts from them); we just buy for the kids. We already have our nieces' gifts, and our two nephews are very easy since one is a baby and the other is just plain easy to buy for! We haven't started with our kids yet though. The youngest will be super easy and inexpensive, but the two older kids are always difficult and more expensive.

We also don't buy gifts for each other. We're both suckers for kids, so we pick tags from things like the Salvation Army Angel Tree and buy gifts for those kids instead. We figure the gifts will mean far more to them than gifts would mean to us. We also wait for a great snowy day near Christmas and take the day off to go shopping downtown while our son is in school. Apart from Christmas Eve, that is probably our favorite day of the season.

[TinyFish]

Re: Christmas

Well, I haven't started. I'm somewhere in between my Sister (who every year seems to be done earlier, I think she will be done by halloween) and my inlaws (who always wait until Christmas Eve, fight the crowds and then wonder why their gifts don't get to us by mail in time!). I guess everyone has their own way of doing things.

I've floated the idea of a round robin with my family this year. See what everyone thinks. I know my sister wanted to try that with her inlaws the last few years but they shot her down. She's going to be busy with her MIL in a nursing home this year, so maybe we can make things easier on OUR side at least by going to that method. Plus it might be fun to really concentrate on one person, though whoever picks my Sister's husband, or to a lesser extent my Dad, will have a hard time, he's very hard to shop for!

Here are my money saving tips for Christmas:

Wrapping gifts across the miles: Since I have to send gifts cross country and I order most of them online, I save on wrapping charges by sending all but her own gifts directly to my sister unwrapped (they usually celebrate at her house). She pops them in gift bags for me. I buy her an extra present with the savings. That way I don't feel like I'm wasting tons of money on the indifferent wrapping offered by most companies.

Cards as tags: For gifts I do wrap, I use the fronts of last years Christmas cards as oversized tags. This is a great way to get rid of the guilt associated with throwing them out recycles and saves a little money. This looks fantastic, btw, people rave about my 'expensive designer tags'. And since it can often take the place of a bow, it makes it easier if you have to ship packages, or carry a big stack. You can use the whole card, or trim around an outline, etc. Then write the 'to' and 'from' on a space on the front of the card or on the back. Every year, I drop this year's cards into a paper bag in with the wrapping things. Works for other cards too for birthdays and things. Sure, you don't save more than a few bucks, but trust me, it looks a million times nicer than the tags you buy. Recycling is great! Maybe I'll post some pics of what I mean when the holidays roll around.

Just don't do what my husband did, he just cut the cards into 4 pieces! So everyone got 1/4 of Santa's face or 1/4 of a tree or whatever! Then he folded them in half for some reason. Not sure how he misunderstood after seeing me do them for years, but I set him straight on it at last! Also got him to stop doubling over and stapling my good gift bags shut. The idea is to make it look pretty, Dear, not like you are taking out the kitty litter!

Great to be Debt Free: Sounds like a great excuse to make hubby do all the cards, if they embarrass you. OK, mister, you picked em, you do the cards so everyone knows whose taste is consulted here! Of course, I think the card sounds kinda amusing and will make a great story! Heh heh.

-E!

[shengmei]

Re: Christmas

This year would be the frist year that we are financially stable enough to celebrate a Christmas.

I can't wait.

[funnyvalentine]

Re: Christmas

I haven't' really started but they boyfriend's birthday is early November, so first thing first...got him a gift certificate to an herb farm nearby and bought a bunch of different iris rhizomes to plant around the new house he's building. He's easy; the challenge is buying for some of my employees who I don't know really well. One year we did gift certificates to nice restaurants, which went over really well.

[rob62521]

Re: Christmas

Also got him to stop doubling over and stapling my good gift bags shut. The idea is to make it look pretty, Dear, not like you are taking out the kitty litter!



-E!

Cute!

[Ima saver]

Re: Christmas

I siwitched to gift bags two years ago, and I love them. I just reuse them every year and don't have to wrap anything!!