Can you believe it is October and the holidays are right around the corner. With the rising price of gas, utilities, groceries, etc. the questions is: What is a family to do? It’s hard to make the holidays happy without the necessary resources. But, there is a way. The holidays are not about who gets the most gifts. It’s about spending quality time with family and friends. I know we cringe every year when the Christmas decorations come out earlier and earlier. This is actually a good thing to happen if you take advantage of it.

With the onset of Christmas decorations in retail stores, it should start your wheels turning to begin planning for Christmas. This is the time to start your shopping. I typically start my shopping in January right after Christmas and I watch for the clearance sales all year long and start stashing away the gifts. This is the best way to shop. However, not everyone is like me.

Start with writing down a list of people that you need to buy for (or make a gift for) and begin to fill it in. Watch for the sales both in the newspaper and Online. A lot of stores still price match and as consumers we need to take advantage of this offer. Most of the time people do not bother with this. But, my dad always said “pennies make dollars” and he was right.

Our society is obsessed with convenience. We’d rather pay for the convenience instead of doing it ourselves. Convenience has a price. We all pay for certain conveniences. As long as we realize this, we have no one to blame on some of these things, but ourselves.

When my kids were little I took advantage of lay-a-way. That way I could pay everything off before Christmas over time and not go into huge debt. Lay-a-way does still exist. Walmart I believe offered it last year and most likely will offer it again this year in light of the state of the economy.

Now that my kids are older, I try to come up with different themes and ideas each year. Just to make Christmas fun and add a little twist. I did a vintage Christmas one year and I purchased them Christmas sweaters with their favorite toys on them from when they were kids. Everyone received a new Christmas T-shirt or sweater and I purchased one of the toys they had when they were younger. One year I did a scavenger hunt where they had to find their presents and follow the clues. One year, they had to figure out what their elf names were. The next year I should have tagged their presents with their elf names…. :-), but I was nice, I didn’t. It’s always fun for grandma to come up with goofy things to make everyone laugh. They never know what I’ll be coming up with. I know the suspense is killing them for this year…. ha ha ha..

With tight finances and the current state of the economy maybe we should try shopping at thrift stores. Let’s help all the thrift stores that try to do good and help others. For example The cancer Discovery Thrift stores, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Humane Society thrift stores, etc. Did you know that toward the end of the fiscal year a lot of businesses donate a lot of new items to these stores to take advantage of the tax write offs? You can purchase new items at these stores as well and help those in need. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Sharing and Caring?

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I’ve been known to leave my Christmas tree up all year. It reminds me that we are suppose to share the love of Christ all year round and not just in December.

There are a lot of people who do not like Christmas. This saddens my heart. You hear talk about Christmas being too commercialized. We have a choice on how we choose to celebrate Christmas. It all starts with us and within our own homes. It is the birth of Christ. Christ has commanded us to love one another. Sharing the love of God is 365 days a year 24/7. Is it easy? NO. Is it challenging? Sometimes. It’s the Spirit of Christmas that is abounding. If you pay attention, people are more caring, loving and giving at this time of year. This is what is supposed to be happening all year. Sometimes we just need to do better.

Christmas and the holidays are what you choose to make it.

I choose to make it fun. I choose to make memories for my kids and grand kids for years to come. I choose to keep coming up with different ideas year after year till I can’t anymore And I choose to try to consistently share the love of God everyday with those I come in contact with.

Here are a few other ideas for Christmas celebrations and parties:

1. Have a white elephant gift exchange with the adults. You can wrap up something from your house and re-gifting is allowed. Mark it for a male or female. Then you number the gifts and make duplicate numbers. When your number is called, you can pick a gift or steal a gift from someone who has already drawn. It’s fun to see what others wrap up and bring. We all have things laying around the house. Why not have fun with it.
2. Exchange names for the gift exchange to cut down on the number of gifts that you need to buy. You can do this for the kids as well. They can draw names and this gives them the opportunity to pick out a gift for the child’s name they picked. It let’s them share in the gift of giving.
3. Make gifts for everyone or enlist your friends to help you. It’s an opportunity to get together and use everyone’s gifts & talents to bring a smile to someone’s face by making home made presents.
4. Make a photo album for people or order a larger print and frame a family photo or photos of the kids. These are gifts loved ones will cherish.
5. Have the kids make a picture and frame it for the grandparents.
6. Visit various websites to get ideas that will get your wheels turning on how you can economically celebrate Christmas.
7. POST your Christmas ideas here and share what you have done to celebrate with others. Now is the time to begin planning quietly for Christmas.
8. May the peace of God be with you and your loved ones this upcoming Christmas season. Merry Christmas!