Christmas will be here before you know it. Year after year, we strive to begin preparing for Christmas very early into the holiday season, usually months ahead of time. Planning and preparing the various holiday season activities and parties to attend, as well as compiling a list of those we plan to buy gifts for, buying or making Christmas cards, preparing the Christmas dinner menu and guest list, and yes, all of the shopping for budget-friendly gifts.
As Dave Ramsey says, Christmas is not an emergency – it falls on December 25 every year, so you know it’s coming.
Preparing for Christmas well ahead of time, several months in advance even, helps a lot when on a tight budget. Watching for great sales and discounts on potential gift ideas throughout the year, and saving the gifts until Christmastime arrives, is a great help with sticking to a budget and not going overboard on expenses.
Creating a gift list with everyone’s names and any initial gift ideas, along with the total cost of each gift, can sometimes create sticker shock. By the time all of the names are added up, and what you initially think will be an appropriate amount to spend on each person, can sometimes come as a shock to the budget, where trimming names off of the list might be necessary in order to avoid going over budget.
Rather than actually removing names from the gift list, reducing the total amount to be spent on each gift recipient is a good alternative solution. Christmas doesn’t have to expensive, and paying for Christmas gifts with credit cards isn’t a wise choice either, which is why planning and preparing for Christmas by saving up money for purchases many months ahead of time is our preferred option.
We put a lot of thought into what to buy for someone as a xmas gift, and oftentimes we find buying something as a gift that we know is a true “need” vs just things on a “want” list brings us the greatest pleasure during the holiday season. Fortunately for us, it hasn’t been difficult to choose a gift for anyone we buy gifts for. Many times we gather ideas of what to give friends and family simply by paying close attention to any mention of something they’re needing and hoping to buy for themselves at some point in the future, making special note of what they’re needing, and we’re able to buy the item for them as a Christmas gift before they’ve had an opportunity to get it for themselves.
Homemade gifts for Christmas, or for any other holiday or birthday celebration, are among the most unique and thoughtful gifts one can give to another. The time it takes to make handmade gifts varies of course depending on how difficult the project is, which is just one reason why making fleece throw blankets and giving them as gifts is so enjoyable, because homemade throw blankets are quick and easy gifts to make and don’t cost much money to buy the fabric, and choosing fleece fabric that matches home décor is quite easy to do.
I’m not quite sure how many throw blankets I’ll be making and giving as gifts for Christmas this year, since I had already made around 25 throws and given most of them as birthday or anniversary gifts, or my personal favorite “just because” gifts. As much as we enjoy Christmastime with all the family gatherings, parties, dinner feasts and celebrating by giving gifts at Christmas, giving gifts to those we love and adore “just because” we love them dearly is our all-time favorite.
Every year, we create a spreadsheet containing all the names of people we’ll be buying Christmas gifts for, with added columns for jotting down gift ideas, estimated costs, and for making note of when Christmas cards were mailed out and to whom. We also include a column on the spreadsheet for the date gifts were shipped to family or friends living far away, and we keep the shipping tracking information close by to ensure the gifts arrive on time and aren’t lost in the mail.
For the most part, with few exceptions, we tend to spend an equal amount of money on gifts for each person. Sometimes that might mean one person may receive one wrapped present, while another person may receive two or even three gift wrapped presents, which only means we’re keeping as close to equal spending as possible. The only real exception to that is when we’re giving gifts to very young children and grandchildren, since at their tender ages, they can only see that another child has a greater number of gifts than he/she received and hurt feelings can ensue. We prefer to avoid that misunderstanding altogether.
Grandpa and I also find it helpful to split the gift list up, where he chooses gifts for some and I pick gifts for the others, so the responsibility is shared between us and reduces the potential of stress during the holidays. We don’t necessarily split the list equally, right down the middle, but that plan works well for us. Our family is continually growing, and we have another grandchild on the way, so somewhere along the line we’ll probably have to decide on making some adjustments on who we buy for and who may have to be dropped off the gift list.
Many families find that just buying gifts for the young children works well for them and their budget, and the adults receive no gifts at all, but still enjoy the love, fellowship and family gatherings even without gifts being exchanged. There really aren’t any “rules” to gift-giving at Christmastime, nor should there be, but it sure does help to begin saving up for the next year’s Christmas shopping spree in January.
Starting to save money for Christmas very early into the new year allows us the spur-of-the-moment gift buying for those we buy for that love their gadgets and electronics, and we’ve found many discount deals on what will ultimately become a Christmas gift by buying gifts well before the so-called “Christmas shopping season”.
By then, we’re finished shopping for gifts
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