Christmas?

Question

What should I do? My dad is having oral surgery. It is going to cost $2,000. The dentist wants $800 in cash December. Every two weeks or so, the money in the checking account gets to below $100.

How can I make this Christmas merry for everyone in my family? My dad doesn't really care about the holidays, making it harder for my mom to make every one happy. My sister doesn't know yet. But my mom will probably break down and cry at some point, and I am promising myself that I won't. I don't want her to know I am disappointed. Can anyone think of anyways to make the holidays pass smoothly for my family? I'm only fifteen, can't work more than 20 hours a week because I am taking hard classes, have no experience and refuse to support the fast food industry. Are there any inexpensive crafts I could make, or activities and games we could do that require little to no money and take up a lot of time?

Yeah, I like the volunteering idea. I hadn't thought about that. I mean, I've done community service before, but I was busy being a teenager and wallowing in my own self pity for a couple of minutes.

It isn't so much the material stuff that makes me want to cry, just my mom thinking she isn't doing a good enough job, I hate seeing people upset. I HATE HATE HATE it.

My parents already have jobs, my mom works 10 hours a day, and my dad works at night.

Answer 1

How about making your Christmas merry by working to make others
Christmas merry. Serve food at your local shelter! Collect gifts for poor children. Have a give to others Christmas and let the joy in!

Answer 2

I read all the suggestions up until now and I have to say, I am impressed by the compassion and imagination your question inspired. I've been through many lean Christmases and the most important thing is the fact that you are all together. Celebrate as a family and start by doing something special and in keeping with the reason for the season. Even if you are not Catholic,a trip to the local Catholic church for midnight mass is an awesome way to start the day. When you get up, make breakfast together,each one doing one part of the meal. Even if you decide to forgo gifts for the rest of the family,the younger ones still need something to open so as the others have said,try dollar stores or homemade gifts. To show your younger siblings that it is more blessed to give than to receive, set aside a little money to buy a gift for someone at a Veteran's Hospital,children's home or nursing home and deliver it that afternoon along with some cookies and other home baked treats. Close the day with the whole family snuggled on the sofa and watch some fun Christmas themed movies. The library is one source but video stores sometimes rent their older movies or children's movies at a deep discount. Dinner doesn't have to be turkey and all the trimmings. Spagetti and meatballs or another family favorite is just as good. As long as you have each other and keep believing that things will get better, that is all that matters. Your parents must be proud to have a child as thoughtful,generous and loving as you. God bless you.

Answer 3

Go to Mom and Dad with an idea...this Christmas, let's do something different. Tell them how upset it makes you to think THEY would be upset because you kids would not have big money Christmas. Ask them if you can do a whole week of Christmas stuff in place of buying presents for everyone.

You can do a hat draw, and everyone pull a name, and then spend only 25.oo/or less/ or homemade gift per person. Every night between Christmas and New Years, plan certain events...like a game night; cookie baking night, invite your friend night; movie night; all ending up with a party on New Year's eve with your favorite dinner.

Hey, decorating the tree is a family event! Getting your friends together to help makes a party. Noise and party things going on make MOMS and DADS very happy. The more laughter and noise in the house, the happier they are knowing YOU are happy. You can find all sorts of craft ideas on the internet.

Here is one idea we used once when we did not have much money...we hid stuff and attached colored strings to follow, but we had lots of other strings attached to other gifts too. It was a room that looked like it was criss crossed in strings. You had to follow a certain color to find your gifts. that was a blast. One year we had some little gifts and a little money to give the children. We had the gifts under the tree and clues to locate the money. They had to figure out what the clues meant, and finally found the money.

Answer 4

You are blessed everyday to have your parents and I am sure that they feel the same way about you. You seem to have a big heart and you will be blessed for that. Now you could sugest to your family that you do something different this year and do what they call a Chinese Christmas. I have never done it, but every time I have heard it mentioned everyone talks about how mutch fun it is. Everyone buys only one gift and you don't have to spend much on it , buy something that could be for a male or a female. Wrap the gifts and then everyone picks a gift and the fun part comes when maybe your mom says hey you want to trade and so you trade, but then you may decide that you want what your dad has so you trade and it can go on and on. That way you haven't spent much money. None of you and your parents don't feel bad for not being able to give you big gifts. You could offer to help your mom cook. You could have a Yard Sale and get rid of some things you hardly ever use or wear. You could go to Wal-Mart and get some of those beads (lots come in a pack) and get that stretch string stuff and make braclets and maybe sell them outside of a local store (ask the owner first), but tell people you wanted to help your parents with your dads medical bills. People will buy them even if they don't want them. Good Luck to you and your family. I hope that your dads surgery goes well and I hope you have a wonderful and Blessed Christmas just being with your family is the greatest gift of all. You are a wonderful Daughter I can tell that without meeting you.

Answer 5

HI
You are a very caring and compassionate daughter, your parents are very lucky. First, I absolutely love Christmas time, but it isn't about how much money you spend, it is having family over, spending time together.

Plan the day:
- Breakfast
- Holiday movie - Make paper stockings out of gift wrap or construction paper, put inside candy bar, and buy everyone a ticket to the movies, won't be expensive and you can go to the matinee for a cheap price, or the bargain cinema. This will take up your morning and be a surprise for everyone.
Now you are ready for the holiday dinner:
Holiday dinner ~ I know our church helps those working families stretch their holiday money by giving turkey and box of trimmings to families, just sign up at your local church. You don't have to be homeless or poor, its hard making ends meet and especially during the holidays; groups and organizations know this and want to help, makes people feel good on both sides.

Then do "Secret Santa" everyone buys (1 or 3) gifts, value can be $5 to $10, bargain hunt, watch sales. Everyone wraps the gifts, mark it for unisex (either male or female), or male or female. Can be a gift certificate to video store, a shirt, slippers, you get what I mean. Now it goes in the center of the room, everyone brings out their wrapped gifts, have to be an agreed upon number that everyone brings, then you hand out pieces of paper with their number on it. This is based on the number of people participating in your family, say 1 - 6. The first person that has #1 picks from the pile, the 2nd person can steal from #1 or pick something new from the pile. This continues, after a gift has been stolen 3 times, that gift is frozen and the person who has it gets to keep it. The game ends when the person with #1 steals from someone, or if the last gift is in the pot takes it or keeps their gift.

We have played this for about 8 years and it is now a Christmas tradition, we all start watching ads in November and get some great inexpensive gifts. So utlimately you can spend $15 to $25 total per person and you will have a great time. I have even found $10 watches and books on the sale rack for $5 that were originally $25.

You will see that this will delight the day, first breakfast then the movie (if you don't want to go to the movie then pick out movies in advance, asking your family to pick their favorite and have a holiday movie showing in your family room) then dinner and then your Secret Santa.

To work up to the holidays I would recommend volunteering at the toy give away in your area, Toys for Tots or similar. String popcorn to decorate your tree.

I think you can get through this holiday for $100 if you are a family of 4, excluding the food, with Secret Santa and movies.

And if that isn't possible, just sing carols, watch TV, bake cookies or cakes and go visit friends with your homemade gift, those are most appreciated.

Most of all don't stress!!!!

Answer 6

make a photo album do charity work or a mission trip for your church.bake christmas cookies,do a gingerbread house do art,draw santa,make stuff for your family.also if you want to have presents for christmas you can send in something to your church or someplace that says you need presents for your family.cause theres this thing where people you dont know buy you presents like people at achurch or generous people.i bet that would be a good thing.you could try to tell everyone in your family not to spend that much and you could do a little babysitting.maybe you can ask your grandma or someone for help with money if they have more money than you.thats what we always do.Also try to be happy around your family to cheer them up so your mom wont break down and talk about how you are feeling with a friend.and remember this time will pass when everyone is having a hard time.

Answer 7

I have been where you are at and I'm an adult. What I have found is that everyone loves my cookies and candies more than they do the material things they get. Also if you know how to draw or paint you could do that. I also have a recipe for ornaments that is made out of flour, salt and water. You bake them let them cool and then paint them. I use cookie cutters to make them but you could do it how ever you like. These items mean more because you took the time to make them then going out and just buying something that everyone in the world is going to have. Good luck and don't let this bring you down. I know your Mom and Dad are already worried about this you shouldn't be as well.

Answer 8

Remember how the original Christmas was. It was alike what you are experiencing. The first Christmas was a Christmas of lack. There was no room in the Inn, there was no place for the Mother of Christ to give birth. There was much rejection and discomfort. Still that was the Christmas of all christmases. Christmas is not about a celebration with pomp, but a celebration that in your most emptiest moment of all forms of poverty, a light can still shine from within the heart.

So remember that this Christmas. Mark the occasion by lighting a candle at home with your mum or share a meal with your best friend who understands, listen to Traditional Christmas carol on Christmas eve, walk alone along Orchard and fill your heart with the full Spirit of Christmas. Your poverty has the greatest potential to bring you to closer to God's gift of what Christmas should be to all peoples on Earth. Merry Christmas to You.

Answer 9

Instead of spending a bunch of money on gifts, why not have the whole family volunteer a shelter or mission that day, helping the folks there to have a better Christmas? One Thanksgiving, my church's youth group spent the day at a soup kitchen, serving lunch, cleaning up, playing with the kids there, serving the evening meal, cleaning up and then going home. They all agreed it wasn't what they wanted to do every Thanksgiving, but that it was awesome experience, especially spending time with the children there. Talk about a major case of the warm fuzzies afterward!!! :)

Answer 10

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Is there an activity you like to do as a family? Maybe playing a trivia pursuit game or playing shirades with the people in your family would be a good game. You can always help others trust me it is a very rewarding feeling. If you do get a job maybe you can spend it on food and your family can have a big feast. Things will get better.