Christmas- no money?!?

Question

Hello, I am a VERY big christmas person. I would put up my tree now if I could. Anyway, me and hubby just bought a house..we have a 4 month old son. Obviously, we're tight on money. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on home-made decorations, presents, things like that. Any idea's would be very appreciated! Thanks!

Answer 1

Hopefully this will help
http://crafts.kaboose.com/christmas-crafts.html

Answer 2

If you are giving to extended family and friends, food is always a big hit. People love to get home-made goodies, and I always appreciate it when I get the recipe along with it. Along those lines, you could put together a cookbook. Gather recipes from family and friends, compile them on your computer, and you could put them on a CD for everyone for only the cost of the discs. Of course, your 4 month old won't need much. We have a 5 month old, and diapers are on her Christmas list. I have a friend who has a competition with her husband--who can give the other the best gift for $5 or under. That will force you to get creative. I'm not very good at home-made decorations, but you could always shop at the Dollar Tree. It's better than nothing!

Answer 3

My daughter came up with this idea for Christmas. She is making a book about our family. She is sending a questionnaire to each family member to fill out and return. Then she is putting all the pages together so we can read how each person answered the questions. Some of the questions are funny, some are questions like, what was one of your most memorable childhood moments? What was the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you? Things like that. Most of the questions are funny but all of them really tell a lot about each person. I know I'm looking forward to seeing how everybody answered. Last year she made homemade soap and wrapped them really pretty. The best gifts are the ones that someone makes. Hope this helped you out.

Answer 4

Well my family went through that last year, but not because we bought a new house but because my father was in Iraq and the checks he were sending plus my mom's job as a teacher were just enough to eat, pay electricity and water (not enough pay for the teachers if you ask me).

All we did was, as we do every year, use the same decorations for the tree (why waste $$ on new decorations when you have perfectly new ones?) And used home made paper chains, spray on snow and glitter to decorate the house. If you don't have enough $$ for a real tree may I suggest a fake one? They're great, you can use them year after year, don't have to really care for it, no pine needles every where, doesn't turn brown! We have a big, fake one that costed $20 and we've been using it for ages! Sometimes we miss the whole pine scent, but we cheat and use a "pine forest" scent spray ;-)
Need all new decorations for the tree? 99cent store is your friend, they actually have very pretty decorations.

As for gifts, you don't have to worry much, 4 months is mighty young, he won't miss the gifts much, buy the kid a few gifts he'd like but not a mountain of them! You'd be raising him to be very materialistic and spoiled and that's not good. If your family n friends have the whole gift exchange activity, tell them if you could skip it this year or exchange cookies or cards instead, we did that last year and they didn't mind.
I suggested my mom that we give our delicious home made cookies away as gifts in 99cent jars we bought at the dollar store and a card along with it (the card had the recipe and ingredients written in it)

We didn't pay a lot attention to the gifts, paid more attention to Christmas dinner, and invited loads of family and a couple of our friends whose husbands, wives, sons or daughters were along with my father in Iraq, they were in a similar situation, little $$.
Actually we did a little activity where we all arranged boxes full of goodies to send out to our soldiers, we sent our dad a box of goodies he couldn't get his hands on. Coffee, cake, cookies, puerto rican candies, cards we made, and we all chipped in to buy him an Ipod nano and sent it to him.

I had to talk to my brother as to how santa couldn't bring many gifts this year and to ask for only what he really wanted and if it was expensive it was all he could ask for. We did well and had a nice Christmas, my brother got a ps2 game, i got a $20 gift card to hot topic, and had a good Christmas.
(only good because my dad wasn't with us and was miserable in Iraq)


Hope your Christmas turns out to be full of joy, fun, fond memories and time with family.

Answer 5

Did this when I had been laid off for 3 months one year - buy $1 tins and fill it with homemade goodies. I bought packs of candles 4 for a dollar, and put them in baskets with holiday towels and useful household items, and cookie mix. Each basket costs between 5-10 dollars, and everyone loved it. Food is a good thing to give to the person who already has everything - it's consumable.

Answer 6

I am in exactly the same boat this year - We talked to our family about only buying gifts for the kids- I am going to decorate with last years ornaments - and lots of lights and red bows (sounds cheesey but it turns out beautiful and the ribbon can be found at wal-mart - it is really big red velvet with wire edges).
We are just making Christmas food the emphasis instead of gifts. Making cookies instead of shopping trips etc.

Answer 7

Besides looking at making your own decorations, you can go to your local thrift shops. Right now, they are full of really nice decorations starting at ten cents and go up to a few dollars. Personally, I would rather buy them at a thrift shop, knowing the money is going to good causes and helping homeless people, than spending the money to make your own decorations. Either way, have a great holiday season!

Answer 8

You can always venture to the Salvation Army. There are lots of things there you can make brand new again and give as gifts. They also have a good selection of used Christmas decorations, sometimes you can find collectible ones there for really cheap! Don't turn your nose up to the idea...and don't share the secret! :)

Answer 9

Re gifting, I suggest you call the people with whom you normally exchange gifts and ask if they would like to not exchange gifts this year. I find that most people are very very happy to not have to buy for others as well as receive gifts they have no need for. Then a card will suffice. We did that with immediate and extended families and find that it is still a wonderful celebration without the material things. Plus you will raise your child with non material values as he will not be used to piles of presents that soon end up in the garbage.

Answer 10

Have a Christmas that doesn't require money. Bake cookies, make fudge, listen to your favorite Christmas music together, watch favorite Christmas specials like Charlie Brown or whatever you like. Just interact and appreciate each other.

Answer 11

A friend's family does not exchange purchased gifts at all -- they have to make or recycle gifts.

They regift -- passing along toys, holiday dresses for the children, gift cards and 'office' gifts. Garage sale finds are celebrated -- and EVERYONE knows what a deal it was.

They create gifts -- sew throw pillows, knit/crochet a scarf, scrapbook pages/ photo albums, photograph/paint/draw family members, write stories starring family members and pets, collect and share family recipes, document family history.

They gave time -- gift 'certificates' for TIME were shared. They used to laugh that one brother was a terrible painter , so one year his 'gift' was that two of his siblings 'helped' paint a room.