Yes, we are in the middle of a hot record breaking summer {in Kennesee anyway} but it's already starting, at least for me. I love giving gifts and can really get carried away if I let myself. I love the Christmas season. It's always been one of my favorite times of year. Getting a tree, making cookies for friends, sending out the yearly letter & family photo, decorating the house & esp making and/or buying gifts for those that I love. However the list of people that I love has grown over the years and my budget for Christmas hasn't grown at the same rate. It can really get overwhelming especially when things are left until the last minute and I'm a procrastinator so that happens often.This year I'm going to start planning early so I'm not as overwhelmed and am able to stick to a realistic budget that won't add to our debt or cut into our monthly expenses. Because of all the siblings my parents decided a few children back that we would draw names for gift exchange rather than give everyone a gift. My dad, step mom, siblings & grandmother all get thrown into a bowl on little pieces of paper and it's left up to chance who we buy a gift for. There are 16 people on the list this year and I'm the only child who has children. I can just imagine how large that list will be someday if we continue the tradition. Two new additions to the list are my littlest brother Elijah & my new brother in law Jake. We set a limit of $20 - $50 so no one breaks the bank and everyone gets a nice gift. Part of the gift is also homemade, sometimes the larger part and sometimes something as small as a card. My siblings really enjoy this part. Michael will be old enough to make his own contribution to his drawn name this year. I usually do something scrap related for my part. I figured that even with us now having four names drawn I will still spend less than I would if I bought for everyone on the list.
This year will be different with my hubby deployed. I'll be spending a couple weeks at my parents house so I won't get a tree for our house and won't purchase new decorations beyond the yearly ornament for the kids. I will still send out the yearly letter & photo. We also have other family members to purchase gifts for but this year I have shipping costs to think about. So I'll just need to keep it in mind when shopping. Last year I wrote out a list of who we would purchase gifts for, gift ideas & spending limits for each person. It worked out pretty well so I'll do the same again, but probably cutting down the list some.
For me Christmas is more about spending time with family, carrying out traditions & celebrating the birth of Jesus. Giving gifts is just something that I enjoy doing but don't want to be obsessed over it. If I don't get someone a Christmas gift I can enjoy splurging on them for their birthday, within reasonable limits of course!
How do you plan for the big holiday? Is your focus on gift giving, family traditions, both? If you live away from immediate family members how do you give gifts? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful to me & I'm sure others reading. From the stats at the end of the year overspending at the holiday is a nationwide issue. By the way, there are only 137 days left until Christmas. The year is almost 3/4 of the way over - where has the time gone? As the day nears closer & I get my plans set and shopping started I'll post more about this so we can all exchange thoughts & ideas. For now enjoy the sunny weather & flip flops!
♥
9 comments:
Ooh...I love Christmas too. It's my favorite time of the year as well!!
Good for you for planning ahead. I always say I'm going to start buying gifts way ahead of time, but it never works out that way!!
I love spending time with family and giving gifts as well. What my family has been doing over the last few years is instead of drawing names and buying each other gifts...one person every year chooses a charity and we all go in on that. The grand-kids pull names and still get gifts, but the adults do this instead. One year we gave a food hamper to a needy family in our community and last year we did those shoeboxes. We have also talked about newborn kits too. My brother is in charge of it this year, so we'll see what he picks. It's a neat new tradition.
Plus...the person who chooses the charity that we participate in also gets to choose what's for Christmas dinner!!
I have to get started next month. I can not believe this year is almost over!
Linda
YAY CHRISTMAS! Truly my fav time of year! Well, really I love the holiday season, to me thats pretty much everything after labor day ;-) I don't get together much with family other than the moms, but just having to schedule stuff with the custody of 3 kids and one full time, that is time filling enough! I do like doing stuff with friends though, that to me, is better than family - ok - better than MY family ;-) I will be getting started shopping soon this year though, we really need to be more selective with what we get our kids. They get so many little misc. toys from the grammas that I need to make sure what we get them doesnt just end up at the bottom of the overfilled toy box!
OH and was that notgettingCERTAINpeoplestuffsoicansplurgeontheirbirthdays crack about me?! It's ok if that means you come see me :-D
i get paid twice a month and have decided that i am going to start buying one christmas present every paycheck from now till christmas. Then I won't have to spend it all at once and live on ramen noodles and beanie weenies until the middle of january!
Ugh, don't remind me! I love Christmas, but I LOATHE winter, so I'm just going to pretend it's still forever away -- at least until the leaves start falling!!
Thanks for the reminder.it is never to early to start planning for christmas. The more prepared you are, the more fun christmas is I find. I'm sorry your hubby will not be with you for christmas time and though its no the same thing, all my family (parents, brother, sisters, friends etc)live far away so I know what its like to have loved ones so far away at this special time of year. This year I intend to make all gifts so I need to get started now and I want to research this some new traditions as I want to start some new memeories for my kids that hopefully will last a lifetime.........wow I need to get started NOW
I love Christmas!! Thanks for the reminder that it is coming up sooner than we think!! We also draw names in our family. It saves a lot of money and helps us to not get so caught up in the craziness of shopping. We work hard to try to remember the reason for the season. It seems like Jesus gets lost in the frantic pace of the holiday season. Its nice to slow down and find ways to make Christmas worshipful and enjoyable!
Wow I can't believe it's that close!
I am afraid that Christmas to me means being another year older..I am a Christmas Eve baby.
Christmas doesn't seem the same to me now that the kids are older..all of you with little ones cherish your Christmas as it doesn't stay like that for ever unfortunately.
Only 137 days?! Where does the time go?
I guess I should try to consider now what I can do for Christmas. I'm sure that we won't be able to do the things we've done in the past, because of money issues, but I'm sure I can think of something to make is special.
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