BeckyI’ll be the first to say, Christmas is my absolute FAVORITE holiday!!!! I LOVE Christmas music, the decorations, the holiday candle smells, the baked goods, the cooler weather, get-togethers with friends and family. But the stress that comes with the holidays can be summed up to the equivalent of a hangover.
There seems to be so much to get done and not enough time! So many Friendgivings, gifts to buy, baked goods to make, presents and stocking stuffers to get. Meanwhile, all I want to do is spend time with my little family.
That’s why during this holiday season, I started feeling nudges to better organize and prioritize the holidays for next year. Less stress means more time to enjoy Christmas with family! Here are 10 tips I’ve compiled to help make your finances less stressful during the holidays.
1. Budget how much you’re able to spend on gifts for Christmas in advance
My husband and I sit down in January each year and make a list of everyone we need to buy gifts for and how much we’re able to spend for the year. We take the amount we can spend on gifts and divide it by the number of people on our list.
This gives us an idea of how much we can spend on each person. For example, say you have $1000 to spend on Christmas gifts and 10 people to buy gifts for on your list. $1000/10=$100 per person.
2. Draw names for extended family
This is something my husband and I are anxious to try next year! We have 6 adults on one side of our family and 8 adults on the other side. Trying to brainstorm ideas on what to buy everyone is exhausting.
Not to mention running around to buy gifts for 14 people and the actual thought of how much we spend each Christmas buying THAT MANY GIFTS!
My husband and I have already discussed broaching the topic of drawing names for the adults on both sides of our families for Christmas 2022. If we draw names during Thanksgiving dinner, we’ll still have Black Friday and the weeks leading up to Christmas to buy a special gift for that ONE person.
3. Stop buying your children an abundance of gifts
We all want to give our children a better life than we had and that includes Christmas and the type and amount of gifts they get. The truth is, it’s not about the gifts! Christmas is to remember the birth of Jesus and celebrating that with those around us.
Does anyone else feel a “grinchness” of Christmas these days? I feel it creeping in a little more with each passing year. It seems like it needs to be bigger and better than the last. We’re all running around buying gifts for each other when we could be spending quality time with our children.
Your kids won’t remember every gift they got for Christmas! In fact, a lot of those toys will end up being given away. I’m going to make it a goal next year to spend quality time with our son making cookies, going to the Christmas boat parade, watching the light shows and decorating our tree among other things. I can already feel the stress melting away thinking of it!
4. Shop for gifts throughout the year
Make yourself a list of everyone you need to shop for as early as January. This tip is a great idea that I personally need to be better about.
Then throughout the year, when you see something you know a family member/friend would like, you can buy it and know you’ll have one less gift to buy during the holidays.
5. Save money for Christmas gifts each month using a sinking fund or a Christmas Club Account.
Imagine December rolls around and you look up and realize you have a pile of Christmas money saved up to buy all things Christmas. Dreamy, huh?!
We’ve planned ahead for Christmas by using a sinking fund a bunch of times for Christmas and it really helps avoid the stress of realizing you have NO money saved up for Christmas gifts when it’s right around the corner!
Find a copy of my downloadable Christmas sinking fund worksheet HERE.
Again, let’s say you want to spend no more than $1000 on Christmas gifts. Take that amount and divide it by the 12 months in the year ($1000/12=$83 per month). If you saved $85 (I’m rounding up to make it a more solid number) per month, you’d have $1020 by the time December came around. Lifesaving!!!
When I was younger, I remember local credit unions and banks had a program called a Christmas Club Account where you could have a certain amount of money auto-deducted on a recurring basis to go to a “Christmas fund” and you could withdraw it closer to November in time to start your Christmas shopping.
6. Save on tissue paper and ribbon
I know I seem crazy to my family, but I’m the guru of saving tissue paper and bows! When we’re opening gifts at my parent’s house, I’m the first to yell, “save the bows!” Whatever tissue paper is used to wrap my little family’s gifts, I’ll save for the next year, if it’s not torn.
Think about it.
You put a bow or tissue paper in or on a box once and throw it away. I can sincerely tell you I haven’t shopped for bows in about 5 years and I’ve only had to buy Christmas themed tissue paper ONCE in the past 5 years. I have bows I’ve used every year that are in amazing condition to this day and no one remembers what bow or tissue paper was used on their gift the previous year.
Save the bows, people!
7. Save on wrapping paper
Another tip for saving on the wrapping of your Christmas gifts is to buy tubes of brown craft paper. Once wrapped, you can fancy up your gifts with extra ribbon and bows.
In past years, I’ve even tied red and green bells I found at our local Dollar Tree to the gift tags on presents wrapped for our nieces and nephew. Imagine all the money you’d save on wrapping paper each year!
8. Be wise about your Christmas shopping
If you have a game plan for who you need to shop for in advance and what you’d like to get them, you can take advantage of the many Christmas sales that occur in November and December.
Not all of the sales are worth it to shop early, but some of them can really discount items you had already planned on buying.
9. Set a limit
Similar to the drawing of names for Christmas, another option is to set a money limit on gift purchases. Instead of it being a free-for-all where some family members go all out and break the bank for everyone’s gifts, consider putting a cap on the dollar amount you spend on each person’s gift.
We’ve never tried this personally, but I know of families that have a spending cap of $25 per person. This could really help your budget in the sense that you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need to spend for Christmas gifts in advance.
10. Give the gift of time
Coming from a new mom, the thought of someone gifting me time to do whatever my heart desires, brings tears to my eyes. I remember when we were pregnant with our baby boy and a friend told us, “you never realize how much time you waste until you have a child.”
Gone are the days of scrolling through my phone aimlessly, sleeping in on a Saturday or going out to eat with my husband on a whim.
The thought of someone gifting me time alone while they watch my child sounds incredible! Even if all I did was take a nap or cleaned my house uninterrupted, I’d consider that a win. Think breakfast in bed, a back massage, a request for your favorite cookies, an afternoon of babysitting or helping a family member with yard work.
However you decide to buy Christmas gifts this year, make a plan and take some of the stress it all away.
