Rethinking Christmas!

 

This year I want to challenge you to think outside the box a bit when it comes to celebrating Christmas so you don’t break the bank and end up with a giant credit card bill come January.  In my opinion, a huge bill is no way to start out a new year.  Instead, let’s get excited about the holidays with no buyer’s remorse.

 

Have The Talk! 

Have a discussion with your family (the Thanksgiving table may be the perfect venue) about scaling back on the gift giving, not just on how much one should be spending, but also on the quantity of gifts you are giving.  Explain your “why”.  Let everyone know that times are tough right now (no one will argue that point) and that you are paying off debt or you are saving for something important. 

Instead focus on experiences, traditions and of course, the food.  As we have looked back over the years at previous holidays we never seem to remember the gifts we were given, but we always remember wonderful food we ate and the fun things we did.  When it comes to the gifts we give our children set a modest budget and stick to it.  I also love this idea – Something you want, something you need, something to wear & something to read.  Simple, easy and more than plenty.

 

Make It A Challenge! 

Nothing fires people up and gets them excited more than a good ol’ challenge.  Whether the challenge is homemade gifts only, food gifts only, experience gifts only, $5 gifts, $10 gifts, white elephant gifts or whatever you decide a challenge can be a fun and exciting part of your holidays this year.  Instead of giving a gift to everybody outside of your immediate family consider drawing names instead or host a gift exchange where everyone brings a single gift.  Rules can vary and “stealing” may or may not be allowed.

 

Shop Your Home First! 

Before you go shopping for baking ingredients or food for holiday meals go through the freezer, fridge and pantry and pull out everything you already have.  Then make a list and fill in the blanks.  Pull out all of the crafts supplies you have squirreled away in drawers and closets and finally put them to good use.  Look at items around your house, even in the garage, and consider re-gifting them to someone you know would enjoy them.  Or, finally get some of those photos on your phone printed up and give them to your loved ones.

 

Decorate! 

Pull out all of that holiday décor and get busy decorating your home.  Most of us will agree that we have way too many holiday decorations and tangled strings of lights.  Challenge yourself to use only what you already have instead of buying new things this year.  Maybe now is a good time to downsize and consolidate what you have and share some of the overflow with others.  Trade your extra string of lights or box of ornaments for a “new” (to you) wreath for your front door.  Make trimming the tree a party event this year.  Consider playing holiday music or streaming a favorite Christmas movie while you decorate.  Kevin!!!!

 

Wrap It Up! 

Chances are pretty good you already have everything you need to wrap gifts, make your own cards or give away homemade cookie plates on a plain paper plate covered in Saran wrap with bow on top.  Every year my next door neighbor gives me a loaf of her delicious pumpkin bread wrapped in foil with a bow on top.  I love it!  One year we received an assortment of cookies on a tray that was made out of a shoe box lid.  Clever!  If you’ve been saving cookie or popcorn tins over the years now is the time to use them up and give them away. 

When it comes to gift wrapping you don’t necessarily need it to be Christmas specific either.  Plain paper will work just fine.  I personally love the look of brown paper with red ribbon so go ahead and cut up that paper grocery bag taking up residence in the bottom of your pantry and put it to work.  Use aluminum foil or colorful tissue paper to wrap small gifts and tie with a ribbon or length of yarn.  Make your own gift tags too.

 

Keep It Simple! 

Keeping it all very simple and basic not only reduces stress, but it also makes the holidays much more enjoyable.  One of our traditions is to drive around on Christmas Eve and look at the lights people have put up on their houses.  One year it was a full moon out so we just bundled up and walked our neighborhood.  It was so quiet and beautiful, downright enchanting.  When we got home I made hot cocoa for everyone and then we scuttled off to bed before Santa arrived.

 

Scaling back and keeping things simple won’t put a damper on the festivities in fact it may be quite the opposite.  You will mostly likely introduce new experiences, new traditions and make a lot of memories along the way.  Your bonus is that there won’t be a big bill waiting for you in January.

 

 

Afghans For Christmas

 

I had one of those zippered vinyl bags that comforter sets come in stuffed full with skeins of yarn I had accumulated from thrift stores for 99¢ a skein.  Over the years I'd used that yarn to make a variety of projects which left me with a lot of odds and ends.  In the spirit of a very thrifty Christmas I decided to pull out all of my yarn and see what I could do with it.  I began by making winter scarves for each one of my daughters and one for my oldest's boyfriend.  I had hardly made a dent in my stash.

 

They loved the color combinations

It quickly became apparent I had enough yarn to make another, much bigger project so I got busy and made a pile of granny squares.  Granny squares are my favorite way to use up odds and ends of yarn leftover from other projects.  By the time I had finished I was thrilled and surprised to find I had made enough squares to put together two afghans for my girls as Christmas gifts.  I laid out the squares and then handstiched them all together.  Then I added a binding to each afghan.  And thanks to some Amazon boxes I was able to get them all wrapped up last month to tuck under the tree.

 

For a thrifty Christmas we sure had a lot of gifts under this tree

Using up all of this yarn made for some extreme decluttering too. Now all of my yarn fits into a small plastic bin and the comforter bag has been retired.  I think the afghans turned out very pretty and they are super soft and cozy.  The girls seemed quite pleased with them and the large size is perfect for some serious snuggling to stay warm or to lay over their beds at night.  They will enjoy these for many years to come.

 

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

Last Sunday was one of those days spent doing little odds and ends around the house.  In fact, my whole week was pretty much like that, but by the time all was said and done I'd tidied up, decluttered, shredded, planned, prepared, cooked and even fit in working on a craft project.  Not sad about my productivity this past week at all.

 

I only had a four day work week, which was very nice, and I only have a four day work week this week too.  My oldest came home on Thursday for Christmas and stayed for three days before leaving early yesterday morning to drive down to Salt Lake City where her boyfriend lives and attends college.  We haven't seen much of her this semester so it was very nice to have her home, even if it was only for a few days.

 

Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent visiting, doing our nails, watching loads of Christmas movies and listened to a lot of Christmas music.  Not to mention all the wonderful meals we shared.  The gifts we exchanged were simple and well thought out.  I was so touched by the sweet things my daughters got for me - candles, tea, lotions & potions, a bottle of wine.  And they loved their gifts as well, which included homemade winter scarves, a new handmade crocheted afghan, art supplies and stockings filled with all kinds of useful goodies.  It was all absolutely perfect right down to the falling snow that gave us a white Christmas.

 

THINGS WE ATE LAST WEEK:  Some leftovers from the week before, pasta alfredo & shrimp, grilled cheese sandwich & tomato soup (twice), clam chowder, glazed ham.

 

THINGS I CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS: 

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - Cleaned mirrors, vacuumed & mopped floors, washed rug.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Kitchen & Dining Room - Bleached sink, vacuumed & mopped floors.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - Cleaned mirror, vacuumed & dusted, mopped bathroom floor, washed rug.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - One large load of laundry.  Vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & mopped both entryways.

 

THINGS I DID TO SAVE A SMALL BUNDLE OF $$:  I didn't do any shopping last week.  I cut open a tube of face cream so I could use up every last bit.  My oldest gave me a great haircut.  We did our own holiday manicures at home.  Such fun!

 

THINGS I DID TO EARN EXTRA $$:  Worked a little bit of overtime.

 

How was your thrifty week?

 

 

A Super Thrifty Christmas This Year

 

I have been really nervous about pulling off Christmas this year.  Although we have never been a family that enjoys an extravagant or expensive holiday I still wanted to make it a nice day for my girls.  Earlier this year I was excited because I was going to double our modest budget and buy my girls some things I knew they would need and enjoy in their adult lives.  But then all hell broke loose in April and instead of having a$200 Christmas budget I had no budget at all.

 

I love this thing and I'm super happy I made the investment

While I was home on medical leave I wasn't sure when I would return to work or what our financial future would hold.  One thing I did have was some time on my hands so I grabbed my yarn bin and I got to work.  I started making gifts using items I already had on hand.  Earlier in January I had done some post Christmas clearance shopping as well as shopping at a few thrift stores.  I am super glad that I did because I was able to restock my gift box and because of that I was able to put together quite a few gifts for my girls and my friends.  Then I wrapped them up all pretty with boxes, wrapping paper, tissues and bows I already had on hand in my gift wrap organizer.  I didn't need to purchase a single new thing for gifts this year.

 

Handcrafted Christmas cards

Like in years past I made all of the greeting cards I planned to send out and used stamps I had leftover from last year to mail them.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving I typed up our annual Christmas letter and used some white linen resume paper I had in my stash to print it out on.  I used mailing labels I already had on hand to print out the addresses as well as my return address with a cute Christmas motif.  Then I tucked the letters in some of the cards I send to family.  Once that was done I got all my cards addressed and stamps on them.  I used Christmas stickers from my stash to affix to the envelope flaps and they were ready to mail out.

 

Cocoa crinkles

I mentioned yesterday our Christmas menu plan this year and I'm thrilled that the majority of what we need is already in our house.  I will need a few, very few, fresh produce items and that is it.  Everything else we have.  And I won't need to buy anything this month for baking.  I do have a few food gifts in mind such as fudge, using leftover stuff from last year, and cookies to bake, using items from last year and a  few things I picked up on sale last month.  Other than that we are good to go.

 

Christmas Eve 2018

Without a doubt it is a huge relief to me to know that I was able to still pull off Christmas while keeping  our bills paid with half the year of no or part time income and remain debt free in the process.  It has been a tough year, but in retrospect it has also been a good year.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself making things from my craft stash as well as from items found on clearance racks and in thrift stores.  It was a true joy.  We'll enjoy a lovely Christmas and feel very blessed in the process.

 

Christmas Menu Plans

 

We are going back in time to resurrect one of our old Christmas holiday meal plans.  This year we are doing a ham and surprisingly my girls are really excited about it.  We haven't done ham for Christmas in a good long time so this is going to be a welcome change for us.

 

Cranberry Glazed Ham

Cheddar Potatoes

Baked Beans

Cabbage Salad

Biscuits & Butter

Gingerbread

Wine & Sparkling Cider

 

At Thanksgiving we talked about our Christmas menu plans and I could not believe how excited they were about this ham and all of the things we could do with the leftovers.  They are super excited to make my grandma's ham salad.  It really is the simple things in life, you know?  I would love to hear what is on your menu plan for Christmas this year.

 

 

Food Gifts For Christmas

 

With all of the supply chain issues and blank spaces on the grocery store shelves these days I think food gifts are much more welcome and appreciated.  Food doesn't just fill our stomachs, it gives us warmth, comfort and a sense of security and wellbeing.  What a tremendous gift we can give in the form of food.

 

A case of oranges or an assortment of fresh fruit

I was thinking a lot about this and how during war times and the Great Depression food gifts were really special.  The opportunity to give and receive something extra that you wouldn't normally buy for yourself.  Or to get more of something you really enjoy.  So I came up with a list of food gift ideas we can give to our friends and loved ones.

 

Wine - a nice bottle or two to enjoy with dinner or a bottle of champagne to ring in the New Year

Beer - a six pack of a favorite brew or something from a local brewery.  Add some nuts or pretzels

Charcuterie boards - a nice selection of meats & cheeses with a box of fancy crackers

Pasta - pair up some bowtie pasta with a jar of alfredo sauce or a package of linguine with a nice marinara.  Add some parmesan romano cheese and a loaf of French bread

Soup - an assortment of canned soups or make your own dry mix in a jar.  Add bread, rolls or biscuits.  Oyster crackers are nice too

Bread - homemade breads or rolls with a jar or two of jam

Nuts - assortment of nuts, cashews, peanuts

Hot Beverages - cocoa packets, K cups, ground coffee, teas.  Add in some mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, coffee creamer or cream, a honey bear

Baking mixes - a nice assortment of cake, brownie & cookie mixes with some sprinkles and chocolate chips.  Add in a carton of eggs & a bottle of oil.  Cookie cutters and cupcake papers too

Breakfast - sausages or bacon, a carton of eggs, pancake mix & syrup, English muffins, jam & butter.  Granola or their favorite cereal with milk is a good option too

Oils - a bottle of olive oil, avocado oil, sesame oil or a flavored oil; do a combination

Popcorn - microwave popcorn, microwave kettle corn, sodas or flavored sparkling waters to wash it all down.  Add in some theatre size boxes of candy

Pie & ice cream

Ice Cream, cones & toppings

 

I'm sure I'm just hitting the tip of the iceberg and you'll be able to come up with all kinds of ideas yourself.  You can make so much of this stuff yourself too.  Just think of things your loved ones enjoy and go for it.  Fill up a box, basket, bag or bucket and have fun with it.  I want to hear what you come up with.

 

It's Nothing New

 

Last week I went back through perusing my old Thanksgiving and Christmas posts.  I pretty much talk about the same things year after year.  The reason, of course, is because these are our traditions.  And my family wouldn't have it any other way.

 

Throughout the year we deal with a lot of change.  Changes at school, our jobs, in our daily lives.  So when the holiday roll around we don't want to change much.  We just want to settle in to the old familiar routines of celebrating the holidays.  We pretty much decorate the same way with the same stuff, listen to the same music and eat the same foods.  It's what we love and what we know we can count on.

 

With all the crazy that has been our world of late it is pretty wonderful to know that Thanksgiving will be Thanksgiving and all things Christmas will still be Christmas.  We'll still eat good food, bake a lot of the same cookies, put up a tree with all those treasure ornaments and spend time together.  With a few little tweaks here and there, but for the most part, it's really nothing new.  And that is how it should be.

 

Christmas Gifts This Year

 

I haven't posted much about Christmas preparations or gifts this year.  I love to make, purchase and give gifts to my family and my friends.  With all that has gone on in the world the past two years and with our family personally we've put a lot more thought into what is truly important to us these days.  I can tell you right now, it isn't objects.  It's time spent with our loved ones. 

My very best friend is in the end stages of ovarian cancer.  She has been fighting this battle for five years now and it is truly a miracle that she was able to.  Initially she was given six months, but her positive attitude and flat out determination has allowed her to have more time with her family and her friends.  But, she's grown weary and the cancer is winning.  None of us, including her, have ever been under the notion she could beat this.  She just wanted as much time as the Lord was willing to allow.  We are blessed for the time she has been able to have and as she and I have discussed, there is more that awaits us beyond the here and now. 

The truest treasures in our lives are the people in them.  Quality time spent together making memories.  Laugh a lot.  Hug each other.  Don't let the opportunity to say "I love you" pass by.  Spread joy.  Lend a helping hand.  Put aside your differences.  Forgive.  Decorate.  Light candles.  Bake cookies and share them with others.  Give to a charity or the food pantry.  Smile at strangers.  Hold the door open.  Say hello.  Be kind.

The greatest gift we can give others is the best parts of us.

 

A Quick Little Christmas Gift

 

While I was at my hotel I got an idea for a cute little gift for my girls.  All three have us "go bags".  The idea behind them is to have enough supplies gathered together for us to grab and head out the door and keep us going for a 72 hour period of time.  Now these bags can serve a variety of purposes.  A quick weekend trip out of town, an unexpected hospital stay, the need to leave home due to a mechanical issue such as the heat goes out or a tree lands on your roof, or even the dreaded zombie apocalypse.  At least you have enough necessities to hold you over until you can make better arrangements.

 

I picked up A LOT of tiny bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion and other toiletries while I was staying at the hotels during my latest adventure.  The ones I collected were nice brands of really great smelling soaps and lotions that I really liked.  And it made me think my girls would like some of these too.  And then I thought, how about if I put some of these into containers for their go bags.

 

I picked up a couple packages of these plastic snack/food storage containers at Dollar Tree and they worked perfectly.  I placed a shampoo, a conditioner and a lotion in each one and the lid snapped tight over them just right.  The containers have seals on the lids to keep them from leaking which is nice, especially with soaps that can get all over everything.  I plan to tuck one into each of the girls stockings and I made one for myself too to resupply my go bag now that I am home.  Love it! 😍

 

Use It Up! - Yarn Projects

 

I had amassed a large amount of yarn that I'd picked up at thrift stores for 99¢ a skein whenever I had come across it.  The zippered bag that my bed set had come in was what I was using to store it all and it was FULL and about to bust at the seams.  I also had a gallon sized Mason jar filled with little yarn balls leftover from various projects I had completed over the years.  In January I started using some of my stash to make winter scarves to give as Christmas gifts which left me with more balls of leftover yarn.  I decided it was high time to bust this stash and get it used up!

 

I think I have finally mastered the granny square.  For one they are square.  I've not always managed to make pretty granny squares in the past, but this time all forty three of the twelve inch squares I just made are perfectly square.  Yay!  And pretty too.  Fortunately most of my yarns were all the same complimentary color palette of reds, greens, blues, tans and browns with the same in variegated varieties as well.  And no two squares turned out alike.  I had enough of the different yarns so that each one was different, no repeats.  How about that?

 

I think they turned out lovely

Jack decided to help me put them all together
He's a great helper, sort of.... LOL

Once my granny squares were done I laid them out on my living room floor like quilt squares and one I was happy with the arrangement I added a border around each one using a lovely buff fleck yarn to tie them all together.  Once I had borders around all of my squares I stitched them together by hand with my yarn needle.  All that was left to do was add a final border to finish up the afghan along the outer edge and it was complete.

 

I used a buff yarn to border each square and do my edging

Two completed afghans ready to be gifted

I had enough granny squares to make two good sized afghans with three squares leftover.  Two special people in my life will be getting one for Christmas this year.  I still need to decide what to do with my extra squares too.  I ended up purchasing extra skeins of the buff yarn to finish the bordering of the squares and the edging and luckily I was able to get it on sale at JoAnn's.  My final cost to put these afghans together came in at $2.99 each!  I was pretty happy about that, but even more so I love how these turned out.

 

All the yarn I have left now fits in this bin
I'm sure I'll figure out something to do with it 😉

I made Jack his own afghan which he loves

Now my yarn stash fits inside a small plastic tote and the plastic zippered bag has been retired to the garage for the time being.  Not only have I decluttered more of my craft stash, but I've managed to create two really nice gifts for two of my loved ones in the process, not to mention I thoroughly enjoyed making them.  I have them each wrapped in tissue paper and in large gift bags from my gift wrap stash.  They are all set and ready to place under our tree this Christmas.

 

 

A Christmas & Budget Update

 

Christmas 2021.  Well, this is going to be a much different affair this year than what I had originally planned and that is completely okay!  At the beginning of the year I was off to a really good start when I hit up some super post-Christmas sales and believe it or not I still have a bunch of stuff leftover that I acquired from post-Christmas sales the year before.  So instead of having a bigger budget this year my plan is to use up the items I already have on hand and see just how well I can do without spending any more money.  Or very, very little.

 

I have loads of yarn in my stash

I had already done some crafting at the beginning of the year by pulling out yarn and making a few gifts.  I even wrapped and tagged them already using boxes, gift wrap and tags I already had in my gift wrap organizer.  Then I put them into a banker box I had in the garage and labeled said box.  It is now sitting next to my very full "gift box" in our guest room closet.  I plan to do some more crafting between now and Christmas.

 

Food gifts will be a big part of the holidays this year.  I will be using items from our pantry to make cookies, candies and any other treats I feel inclined to give out this year.  I also have a shelf in the pantry full of jams I've made recently that I can give out.  We've definitely got the food gift supplies handled.

 

I made these by recycling the cards we got at work
I think they turned out so pretty! 😁

Christmas cards will not be a problem as I've already made the ones I planned to send and have plenty of stamps leftover from last year to get them mailed out this year.  I like to write a letter and print it out to tuck inside each letter.  I have plenty of toner as well as an large assortment of papers so I'll be able to easily accomplish this task as well.

 

We lack for nothing

Since I'm in downsize mode I have no plans to purchase anything in the way of decorations or décor this year.  If I do decide I want something new I will use items I already have on hand to make something.  Otherwise, what we have in our Christmas tote is going to be just fine.

 

As far as food goes, and food is a huge part of our holiday celebrations, we'll make do with what we have and I'll use our existing grocery budget to carefully acquire the holiday groceries as I've done many, many times in the past.  I am not concerned at all about going without.  It shouldn't even be an issue.

 

It always seems to work out splendidly

Maybe next year I'll be able to have the bigger budget and buy my darling girls something lavish, but this year I'll be sticking to my thrifty ways and it will be another modest, but very lovely Christmas.  And true to form, we won't be going without anything.  I have plenty of time to prepare so it will be a grand Christmas.