Spending quality holiday time with family – fun and frugal ideas
Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Our little one is almost 3 years old, and he’s going nuts with all the Christmas lights around town. He’s been asking about a “Kees-mas tee” all week long, and today is the big day!
Since all of our Christmas shopping is done, it’s going to be a very relaxing holiday season. Here are some of the things we plan on doing as a family this year. Some do cost money, but we feel they are well worth it!
1. Cut your own Christmas tree – Yes, we are buying a real tree again this year. However, we planned ahead and included this cost in our holiday budget. There is a wonderful tree farm near our house – we take the dog and make it into a big event. There is a petting zoo, and you can print coupons for free hot chocolate online. As an added benefit, we always get some of our best holiday pictures on this day!
After the holidays, we cut off a small piece of the trunk and woodburn the year on it. After placing a small hook in it, we have a great holiday ornament!
2. Go see the lights! – Consider both going by foot and by car. I would also recommend seeing if there are any local light displays. For example, we travel to Baltimore each year to see Hampden’s Miracle on 34th Street, where every house is decorated. While many homes here could be considered just “over-the-top” with lights, there is also local art on display, including our favorite Hubcap Tree by Jim Pollock. Luckily, we have friends on 33rd Street, so we get parking earlier in the day and have made a tradition of visiting our friends and taking cider on our walk.
3. Bake some of your holiday gifts – It does cost money for ingredients, but I pick one or two recipes and scale them up to keep things simple. The kid always gets a special job, and after all the cooking is done, we have presents in a pinch. Besides, it’s nice to turn on some Christmas music and smell cookies in the oven!
4. Make holiday crafts together – It doesn’t have to be complicated! This year, for example, we are making construction paper rings for our tree garland. The fun is in the creative process itself – the end product is just an added benefit!
What are some of the fun and frugal things you like to do over the holidays?
Wow, what wonderful tips!
My fiance and I are really making a point to be frugal this holiday season.
Instead of buying each other a bunch of stuff, we are donating to our favorite charities in each other’s name. We’ve started doing this for some of our family members too and they love it.
On Christmas day we are going to drive around and look at lights which is always a lot of fun. Then we’ll probably just stay home after and have a nice frugal meal with sparkling cider.
We both get a bit frustrated with the massive amount of consumerism that takes control of so many people around the holidays. So we really just want to take it easy, not spend too much money, and be grateful for being able to just spend time together on the holidays.
Thanks,
Jason
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Jason,
Thanks so much for your comment! After writing this post, I realized that I had forgotten to mention charities. Although we are not donating more money than usual to charity, we are donating used toys locally.
We are also tuning out the major consumer hype of the holidays. The kid is getting about 5-7 things for Christmas (which we picked out months ago), and my husband and I don’t get each other anything. It’s nice to see another kindred spirit!