Christmas Spirit on a Budget

It's the most wonderful time of year. That time when stores flaunt sparkly shiny sale signs in our line of sight. Commercials promote material MUST have goods, but it seems our bank accounts just won't cooperate. If this is where you find yourself, then you don't need me to tell you how this year it is especially difficult on many of us to find the holiday sprit. However, I am going to take it upon myself to remind you that one does not really need full coffers to enjoy this season. I have spent many Christmases on a rather tight budget, and here are a few tricks that I have found are always helpful at bringing me back to the reason for the season.

Christmas Trees:

Not a lot of money for decorating a Christmas tree or want a new look for your Christmas tree this year? Perhaps this is your first Christmas tree and all you can afford was the tree not the rest of the Yule Tide glitter that goes with it. Well, you don't need lots of money to decorate a tree, just a little imagination.

Three of my favorite Christmas trees were the ones I decorated when money was tight.

One year, we decorated with Popcorn strands, candy canes and Christmas cards. With each well wishing card we received, we punched a hole in the top of the card, used read ribbon and tied them onto the tree. The ribbon, along with two strands of lights, was purchased at the dollar store. That tree was a gift of warm well wishes every time I looked at it.

Another year I used silver metal cookie cutters and red and green plastic cookie cutters as ornaments. Just tied them up with that same dollar store red ribbon.

Last but not least, the most inventive Christmas Tree was my husbands 'Star Wars' tree. The first year we were married, my husband had quite the collection of Star War's ornaments. We had no money to buy a fake tree, but I got to thinking, there is no foliage in space, so what would they use? Metal! Of course! So I took about five metal tomato cones, set them on top of each other until they were built up in a cone shape, forming a wire space tree. We bent out a few of the wires and decorated the star wars tree. Topping it, of course, with a Darth Vader Helmet, and using the Darth Vader cape as the tree skirt. It was a big hit!

Christmas parties:

Family and Friends. You know that old saying, you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends. A few years ago, a group of close friends and I realized Christmas was upon us and we had yet to get together for the holidays. Again, I wanted to see my friends but my husband and I had absolutely NO money; meeting for dinner was out of the question. Instead, we invited all our friends together for a Bring-your-own-Hors-d'oeuvre-party. We supplied the home and our favorite hors d'oeuvre, and as the guests arrived the food multiplied. There were only eleven of us, yet it was a perfect Christmas holiday celebration. No stress, no presents, just friends and a few toasts of well wishes, a game or two and a few outbursts of Christmas carols. In the end, the only real cost to us was cleaning the house for company.

No matter what Martha Stewart is selling, you don't have to cook for six days straight, vacuum out the dirt from the back of the linen closet, craft individual ornaments for each guest, drape the house with bay leaf and pomegranate garlands, and carve the opening scene from the Nutcracker out of decorative soap for the bathroom. Live in the moment, let people see your human side, invite them into your warm home for a visit. It's one of the perks of the holiday season.

Gifts:

Homemade gifts are still the best. Best Christmas present ever: the year my mom learned to knit scarves. It was a surprise that she had learned to knit, and they were gorgeous. Mine was light shades of blue, warm, and home made and had that sense of home imbedded into it. A little research on the internet and you can find some homemade gift ideas that are simple and cost effective. Last year, we came up with a special spice blend. We put the spices in fancy parmesan shakers (from my favorite dollar store) and made labels to put on the spices. They were a hit! So much that our special spice blend has been requested again this year.

Another oldie but goodie gift is a plate of home baked goods. You don't need to be a top chef, just put your heart into the process, it will show. Presentation is everything with this gift. I like to go to thrift stores and find beautiful plates for the cookies (you would be surprised what kind of cute plates you can find for 10 - 50 cents). Wrap the plate up in cellophane, wrap it with ribbon and thread an ornament though the ribbon. All these supplies can be purchased at that favorite dollar store I seem to keep bringing up. People appreciate the special thought you put into such a gift. It truly is the thought that counts.

Decorating the house:

There is something about stringing pop corn with the family while Christmas carols lazily echo around a warm home. The best way to get my father to tell us stories of how he spent his childhood Christmases was to sit him down with a task. A few kernels threaded and Dad was spouting about once upon a time.

It is the homemade things that people remember. When I recall favorite past Christmas memories, there is nothing about money tied to them. My favorites had nothing to do with big gifts but rather making cookies, decorating with construction paper garlands, cutting snowflakes, stringing popcorn, sprinkling pine cones with glitter, sticing cloves into oranges, and making arrangements out of candy canes.

Homemade decorations do not, in any way, take away from the holiday spirit. They add to it if anything and create those special stories that will go down in your family history as 'that one year when...'

With every Christmas card I write:

Write a letter to a close friend or family member about your favorite holiday memory that includes them. You don't have to do this for your entire Christmas card list, just someone special you keep meaning to get in touch with.

A few years ago I asked my family to write their favorite holiday memory of our great grandparents and I made a book of those memories for the whole family. This tradition took hold and each family added to the books with their own family traditions and memories. A few family members mailed letters to special friends reminiscing, those letters turned out to be the best gift they could have given; and the best gifts received. It really does help to put a spin on a holiday that has become rather commercial, to immerse yourself in the soul of the holiday spirit even if it is only for the amount of time it takes to write a letter.

Give of yourself:

We are always reminded that the holiday season is the best time to give of ourselves. Not only that, but giving of our time can be helpful in finding the holiday spirit. I grew up in a family where money was always sparse. Still, with a family of five, my parents always insisted we adopt a family for Christmas. The money we spent on others came from the money my parents budgeted for our Christmas. We sometimes shopped at thrift stores and dollar stores, but we came up with gracious gifts for the families, and while we kids started out reluctant, if not begrudgingly, in the end, we were excited for our adopted family. Our priorities were redirected, we saw we were blessed to have a roof over our head, parents who loved us, and we were lucky to have any presents under the tree at all.

If you want to give of your time and money is lean, you could think of volunteering at a local food shelter. Visit a retirement home. Have a big group of friends who love to sing? Get together and share your voice with the sick or elderly. For more opportunities or ideas, search the web for Christmas charity ideas.

In your own backyard:

In my college days, during the Christmas season, my best friend and I would bundle up, go to our favorite coffee shop for Pepperminty chocolaty good drinks, pop in a Christmas Mix and drive though Boise residential areas looking at Christmas lights. It really was a simple thing to do, but so much fun. To this day, I get excited when I see neighborhoods lined with lights. Make a date with family or friends for a twinkle light drive.

Each town has a Christmas tree lighting to kick off the holiday season. They are usually free events that require no monetary investment but are jam packed with warm gooey feelings.

Search the internet for Christmas events in your town, there is always something going on. It does not have to cost your family and arm and a leg to get out and participate in local celebrations in your home town. There is everything from Downtown city strolls, lit up gardens, and caroling events to parades and readings of Night Before Christmas at local bookstores.

Find Santa:

As Francis P. Church, an editor for The New York Sun wrote in reply to Virginia O'Hanlon's simple question "Is there a Santa Claus?":

"Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies...Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see."

To read the full editorial as well as Virginia's letter to the editor, visit http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia

While it is a timely tradition to find Santa at the mall, this year, make the visit to Santa a little more special. Do a little internet investigating to find out where Santa can be found. It does not cost anything to visit Santa. My favorite memory of Santa was when I was 22 years old, I went to visit a friend over the Thanksgiving weekend, while there, we went with her nephew to visit Santa. Being two giggling girls, we took our turn to visit Santa, and he took a moment out of his busy day to look each of us in the eye and tell us this one thing, "I'm proud of you, you are doing a great job." Tears sprung up immediately. What a wonderful Santa memory.

So my friends, it only seems apropos to leave you with my favorite quote from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol:

"But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time...as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"