Family Christmas Celebration on a Budget

Spend time, not money, with your family this holiday season. It is the best way to celebrate Christmas. During these tough times, with the sky-rocketing cost of fuel and food, and people losing their jobs due to economic crisis, money is tight. Yet, we muddle through with our ingenuity, get by with what we have and make do with what we can afford. It is up for family members to make their Christmas celebration exciting and memorable and within their reach. A family should be able to enjoy the holidays together minus financial worries. The key is to spend within your means and spend in cash. If a family cannot pay for anything in cash, they cannot afford it, so, they should steer clear of those things they cannot afford.

Here are three cost-effective ways a family can make their cash go a long way, minimize holiday spending, and have a family celebration:

1. Budget Venue

The most expensive place on earth is beyond the budget. That is why we have houses. In our house we can be who we are and invite who we want and do what we want. Therefore, choose the home as venue for family gathering this Christmas. Use festive, but inexpensive, decors to transform your living space into a party space which can accommodate all your family members. Take turn in hosting. A family does not have to stay in just one house. Part of the fun is having a sort of "family tour" in the houses of family members.Maybe breakfast on Christmas Day will be in your house. Lunch will be at an Aunt's house and dinner will be at a Cousin's house. Perhaps next Christmas, three family members, living in another part of town, can have the honor of hosting.

While it is true that family members are scattered far and wide for myriad of reasons, yet, each member can find the means and the time to get together at Christmas, a special time for families to gather and renew their ties. The one that binds family members, no matter what may come each of their ways.

2. Budget Menu

In the Couples' for Christ community, we have a rule of thumb to observe in preparing for something to partake, during our turn to host the household meeting: one solid, one liquid. The solid could be a piece of cookie and the liquid could be a glass of water. It all depends on what a couple can afford. The important thing is to place emphasis on togetherness and camaraderie not on materiality.

When your family gather for a celebration this Christmas, it will not matter much what you are having. What matters is for you to be able to spend time as a family and share what you have on the table. Certainly, if every member who can, will chip in for the celebration expenses, you will have more than a piece of cookie and a glass of water each. You can beat on that!

3. Budget Entertainment

A family can dance to the music that they, themselves, play! No need to hire a professional DJ. That is how a family know they have a "talent" in the family, during family get-together. To entertain yourselves, get those family members who can dance, to dance; get those who can sing, to sing for the family. Play the long-forgotten family games once again! Chat with your family members. Rediscover the "lost" art of conversation. It is there somewhere behind the tv set or maybe hiding behind the computer! Go back to basic family existence, when things are affordable in its simplicity. Life, afterall, is simple. Why complicate it?