Inexpensive Christmas Traditions

Christmas can be one expensive holiday, especially if you have a large extended family. However, there are some Christmas traditions that are free or cost very little. Here are five suggestions to get you started:

1. For Christmas gifts, draw names

My mother is the youngest of four children. Her three older brothers three, two, and one kid respectively, and three of these nieces and nephews are married with children of their own. Not only that, but the extended family lives literally all over the globe. When it comes time for Christmas, getting a gift for everyone would be next to impossible. That's why our family has the Christmas tradition of drawing names for Christmas every year. Each aunt, uncle, cousin, or in-law draws the name of another relative, and buys only for them. This Christmas tradition is much easier on your pocketbook, and less overwhelming - instead of focusing on ten or fifteen relatives, you only have to focus on one.

2. Iterations on the name-drawing Christmas tradition

The other problem with buying for extended family members is (if your family is anything like mine) you only see your distant relatives once per year or every other year. As the years go by and the kids grow up, you aren't really sure what to get anyone for Christmas anymore. What if one Christmas you draw the name of that uncle you haven't seen in three years? What in the world can you possibly get them? That's why our Christmas tradition of drawing names added the idea of gift themes a few years ago. For example, one year the theme was "books you must read" and another year the theme was "t-shirt from your hometown", since all of us lived in different states or countries. Themes made the name-drawing Christmas tradition even easier and less expensive.

3. Giving as a family

When one of my aunts was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, we changed our Christmas tradition of drawing names to giving to charity in our family's name. Everyone in the family chipped in, and we were able to give a pretty sizable check to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. We all enjoyed feeling like our Christmas gift was meaningful that year, so every Christmas since, we have decided to forgo the Christmas tradition of drawing names, and have started the new Christmas tradition of giving to charity each year.

4. A Christmas tradition for kids

Another Christmas tradition in our family was something my grandmother called the "Twelve Days of Christmas": beginning on December 13, we grandkids would get a whole package of presents, each with a date on them, such as "Open on December 13," "Open on December 14", and so on, all the way up to December 25. Although it sounds like a lot of presents, each gift was something small - something you could probably buy at a dollar store for just a few cents. But as a kid, the excitement and anticipation of opening gift after gift didn't make the gifts seem small. This Christmas tradition only lasted a few years, because there were more and more grandkids each year, and my grandmother couldn't keep up with the sheer number of a dozen little gifts each! On that side of the family there are fourteen first cousins - 14 x 12 = 168 presents! But, if you only have one or two children to buy for, the "Twelve Days of Christmas" tradition is a fun one for the youngest members of your family.

5. The best Christmas traditions are the free ones

Most of us spend time each year stressing about our Christmas budget and all the people on our Christmas lists. But if you think back to your own childhood Christmases, you might not even remember the presents you got. For myself, I remember playing in fresh snow with my cousins, tramping around in the woods equipped with mittens and damp scarves, and having my mom make us hot chocolate with marshmallows when we finally came back inside. I remember my mom having us watch White Christmas for the umpteenth million time, and as I got older, I remember playing dominoes with the grown ups and feeling like I'd finally come of age. These are the Christmas traditions that hold a family together - and they don't cost a thing.