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Is it possible to have festive holiday celebrations without dipping into savings or running up a credit card balance? Sure. Use these ideas to jump-start your creativity and see where your imagination takes you!
Be my Valentine
 | Take advantage of after-Christmas sales to stock up on red and white items for decorations and treats for Valentine's Day. Or buy bags of red-and-green holiday candies after Christmas, and then sort them into two separate bags — the red candies for Valentine's Day and the green ones for Saint Patrick's Day. |
Here comes Peter Cottontail!
Store-bought springtime goodies are awfully expensive. But with a little creativity, you can enjoy the season frugally.
Children enjoy Easter baskets, but parents don't enjoy the high prices of those expensive premade baskets in stores. Make your own and fill them with treats that you accumulate throughout the year — crayons, bubbles, chopsticks, stickers, and little cookies and candies. Set a spending budget; try to fill each basket for under five dollars, and then have fun being creative enough to keep within the budget.
Quality wicker baskets and the decorative grass can be reused year after year (a nice tradition in itself). But if you don't want to invest in wicker baskets, check out the following inexpensive basket alternatives:
- Paper bags: Decorate with pictures or stickers of bunnies, eggs, or flowers.
- Easter bonnets: If you're going to purchase an Easter bonnet for your daughter, turn it upside down and fill it with goodies.
- Inexpensive, colorful plastic sand pails: Include a shovel and sand mold.
- Plastic storage containers: Reuse to store toys, games, socks, or your children's treasures.
- Novelty pillowcase: This is an especially good choice if you're giving a large gift or stuffed animal that will not fit in a traditional basket.
Honoring thy father and mother
Probably the single most popular gift parents receive on these holidays from their grown children is a long, chatty phone call. But if you live close enough to actually reach out and touch your mom or dad in person, what can you do to brighten their day?
If you're looking for something fun and meaningful for Dad to help celebrate his day, consider the following inexpensive ideas:
- Share one of his favorite hobbies with him for the day. Take him fishing on his favorite lake or play a round of golf at an off time when the course fees are cheaper.
- Relieve him of some of his chores. Mow the lawn, clean the gutters, trim the trees, or weed the yard.
 | A lot of dads just don't get enough time with their kids, so the opportunity to be together is a welcome treat. |
Here are a few ideas most moms would love around Mother's Day:
- A whole day to do whatever they want, whether it's shopping with friends, reading a stack of magazines, getting lost in a book, or lounging in their pajamas until noon.
- A manicure, spa treatment, hair appointment, or facial.
- A professional massage (or even just a foot rub from a loving husband).
- Dinner at their favorite restaurant with the kids on their best behavior, or dinner alone with Dad and the kids safely at home with a babysitter.
- A long, uninterrupted nap.
Enjoying a frightfully affordable Halloween
Halloween costumes don't have to scare the living daylight out of your budget. Even a simple homemade ghost, gypsy or hobo costume can be loads of frightening fun, especially if the children design it themselves. Here's a couple more inexpensive costume ideas can be made from things found around the house or at thrift stores:
- Tacky Tourist: Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, hat, camera, layer of white sun block on the nose (just use white face paint), large bag or purse, and maps or tourist brochures peeking out of a few pockets.
- Soldier or Hunter: Camouflage clothing, green and brown face paint splashed on randomly, a canteen, backpack, compass, or whatever you have around that can complete the look.
- Ladybug: Dress your child in a pair of black leggings and a plain long-sleeved black shirt. Remove the arms from a large red sweatshirt (bought at a thrift store or garage sale) and pin, glue, or draw large black dots all over and a stripe down the middle of the sweatshirt. You can also fashion antennae with black pipe cleaners.
- Birthday Gift: Take an old box big enough for your child to "wear" and cut a hole in the top of the box for her head and two holes in each side for her arms. Wrap the box with gift wrap, attach a ribbon, and tie curled ribbon or a big bow in her hair. Cute, simple, and very cheap!
You can adapt different colored sweat suits to become almost any type of animal you can imagine: a pig, cow, unicorn, or kitten. Just attach any extra finishing pieces (spots, stripes, arms, tails, horn) to the sweat suit, add any required head gear (horns, antennae), and your little creature's good to go!
| When the neighborhood goblins show up at your door, how can you keep from forking over the family farm in treats and goodies? |
- Pass the candy out yourself rather than letting the kids grab their own. That way you can limit them to one or two small candies rather than a large handful — some of those preteen ghouls at the door have mighty big hands!
- Candy bars keep well in the freezer for several months, so if you see a sale during the summer on bags of favorite treats, stock up in anticipation of Halloween.
- Give alternative treats rather than the candy and gum. Many dollar stores have bags full of inexpensive toys and plastic figurines for a dollar or less.
No Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, please!
Even in the middle of hard times, you always have something to be thankful for. Whether you keep a gratitude diary or a Thanksgiving jar throughout the year, or just spend time around the Thanksgiving holiday to focus on the year's blessings, thankfulness is a valuable trait to develop in yourself and your kids.
Probably the single greatest expense of the Thanksgiving holiday is preparing the food for the family and friends converging on your house. To save money, suggest that each person or family group attending the festivities bring one food item that represents their favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. Have people tell you in advance what they're bringing, though, or you may end up with three different versions of sweet potato casserole.
Watch for sales on whole frozen turkeys throughout the year and don't hesitate to buy your holiday bird earlier in the year if you find a great price. Turkeys keep well in the freezer for several months.
Keeping Christmas and Hanukkah from breaking the budget
The December holidays are huge moneymakers for retailers of the world. They're also huge debt-makers for shoppers as they try to finance their "dream holiday." But "holiday giving" and "frugal living" don't have to be polar opposites.
| Check out books from the library about holiday celebrations in other countries. Many of these traditions include simple decorations like greenery from your yard, homemade decorations, candles, homemade Advent wreaths, and inexpensive food decorations. |
Make your own wrapping paper out of brown paper grocery bags, inexpensive kitchen sponges (the softer, the better), and craft paint. Use scissors to cut the sponges into simple holiday shapes (snowmen, trees, stars). Cut open the paper bags and spread them flat on newspapers with the plain insides of the bags facing up. Dip the sponges into red, green, or white paint and then sponge-paint randomly over the open paper bags. Tied with inexpensive brown twine, this makes a rustic and beautiful gift-wrapping idea — plus it's a fun holiday family activity, too.
| A few strategically placed decorations can have a dramatic effect without sending you into debt. A seasonal decoration on the front door, a tree in the living room, a centerpiece on the dining table, and a few fragrant candles scattered around the house can set the mood just as well as — and definitely less expensively than — animated Santa's dancing in every window. |
If you have evergreen trees in your yard, cut off a few branches about two to three feet in length. Tie the thick ends of the branches together with strong cord and make your own holiday swag for the front door. Decorate with a big red bow and a couple of jingling bells if you have some around the house.
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