How will your holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah or other seasonal or religious celebration)be this year?
Will it be just one more shop-a-holic fest to impress the neighbors and prop up flagging retail sales or will you be doing thoughtful, frugal giving in line with your means? It is not your sacred or moral duty to support retailers by over-spending.
Will you buy things you really can't afford and others probably don't need just to impress or placate people?
Will you dread January and all the credit card bills rolling in?
Well, folks, the time to think about this is NOW!
I have never gone way overboard splurging at Christmas. I don't have the money and I don't have that many people to shop for. I set a limit. I ask people what they might want or need and try to get them their requests within my budget.
Throughout the year, if I see something on sale or at a yard sale or thrift shop that I am sure would delight someone at Christmas, I snap it up! (With the used items, I buy only collectible or like new items. I'm frugal, but I don't want to give people scraps.)
I save gift bags and such to re-use.
In your holiday giving, don't forget charity and people near you in need. THAT is the true spirit of Christmas.
Although I don't agree with some of the political and religious views of the writer of the following essay, I think she makes a very valid point about the commercialization of Christmas and the outsourcing of our jobs that sustains the retail industry:Whose birthday is it anyway?
For resources for a simpler, more frugal holiday:
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