Your Coolest Holiday Traditions and Money and Sanity Saving Ideas Wanted

K., My children are grown now, but one of our most loved traditions started when I was a child. We have fairy gifts: these are things like, the sock fairy, candy fairy, game fairy (since we like to play games), cologne fairy, underwear fairy,and were going to add a pj fairy. This is just things we all like to get and are things we all need. Your fairy gifts can be anything you want them to be. It's not about the amount of money, it's the love and fun you have through the holidays with those who mean the most to you. You have a great job consultant for a romance book co. I'd love that job, can't put a book down once I start. Have a great Christmas. T. B.

I hosted a Lia Sophia party (jewelry) and got a lot of my gifts this year for free. I am also a Sensaria Natural Bodycare Rep so I have connections there too. I will definantly do it again next year! Quality presents with the price tag of having friends and family hanging out at my place and a few snacks...Not too shabby :) I love it!
My Mom has themed gifts every year. She puts together little packages or baskets and everyone gets the same stuff in it. So you aren't trying to think of thoughtful gifts for EVERYONE, I think that would cut down a lot of shopping and a lot of stress! Last year I think it was Emergency Kits...this thing has EVERYTHING! Who has time to do one themselves? Really cool.
Something I used to do in High School is make ornaments for everyone's tree. They would be different every year and I also included the year I made them. My family really came to look forward to those. The best one was you get the plain glass bulbs, the large ones. Take acrilic paint and drip it down the inside walls of the bulb until there are no more clear spots, then you let it sit for a few minutes and then turn it upside down to let the excess drain out. Definantly get the bulbs from the craft store, the cheepo ones don't let the paint stick well.
Goodness I've written a book :) Good luck and hope some real Holiday cheer comes your way soon!!

This year is the first year we're doing it so I can't tell you how it will turn out, but I think it will go very well. We (my husband and 3 children) each buy 1 (yes, only 1) gift for everyone else in the family. This way there are no wasted gifts and the kids get involved in picking the present.

I hear ya! This is only our second holiday with a kid but we scaled down tremendously and changed our gift giving. For the past 5 years, we get together with friends who have children for the jingle bell run. We do the walk and get dressed up. It's lots of fun and gets us in the mood. This year we're going to do brunch after. Then we have one night with our "no children" friends where we all decorate cookies together. This is the only time we see them during the month. I bake the cookies ahead of time and they bring the toppings. We make soup and hang out after our daughter goes to bed. My larger family has chosen to pool our gift giving money and donate to Heifer International instead of exchanging gifts. This also has cut out all the shopping time. And for all of my daughter's friends, I'm making simple fleece bags, bean bags and photo albums of her friends. She's 16 months so she's really into seeing her friend's pictures. Any other friends get homemade goodies like cookies, bread, etc. I hope that helps.

I just saw an ad for a Ticket Stub Diary and I thought what a cool idea that would be for someone who was into Scrapbooking. There would be a place to put your ticket stub and then a spot for recording your thoughts of the event or who you were with,etc. I thought it would be great for a young teen who was just starting to go places or it would even work for a child that was going places like Disneyland, the zoo,an ice show or the Circus.

Another family tradition in our house is group cookie baking. We all bring our cookie cutters and dough and then cook in one house. (we take turns hosting). At Easter we do this with eggs, too. We all bring a dozen and then dye them together.

I have 4 daughters and one Granddaughter. Whatever you do may your Christmas be filled with happy memories.

M. B

hey, i just went to chruch sunday and the pastor talked about keeping it simple and staying in a budget and remembering what Christmas is really all about. It really put things into perspective. I always want to get everyone something even the family who refuses to see us. I decided this year to make up baskets with a recipe I found for infused Vodka, with Vanilla beans, then pair it with cocoa for a spiced hot chocolate. anyhow I'm going to make baskets but only for people who really mean something to me, people who I don't have to impress. you know? I'm pretty excited about it.

I know of the ornament tradition of getting a new one each year, my cousin gives pj's every christmas eve. We haven't done any traditions yet, our kids are almost 3 and 4. I have decided tho that I'm only getting them one or two presents because they really don't play with toys all that much and it always seems to be a waste of money. I really want my kids to understand the true meaning of christmas and not expecting tons of big ticket items! I'm reading too for new ideas. love the ones so far!

one of my traditions is going shopping with my stepmom and sister every year after thanksgiving (this year i got everything i needed for everyone and had $ left over). i save alot of money going that day. i go to a cookie exchange to my sister in laws every year which is fun we do it potluck style and they do door prizes. every year i buy an ornament for each of my kids and i put the year on it, so that when they move into their own home they will have enough to decorate their own tree (each kid has their own theme). we get new pjs christmas eve, my mom is making them this year. we get our tree from my nephews every year, they are in boy scouts so my brother in law just drops it off at my house (love that). after we open the presents at our house christmas morning we go to my dad's and everyone has to be in their pjs even the adults, no showering or anything. it makes it more fun if everyone looks like they just got out of bed and then we cook breakfast together. on christmas morning i make sure that i take pictures of each of my kids opening presents by themselves and together so that when i scrapbook it they each have photos of just them for their book. we also take the kids to see santa every year, hoping my son doesn't scream this year. we also buy only 3 gifts for each kid, one big one and 2 little ones this really helps while being on a budget. one thing i might try next year is having everyone only buy from the thrift shop for gifts, just to see what we can find. it would be a fun challenge.

this year dh and i are buying hardwood floors for each other. i pulled up the carpet in our room and my girls' room so we are going to buy that probably next week, can't wait to see what it looks like. plus when we go to buy the floors we will make it a date night and since those don't happen for us very often that time together will be gift enough!!!

Traditions can be started at any time! Some are free, others cost money. Hopefully all bring your family closer together.
Here are some ideas from my list of things I want to do as a family this December, hoping to do one each day...

Including a few tradions that are common...
Pick out a tree
Decorate the tree (while listening to christmas music)
Take a family photo
Mail christmas cards (usually with family photo!)
Wrap presents
Visit Santa
Drive around and look at lights on houses (your family could vote on the best one and bestow an award on the winner!)
Bake and decorate cookies (it's fun to share or swap with others)
Decorate a gingerbread house
Put up lights outside the house
Decorate the inside of the house
Drink egg nog and sing christmas carols

And some other ideas that not everyone does...
Visit snow and build a snowman (could happen at home!)
See the Nutcracker ballet
Observe and celebrate winter solstice
Make popcorn strings for animals (put these in trees in your backyard, this is actually part of observing winter solstice but can be done before that day)
Volunteer with a charity toy drive (or just donate toys/goods)
Visit Zoolights
Drive through Winder Wonderland at PIR
Make special 2007 ornaments (to give and keep)
Read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (we usually do this on Dec 24)
Go sledding, tubing, or ice skating as a family
See "A Christmas Carol" the play
See and hear the singing Christmas Tree

You could put 24 ideas in a box or jar and pull one out to do each day of the month! We have a set of trees from Once Upon a Family (fun company that has lots of great tradition ideas) with 24 little red presents that tuck into each tree. I strung mine together so it's a decoration like garland. On the back I've written all of the above ideas and we pick one a day then tuck the present in a tree, eventually filling it. If you are crafty you could make something like this!

Happy holidays!

A few years ago, my husband and I decided that we would no longer buy anything for Christmas that didn't have a purpose. So since then, we've had a all book Christmas. All the kids got a special book or series. We've had a Crotched Christmas, where all their present were made by me (mostly scarfs, hats & purses for the girls). We've had a trunk Christmas, where my husband made all the kids cedar chests with locks to keep their special stuff in. Now on these special Christmas's the kids still get the usual socks & underwear, and pj's for the youngest kids. But nobody gets electronics or time wasting games. Santa still brings in the his bag of goodies, which is generally not stuff we would buy for the kids. You know the little stocking stuffers. We actually don't know who is this family's secret santa, someone (I think from our church) provides a special trip from Santa for our children

One of the favorite traditions in our family is to have a "White Elephant" Gift exchange. Because my family (meaning my kids) is so large compared to the rest of my family, we decided a couple years ago, to request that my husband's and my siblings no longer buy individual gifts for our family. That worked ok, except that as to be expected, my sister has her favorite niece (who happens to be just like she was as a kid --and that's a whole nother posting, lol) and my brother in law also has his fav nephew. Do I need to mentin that this sometimes caused conflict with my kids? So needless to say, some people were a little bent out of shape. So what we do now is, have a Whte Elehpnat Party night. Usually it's the same night as I'm cooking dinner. The plan is everyone who wants to play brings a gift already wrapped without a name tag. The gift must cost no more than $5 and you want to bring either something everyone will want or no one will want. But this also allows our siblings to buy or make a gift with one person in ming. All the gifts go in a pile in the middle of the room. Everyone who's playing gets a number. #1 picks a gift and unwraps it. #2 can either take a gift from the pile or take #1's gift. If #1 looses their gift to another player they get to take another gift from the pile. Around the room we go until the pile is empty. Then we go back thru the number 1/2 to 1 1/2 times, depending on how everyone is feeling about the game. It's amazing to see the stuff that continues to pass hands. And although it can sound rather barbaric, my family finds it to be a blast. At thanksgiving every year, I always get the question...when's the white elephant party.

ELFING is by far the neatest tradition our family has ever done or had done to us. Its giving gifts to those in need, or close friends and family, You leave the presents on their doorstep after dark, knock and run. The rush from the "sneekyness" and the giving is incredible. And it teaches us generosity. We once as children gave up our christmas to other kids (we had a family meeting and made the choice together). It was the best christmas ever. We still got presents but they were small in size and number but we didnt care. We usually did this on Christmas eve.
We made tshirts with the kids handprints on it from grandparents and they loved them. And the kids loved making them.
As far as gifts go, I am doing meals in a jar for my grown siblings. Things like soups, biscuits, and cookies in a jar all in a basket as a full meal. Inexpensive and appriciated. My Mom did bath salts and such for the women in our family. The recipes are plentiful online and easy and fun to assemble.

Hi!What a fun question! My husband and I are still establishing traditions (so they aren't just "what we did growing up"! We just thought of us (later the kids to each other) putting little love, encouraging notes in stockings along with a little gift and a snack. We take our Christmas picture out at the farm we get our tree. It makes for a great way to start the season!

About easy, cheap, nice gifts...I had fun with that this year. This summer (yes, I plan that far ahead--it's worth it if you can save alot of money)I made basil vinegar (8 c. fresh herbs to 1 gallon of white wine vinegar. Just put it in a glass jar, out in the sun or a warm room, shaking every day for a week--it smells glorious and tastes wonderful in EVERYTHING!!!) This is a little more expensive cause I couldn't find the bottles, so I bought them on sale but still it adds up.

Another thing I made was a cocoa mix jar with cocoa, sugar, milk powder, mini choc chips and marshmallows. It turned out really well! This comes out to about $3.00 per quart ( I saved jars all year)
I also made lavender sachets. I picked lavender, dried and saved it. I made little lace drawstring bags and put the lavender in whole with stems sticking out. I tied colorful bows around, coordinating with the person's personality. These maybe cost 25 cents.
The last thing I made was soap. It was a "cheater" recipe, made from already made soap (Sappo Hill) which I had bought bulk in Eugene, added essential oils, different oils,herbs and herbal infusions to make lovely, useful (VERY CHEAP--comes out to 25 cents a bar!) gifts!

Some of these you probably won't be able to do this year, but maybe for future Christmases you could use these ideas! Good luck!

I LOVE to cook and found this great pancake mix from a San Francisco restaurant. We bought the mix for all of our friends ($5 a piece) and then I'm going to find a small thing of maple syrup and possibly a pancake mold at Williams Sonoma to personalize the gifts. I'm not sure how much the molds go for, so if they're too expensive we'll just stick with the pancake mix and syrup. I'm finding as I get older most of my friends have all of the things they want and need so it's getting harder and harder to shop for them. Things that can be used or eaten are preferable.

For our niece and nephews I'm buying them clothes or toys from Costco or TJ Maxx. For our daughters they'll each get one "fun" gift and then the rest of the $ will go into their college funds. I'm thinking of making these beautiful wreaths that I saw on Martha Stewart for my parents and my husbands parents for Christmas.

As far as traditions every year my mom and I host a cookie bake/exchange. It's become a great tradition and the variety of cookies we all leave with are amazing! We also host Christmas Eve and this year have turned it into a potluck dinner. Instead of flying down to San Francisco to see The Nutcracker with my extended family we're going to stay here and look at the Gingerbread Houses at the Sheraton (free). There are a lot of great activities out there. I get daily updates from redtricycle.com. They have a newsletter of great things you can do with kids in the Seattle area.

I hope some of my suggestions help.
E.

a relitively cheap and easy christmas gift we are doing this year is a personalized calendar. with three kids you may have done and out-done that already, though! we have just one daughter, so the grandparents will be thrilled and we are doing it through walgreens.com - highly recommended. one of my goals is to do an in-depth family tree as a christmas gift some day. it's more time-consuming, but could also be a fun project for the kids and not too spendy. baking christmas cookies for family is always a good tradition to get kids into, too, in my opinion. just have fun and get the kids involved!