How to Save Money on Christmas Presents

What is Most Important About Christmas

Most people are not offended if you tell them you would like to quit exchanging gifts for Christmas. With the economy the way it is today, more and more people are finding it hard to pay their bills, buy food, and gas. If you have exchanged gifts with friends and work buddies and are finding it harder and harder to get by I have a suggestion for you.

How to bring up the subject of not exchanging gifts

I meet with friends regularly for lunch to chat and catch up. We always exchange gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Unfortunately a few of these friends have birthdays close to the holidays. It gets pricey and overwhelming to come up with the money and the ideas to buy gifts for both Christmas and birthday presents. We have all found ourselves pretty much in the same boat. Several of my friends are also in the art profession and have found that money isn't exactly flying in our directions with the economy being so bad. When you are spending money art is not exactly top priority when the economy is down.
If one of my friends has not suggested giving up gift exchanges, I have brought it up. We have decided that we will still get together for lunch for our combined gifts. Spending time together is much more important than spending money on each other.

When it comes to family it is harder to say no to gift buying.

My daughter and I both have birthdays at holiday time. We used to take each other out to Red Lobster for lunch and exchange gifts. We have decided that if we both buy our own lunch but go out together it is less overwhelming if we pay our own. We can get something more expensive and not worry about taxing the other ones budget. We still get to spend the time together and that is what is important.

We as a family are pulling together by spending less money on each other and not adding bills on credit cards that we have to worry about paying in the coming year. We spend more time together with meals and games or movie rentals. When you find that you are resenting spending money that you really need for bills it isn't worth the aggravation. Time with friends and family is a lot more important than exchanging pricey gifts.

Make new traditions instead of buying gifts