How NOT To Go Broke Celebrating Christmas

I am the primary reveler in my family. My partner doesn't go in for much celebrating so I decorate and cook and arrange gifts. One of my favorite Christmas decorations are a set of Midwest Mouse figurines that depict the nativity scene. They always make me feel Christmasy and independent - sometimes it's the littlest things.

So here is a guide about how not to spend all your money celebrating for one day a year. I suppose if I were really, really rich, I wouldn't spend time building traditions and family activities and would miss out on that satisfying feeling that Christmas is supposed to bring.

Christmas is an emotional time of the year. Somehow just like Thanksgiving, Christmas is supposed to be a happy family time. Even if you have monsters for parents or fiends for in-laws and their kids are hellions, for some reason you feel like you should be able to make Christmas happy and joyful. And when that holly jolly feeling doesn't appear, you feel like a failure - again. Well no more, money or not, the celebrating will be for you and will be just right. Stick to to the following points and before you know if you will have built yourself a personalized tradition.

First off, it is important to start early. The day after Thanksgiving or black Friday is perfect. It's early enough to give you almost a month to really celebrate it up right. I have a strict rule that Christmas celebrating can't begin until after Thanksgiving is over! Especially when you want to make things look effortless, planning if essential.

Music is very important in order to set the tone for the holiday. Even if it just real light background ambiance, music sets the mood and gets everyone on the same page. Popular TV shows often cut an album of Christmas music that was featured on their show. I think I have a Christmas CD from the late 90s TV show Ally McBeal.

Movies cannot be played in the background the same effectiveness as can music. Holiday movies tend to be marked by a certain amount of sentiment or sappiness but thats okay, you are expected to enjoy a certain amount of emotionalism once in a while and Christmas is one of those times! But like music, you can invest in one or two new (to you) DVD's a year.

Christmas stories often allow you to recapture the feelings of earlier holidays. It can be irresistible if the feelings are those with people that are no longer with us.

I have a Christmas media box that holds the movies, books and music that I pull out every year after Thanksgiving to get me in the Christmas spirit. I have to get a bigger box pretty soon 'cause almost every year I add to my collection.

There is so much that can be included in this section. You can quite literally decorate everything for practically nothing. Its just a matter of how much time you want to devote to this exercise or how many little helping hands you have available.

Fresh decorations add a wonderful scent and should accent your annual collection. If you have extra funds to dedicate to decorations, you can replace some of your artificial wreathes and centerpieces with fresh. Just be aware that they are likely to wilt or brown (or shed leaves or needles) after a while sitting in a warm home.

An inexpensive addition of holiday scents are scented candles. They come in so many different colors and flavors these days that you can use them to create different themes every year if you'd like.

One of the biggest industries is that of holiday food. The grocery stores start to sell holiday stuff earlier every year. Food contributes to the holiday spirit and will often be center of many of your celebrations. Food is not something that you can reuse year after year like you can with most of your Christmas stuff.

However, I have created a holiday recipe book that I pull out every year. I tend to use the same recipes every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every now and again, I try new recipes and some of them even become yearly favorites!

Eggnog and mandarin oranges are specialty Christmas food that will always remind me of that special time of year. And then there's Christmas cookies. They taste like Christmas and can be used as all kinds of decorations. You can bake them with a hole and hang them on the Christmas tree, Arrange them on a tiered plate for a homey centerpiece or just set them out for everyone to snack on.