dreading the holidays-- how do you cope? - Page 2

[kewb]

We only buy for the kids in our family. I really try to keep it under $20 per child. I may try baking cookies for all the kids this year (assuming I can get my act together). My MIL gets a gift, goodness knows the heavens would rumble and the earth would open up and swallow her whole if her son gave her nothing. I buy a frame for the children's school photos and wrap them and give them to her every year.

[EmsMom]

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by Christmas myself. I decided at some point that I was only going to give homemade bread (cinnamon!) for Christmas to all my family members and any else I thought I "owed" a present to. It was kind of funny, really. Some people continued giving me expensive (useless) gifts for a while. I would be very appreciative and just keep giving my homemade bread (which was quite popular!). Now I have family members who make banana bread, cookie mixes and other goodies to give. Seems like everybody is happier.

[*Jessica*]

I've been looking for cheap ideas for myself and had to give you these ideas I found because they are free or very cheap.

1. Framed Handprint....print the following poem on cardstock and use paint or a stamp pad to place your child's handprint at the bottom. If you can afford to frame it...even better!

My Handprint
Author Unknown

Sometimes you get discouraged
because I am so small,
and always leave my fingerprints
on furniture and walls.

But everyday I'm growing big
and soon I'll be so tall.
Then all my little handprints
will be hard to recall.

So here's a special handprint
just so that you can say;
this is how my fingers looked
when I placed them here today.

2. Sew beanbags for the older kids and find a lesson online for how to juggle. Give each kid a set of three along with printed intructions. If you buy clearance fabric and use lentils to fill them it should only cost a dollar or two to make a set for each child.

3.My favorite! Make a memory jar/box. Write or type special memories you have with the person on cardstock and cut them out. Fill up a Mason jar or any other container you have on hand and can recycle. Pretty it up with some ribbon. Can you imagine how much laughter or how many happy tears this would bring?! I'm giving this to my mom for her birthday (December 26th) this year.

4. Find a recipe for homemade playdough and make a few colors. Package it in sandwich baggies. Tie them together with some ribbon, a copy of the recipe and a label that says "Ho! Ho! Ho! we made you some dough!"

5. Have the kids paint/color pretty pictures and frame them with colored cardstock if you can't afford frames.

[raleigh_mom]

First, Thanksgiving:
My DH doesn't like turkey and I am a vegetarian. My kids now think most people go to Golden Corral for Thanksgiving. Way cheaper and more fun than cooking a big dinner when nobody in the house would like it anyway. We started this two or three years ago, and it's becoming a family tradition for us! We don't have family in the area, plus we've explained to both our parents that we chose to visit at other times of the year. No holidays with them. Way too stressful. At first we felt really pitiful about going out to eat, but now we do it then go home and bake and start putting up the Christmas tree.

Christmas:
We discovered a couple years ago that a fake tree was so much cheaper than buying a new tree every year. We went out one night and the only real trees we could find were around $50-60. We went straight to Target and found a great fake one for that price. Now, no big payout each year.

I usually make a baked goods basket for each family each year. I'm thinking of changing that this year, but people have actually commented on how much they look forward to it, so we'll see. Last year I made non-decorated cookies for the neices and nephews and included sprinkles and a box of confectioner's sugar so they could decorate them.

My kids get most of their presents from clearance sales, Goodwill, and garage sales throughout the year. Usually still wrapped/tags on. I stockpile them through the year, don't let DH see, then he thinks I've gone out shopping.

[raleigh_mom]

Oh, wanted to also include some free gifts we've given the grandparents in the past couple years:

The kids painted craft sticks which we used to frame pictures I'd taken of them together.

A bouqet of handprint flowers. (Traced the kids' hand prints on construction paper, turned it in so it looks kind of like a lilly, and taped it to a green pipe cleaner.)

Maybe we'll give paintings from the kids this year!

Also check out freecycle for things you can turn into gifts. I've given away some incredible stuff - some brand new. (Like wedding gifts I still hadn't used after 10 years!) Also a great way to get toys for your kids.

[MoonJelly]

This thread was inspiring to me right when I was feeling like the OP. I just realized it's two months until Christmas and all the anxiety just crept right back up.

I am going to need to go get that book tomorrow!