Tis the Christmas Season

Making Christmas a saving Christmas can be difficult sometimes. During this season people tend to spend to much and go overboard with things. Here are some saving tips that we do to help make the season less stressful.

1. I start gift shopping around May. I usually know what my kids want and I start looking at Yard Sales, Thrift Stores, and Other stores. I try to have all Christmas shopping done before Halloween.
I have found great deals even looking online at stores in their clearance.

2. For our Ginger bread house we use Halloween Candy. I don't let my kids eat all their Halloween candy. They can have a few pieces every once in a while. So our candy last for sometime.

3. In decorating I try to use what we have. And make lots of diy things. I made our Nativity with toilet paper rolls and some fabric scraps. We have had it for almost 9 years and I don't stress if the kids play with it. Dollar stores here in Canada have lots of great cute stuff. Our heart wreath over our fireplace is made of branches that fell off the trees by our house and berries and bow from the dollar store.

4. I love Real Christmas trees but a artificial one is better for us right now. You don't have to spend hundreds on a tree. We bought ours at Value Village for $19.99. Lot of my friends have two Christmas trees, one nice and one for the kids. But because we live in a Townhouse we don't have room for a huge tree. Ours is a 6ft. Most of our ornaments are from the Dollar Store. I don't want my little kids to think if they touch the tree they are in trouble. Our tree has the nice ornaments on top and the kids friendly ones on the bottom.

5. Baking can take over your life for a few days. Being part of a Cookie exchange is a great idea you only have to bake one kind and you end up with so many others.