”I’m participating in the Spend-Less Holidays: Saving While Savoring the Season Blog Carnival, hosted by The Frugal Fil-Am and Dainty Mom. We’ll be sharing our tips on how to spend less this holiday season, so that we can have a more meaningful Christmas. Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of carnival entries.”
When we were all still single, my friends and I usually just decide on which mall to go and which restaurant to have dinner at. We bring our significant others, eat, have drinks or coffee somewhere and give gifts to everyone. It was definitely something that cost us a lot, which at that time we didn’t really mind because well, we were all still single. Our reunions were not that hard to organize. The only challenging aspect was finding a common schedule. Now that we’re all moms, though, things have drastically changed.
Since we all want to include our kids in our festivities, we had to change the way we spend our Christmas reunions. As mothers who now want to be practical, we couldn’t just continue to spend for food and gifts the way we did back when we were single. However, we still wanted to continue our Christmas tradition of having a reunion but avoid the unnecessary costs. So, we came up with a new tradition – a new pocket-friendly way to celebrate Christmas together. Let me share with you how we do it.
Choose somebody’s house to hold your Christmas party
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| Christmas 2010 |
If we were to go to a mall with all our kids, we would go crazy. Of course, we couldn’t just stay in one location for hours and hours. However, it would be such a hassle to go from restaurant to coffee shop or dessert place or whatever with all the kids in tow. So, we decided to just hold our party in a friends’ house. No need to pay for a venue. No parking fees. No need to pay for Timezone just so your kids can be entertained.
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| Christmas 2011 |
We usually end up picking the bigger house with a yard where the kids can just run around and play while the moms chat and the dads eat. Haha! This way, we can spend as much time as we want there. There would be no pressure to leave early and we would all be comfortable. Even if the kids get tired playing, there are rooms where they can sleep if needed. Of course, just remember to be gracious to the host and help clean up afterwards.
Go potluck
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| Food, food and more food! |
Restaurant food can be so expensive, especially if you’re feeding a family of five like ours. So we all save by bringing food we cooked ourselves or ordered for take out, for some of us who don’t have the time to cook. I normally talk to everyone weeks in advance regarding what food they wish to bring. I just make sure that there won’t be any duplicates and that we’ll be having a complete meal. I assign someone to bring drinks and another one for dessert. I make sure that the food will be something both adults and kids would love to eat. Our food may not be gourmet but they still taste wonderful especially since they’re being shared with friends.
Exchange gifts the frugal way
When we were single, we’d give gifts to everyone in the group. That can really burn a hole in your wallet. Now that we have kids and have to spend on gifts for them as well, we decided to sacrifice a little. While we still give gifts individually to all the kids, my friends and I have decided to change the way we adults exchange gifts. We decided to each buy just one gift, put a cap on the cost, then just draw lots among ourselves to see whose gift we will get. Since we’re all women anyway (our husbands don’t join in exchanging gifts), it’s easy to find a gift that all of us will like. That saves us a whole lot of money.
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| Exchanging gifts in 2010 … |
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| …. and again in 2011 |
Contribute on games and prizes
To entertain our kids, we each come up with a game for them, similar to those we normally see in kiddie birthday parties. Whoever came up with the game must come up with prizes as well. They don’t have to be expensive. Christmas cookies and candies or small knick knacks are popular choices. That beats spending so much moolah on Timezone.
While it’s true that our Christmas reunions now are more hectic because of our respective families, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Although some of our friends are no longer with us (they’ve moved abroad), we still love our Christmas reunions and wouldn’t miss it for the world.
With these tips, there’s no reason to not celebrate your Christmas reunions. You can still have a lot of fun with friends and family the frugal, practical way.
Check out the rest of our Spend-Less Christmas Carnival participants!
