Saving Money on Holiday Entertainment and Gifts

So you have your budget Christmas cards, decorations and food all set, but how are you going to entertain everyone and how do you get presents for everyone!  There are so many different personalities in the mix, which means so many different opinions, but if you start with a little early footwork, you might find more people are interested in cutting back on these items also…
Gifts:

Who says you have to get everyone, something?  I know with our family the children always got something from everyone, but after a few years of adding more children to the mix, we decided to draw names…one drawing for the adults and one for the children.  This way the children feel like adults, and the children love handing out each gift to the person they chose.  Also, set a price limit.  This helps everyone plan for the holiday and no one ends up with a $50.00 gift and someone else ends up with a $10.00 gift.  The children can have a limit of $5.00/$10.00 and the adults a limit of $20.00/$25.00.  And don’t forget to get a list of things everyone wants.  Get this list at Thanksgiving or even before…planning will save you even more money!  Have everyone write down what they want and have their name at the top.  This way when you draw out the name, you all ready have a list of items.  Make sure everyone uses the same paper, so no one knows who got who’s name.

Make gift giving fun.  Play a Secret Santa Bingo…everyone brings a wrapped gift that can be for men or women (with a price limit) and once you win bingo, you get pick a gift and you don’t win again…you can keep playing, but you only win once.

Entertaining the group:

Rent old Christmas movies or better yet, check them out from the library then they’re free…or even get a list of favorite movies and play those…they don’t have to be Christmas movies.

Do you remember driving around with your parents and looking at Christmas lights, why not keep this tradition alive and do this with your family now.  If you have too many people to get into one vehicle then play a game…divide everyone up and go into different directions.  Each car load takes pictures of all the decorations and the car load that has the picture with the most lights win!

Don’t forget the board games…and not everyone has to play Scrabble!  Set up different areas…some for cards, dominos, Scrabble, etc.

Have a Christmas Song Karaoke…someone in the family is sure to have a karaoke machine, so why not plug it in and have a little fun singing!
Read a Christmas story to the group.  Adults remember their favorite books and “Twas the Night Before Christmas” is always a favorite.