Christmas Tips to Save Time & Money

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given--when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children,the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes. ~Joan Winmill Brown

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season. I strive every year to keep the chaos to a minimum and so far we've been managing fairly well. Today I have some more great tips for the holidays!

ORGANIZING IS THE KEY!
Year before last, I began last year's Christmas shopping the day after Christmas. I didn't do all the shopping at once, but I did find a lot of sale items that were on a tremendous price reduction. I keep a tiny corner of the shelf in my husband's closet just for gift stashing. When I find a gift throughout the rest of the year that I think someone will like, I label it for that person (I'm bad to forget), and place it up in the box on the shelf. All thru the year, I add to this stash, so by the time December gets here, there are very few loose ends to tie up. That way, I can concentrate on stuff like decorating and cooking, the fun stuff!

Also, on my computer in my Word documents, I have a running list of who we give gifts or cards to. These lists date back to 2000. Each year, I paste the list of names to a new page, delete what I got for them the year before, and color code where I am with that person's gift. Such as red for "need to get", blue or "purchased", green for "wrapped" and pink for "mailed off". It only takes a few seconds to update the list, then I can print it out and keep it in my purse. This way, I can look over the years and see what I've gotten for someone, I don't duplicate, and can always see in a second what my status is. With a family as large and diverse as ours, I have found this a life saver! ~Liz

HANDY GIFT TAGS
It seems a shame to throw out all the beautiful Christmas cards we get every year, so I decided on a fun way to use them again. I stick them in a box with our holiday decorations,then when the next year comes around we use them to make tags for our presents. I let my son cut out the pictures into tag size pieces ,then we may add a squiggle border with a paint pen or marker, punch hole with a hole puncher and add a piece of ribbon! This is a great to teach kids to reuse things and it is a lot of fun too! ~Melodie

GIFT EXCHANGES
About 40 years ago we decided that there would be no gift exchange. There were no small children and what we bought for everyone was the wrong color, didn't fit or was just plain not liked. Therefore, Christmas in my family is getting together. The "Halls are all decked". We have a big Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day Dinner. We celebrate each other!! We therefore make a HUGE deal out of everyone's birthday as it rolls around. There is not hustle and bustle and fighting the crowds. ~Sharon

On OFL: Fun gift wrap to make yourself with the kids help!
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/holidays/wrapping.html