1.  Celebrate over a breakfast rather than a traditional dinner meal.

Sometimes family’s have the following: unexpected financial problems, schedule conflicts, alcoholics, overzealous sports fans, family problems, etc.  Rather than invite everyone to an afternoon celebration, prepare a wonderful breakfast and provide thank you cards for all your guests expressing your gratitude.   However, if your family isn’t like the one described above go with the traditional family meal but put a time limit on it so that you are not burdened into the late hours of the night.  Also, get people to volunteer to clean up BEFORE you have the event. 

2.  Interview relatives on the day of the event by asking them interesting and fun questions.

Take the time prior to your Thanksgiving or Christmas event to prepare questions related to family history, personal interests and other useful information.  Enlist a family member to video your event while you or someone else asks relatives questions like:  “What were Thanksgiving celebrations like when you were growing up?  What sorts of presents did you get when you were a child?  How did you meet XYZ relative?  Who was president when you were a child?  What was your first job?  What did you enjoy doing prior to having a family?  When did you first realize you wanted to be a…?”

3.  Create a contest.

If you are planning an afternoon holiday celebration, you may want to incorporate a fun contest that centers around a certain sports team.  You may be familiar with a guessing game where players will guess how many points a certain team scores during each quarter and whoever comes close wins the game.  You will need prizes to give away to the winners.  For guests who aren’t sports fans, you may use an existing board game, create a trivia game or something else fun to keep visitors entertained.  Ask an older child to help out with planning games for the younger children.  Keep in mind that the longer you have guests over (especially ones with little children) the more activities you have to come up with to keep everyone entertained.  

4.  Plan a central place for fun photographs.

Since many people have social networking pages, guests would enjoy having both a family and a head-shot to proudly display on their web pages.

5.  Show off home movies, photo albums.

Whether a computer slide show or an old family album passed down from relatives, guests will enjoy looking at the photos.  To keep from people being tempted to steal old photographs, scan and copy them to DVDs then give them away as gifts.  

6.  Ask guests to contribute to a Thanksgiving or Christmas scrapbook.

Begin a scrapbooking project of your holiday event simply by purchasing needed paper, an album, and decor in advance.  Ask guests to write down, for instance, what they are thankful for or “what Christmas means” to them on each slip of paper.  Take their photo and then include their information in the book.  Gather your creative guests together to complete the book on the day of the event.  You may want to copy the book in the future and send it as a pdf file or as a newsletter to all those who couldn’t make your event. 

7.  Talk with talented relatives in advance requesting they perform.

Do you have a relative that can sing, dance, or tell funny jokes?  Let he or she know that you will be planning some fun activities and would like for this person to perform for your guests.  If you have a relative who creates wonderful artwork or creative pieces, make room for their work to be displayed.  However, do not encourage buying and selling at your event.  This way you don’t offend your guests who can’t afford to buy their work at the time.  Instead, tell your relative to leave business cards on a nearby table and if relatives are interested they can call or email he or she about the work.

8.  Plan creative activities for children.

Children are busy bodies and sometimes toys aren’t enough to keep their interest especially if they aren’t their age group.  Have plenty of supplies for children to make things related to the holidays.  Play fun videos for the children during the holiday events and if you have space outside the home, be sure there are plenty of toys and bikes.  Any toys you may have that might be a problem for a young child to share, don’t put them out!

9.  Prepare or buy an art piece and have everyone sign it.

Whether you create the item or everyone participates in it (such as a painting), get everyone to sign it.  The item could be a simple drawing on a poster board, a collage of photographs, or something that you would love to look at on your wall, whatever it is, be sure everyone puts their “John Hancock” to it.  People enjoy looking at their signature on things and the feeling that they are a part of something historic.

10. Meet everyone at a restaurant or some place fun.

When you don’t have the money or time to put into your holiday events at home, you can always meet your relatives and friends elsewhere!  A different ambiance will put anyone in a good mood.  Maybe afterward you can all go to a movie, a bowling alley, or over a relative’s home for some more fun!

The  holidays don’t have to be celebrated in the way that your mom, dad or grandparents celebrated them.  Plenty of people avoid the relatives and friends altogether and take vacations or simply stay at home.  If the holidays are important to you, then by all means be original, do something that will make positive lasting memories!

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             When I walk around my local neighbourhood I’m almost disgusted when I see the horrid decorations people splash their home with. Blow up Santa’s, snow globs and piles of messy overwhelming lights. Okay so I get it you want to show your Christmas spirit, but is all that garbage necessary. This time of year as we know has nothing to do with colourful trees and jolly fat guys, I mean really Christmas is about celebrating the birth Jesus and the spirit of love. I personally don’t celebrate Christmas from a religious perspective, but I still have enough respect to remember why we have Christmas to begin with. When the holidays arrive I want to respect my home as much as I do the celebration it’s self so that is why I choose to decorate my home in a caring loving fashion that invites serenity, peace and a little joy. And believe it or not I do it all on a small budget.

When people see my home I want them to feel inspired and know that it’s Christmas, I don’t want people thinking my home looks like a bad window display. I don’t need plastic ornaments to decorate my home, in fact I hardly use any plastic decorations at all. I love this idea because 1. I save money. 2. It gives me reason to clean up after the holidays 3. its better for the environment.

So how the heck do I manage to have such a beautifully decorated home during the holidays with out my plastic Santa and reindeer spread across my lawn, I use the nature that surround my home, I use plenty candles and a few store bought items.

All around my home and around yours as well you should be able to find and array of plant life that can be incorporated as holiday decoration. All over the world pine trees of all shapes and sizes can be found, colourful foliage, berries and seed pods , like pinecones can all be used in and around your home during the holidays. If you don’t have access to these item’s try your local floral dealer, hardware store or garden center, often you can get these items for free or for next to nothing.  

Decorating outside

Decoration outside should be simple and festive, with out all the glits and glam. Try surrounding your doors and window frames, railing and post with real hand made garland or use some ribbon. You can also use the ribbon to wrap up doors like gifts, or tie bows to dress up your garland with.

If you want to put lights up but don’t want to spend a fortune or break your back to put them up, I have a simple and cheap solution. Instead of buying large strands of lights only buy two small outdoor strands, color or white your choice. Wrap one or two around either, a rail, a post, wrapped around your garland, or dress up two outdoor planters. I have two large iron pots on either side of my front door, all year long I keep these pots filled. Of course in winter where I live not much survives, so I use some local berry tree braches a few twigs of dogwood, which is a plant that has a red stems when the leaves are gone, I add some pine and cedar along the bottom to cover any dirt and I wrap it all up with a small stand of lights. This makes my front door very elegant, and all it cost was that of the lights. Simple, yet beautiful and festive; Why spend a lot when you don’t have too.

Inside the house

When I first got married my family gave me boxes of old dishes, pictures, sheets and Christmas decorations. Everything they didn’t want anymore I got, and of course after time I invested in my own decoration. So like many of you every year I pulled out my boxes and boxes of Christmas junk, and like you I manages to find places for everything. Every table, every wall had something jolly and Christmassy covering it. As the Christmas’s past I realized what a clutter all this JUNK was making. My home sure looked festive but it also resembled an isle at the dollar store.

A few years ago our shed got looted by some kids while we were gone one summer, a lot of our Christmas stuff was destroyed. It was then I realized I didn’t really need all those decorations anyway; so now I keep it simple and cheap.

I invested in a nice tablecloth that I wash and reuse every year, I fill a few doorways with real garland and I use candles, ribbon and few handmade bits for around my house. And, the biggest decoration, the one that stands out above all is the one that should be the home’s centerpiece, it’s our Christmas tree. That’s the real decoration, without the tree all the other stuff is just junk.

I use a lot of candles in my Christmas decorations as well, for one they are cheap and two they look beautiful when lit. Of course I do jazz them up just a bit, a ribbon around the base with a bow and sometimes I wrap them in cedar and pine. I get many more compliments on my fresh pine candles then anything else.

No Christmas in my opinion would be complete with out table decorations, to be more specific centerpieces. There are so many cheap and elegant ways to put together a Christmas centerpiece. One option is a wreath and a fat candle, how about a bowl of pinecones painted with white or glitter. Try filling a pot with a wet floral oasis and stuff it with cedar, pine, berry bush braches, and or bunches of poinsettias. Or how about a dry oasis with dried fruits and pinecones on skewers surrounded with potpourri or dried flowers. Fill a basket with Christmas tree ornaments and tie a ribbon around it. How about a few glass candle holders in a line surrounded by dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks. Why spend a fortune for one day, make it simple and beautiful.

A few more simple decorating ideas

Wrap up 2-3 different size boxes with wrapping paper then stack on top and tie one big bow around them perfect to fill a corner or make two to put next to your front door.

If you have an old sled put some vintage toys in it, or some presents. Or leave as is and put some lights and garland on it.

Fill a basket with old holiday cookie cutters for a quick center piece; tie a bow around to brighten it up.

Tie few old mittens together add a bow and hang on a door or wall for a neat swag. Other swags can be made with dried orange and apple slices, fresh cedar or pine, and even a few old Christmas tree ornaments.

Tip…if you are planning on downsizing your Christmas decorations, try donations them to friends family and charity, please don’t just throw them away. And, if you must try to recycle and properly dispose of your old decorations. Thank you

Be creative and keep it simple, enjoy the holidays with friends and family and spend your money on them. Your home will be warm as long as you feel good inside. Remember what Christmas is about and the decorations won’t seem so important.

Here are 20 great tips you can start using today to get you through the Holidays. You can check out www.saving-money-tips.com for more money-saving ideas.

1) Get Planning: Go through all of your Holiday items and décor at home to check what items you really need; then shop for only the necessities.

2) Write your Holiday List: Write a Holiday shopping list. It should include all the people you are planning on buying a gift for and ideas of what to buy them. It should also include things that you need for your home and which stores you are going to get each item from. You’ll find you save gas and do fewer trips to the stores.

3) Shop online: You can buy everything online these days and if you get free shipping on items it definitely saves you gas money; plus you don’t need to go out to the stores in the cold and you avoid the crowds.

4) Enjoy Black Friday: (the day after Thanksgiving) Take advantage of the Black Friday sales and look for coupons for that day so you can save even more. Check out http://www.blackfriday.info/ for all the deals in the major stores.

5) Think Ahead to next year: Invest in an artificial tree after the Holidays when they go on sale. If you take care of them they can last for several years. Also get discounted gift wrap, cards and décor after Christmas to really save for next year.

6) Set a limit on gifts: Agree in advance with your family members to an affordable amount for everyone to spend on gifts. This saves everyone in the family money.

7) Create a Christmas Savings Account/Club: Estimate how much money you need at Christmas for gifts and divide that by 52 and each week put that amount away and when Christmas rolls around you’ll have the necessary funds. You can also do this monthly (Amount needed divided by 12) and even have that amount come out of your checking account and into your savings account automatically.

Shop Sales Year Round: Hit the clearance sales after Christmas and all the Holiday sales through the year like…Memorial Day, 4^th July etc…you’ll save major bucks and you’ll be ready when Christmas comes to relax and enjoy the gift giving season.

9) Homemade Gifts are a great idea: Let’s get back to basics with simple homemade gifts from the heart. It doesn’t take long to bake/make Christmas breads, fudge, truffles, jams, jellies or cookies for your family and neighbors. Everyone loves to eat! Another super easy homemade gift idea is a simple fleece scarf that requires no sewing skills.

10) Establish traditions that don’t cost a lot: Instead of having expensive formal dinner parties, do a “Pot-Luck” Dinner and get everyone involved.

11) Organize an “Ornament Exchange” at work. This is an inexpensive way to buy gifts for co-workers that they will use and enjoy.

12) Take advantage of the free wrapping stores offer: You’ll save time and money.

13) Eat before you go Holiday shopping: Research shows that you can spend up to 40% more when hungry.

14) Make your decorations & get the kids involved: Make inexpensive garlands from popcorn & cranberries. The kids will love stringing them together.

15) Get out & see the lights around town: Take your family to see the neighborhood Holiday lights or city lights for free instead of an expensive Christmas theater show. Play Christmas music in the car and finish the night off with some hot apple cider.

16) Check you plastic: Make sure you pay off your credit card as soon as you get the bill in January or February. If you know you can’t ahead of time, pick a single low-interest card to make your purchases with. Before you head out to spend, give the card company a call and see if the will lower your rate.

17) Be charitable: Instead of buying yet another gift for that sister/brother/uncle/aunt that has it all, make a donation to a charity in their name.

18) Be a smart traveler: If you travel on Christmas morning the flights are cheaper and you still get there in time for Christmas lunch!

19) Use cash to shop: Research shows you spend 30% less with cash. Just keep it safe!

20) Remember what it is all about: Keep the Holidays simple. You’ll save money and enjoy celebrating the holidays for its real meaning and cherish the family members and friends in your life.

See more great money-saving tips from Suzanne at: www.saving-money-tips.com Have a happy Holiday Season!