It's three days until Christmas. Are we delighted or debilitated?
Try these five easy tips to make next year's holiday season more joyful than Tiny Tim on Christmas morning.
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| courtesy of stockimages @freedigitalphotos.net |
5) Prep for next year. Get in the habit of post-Christmas and other clearance shopping.
Watch for new-in-package items at garage sales and thrift shops.
Keep the gifts in a tote, and you'll have a head start for next Christmas.
Try it for birthdays and baby showers too.
4) Limit spending. Set a gift budget and stick with it, even when those mounted singing reindeer heads beckon.
Re-gifting is great, especially if you've received a mounted singing reindeer head.
When you get a potential re-gifting item, tape a note on it.
Include the date and who it's from to keep from giving it back to the original giver.
3) Break Tradition. If you always cook a feast for your extended family, ask each member to bring along a side-dish instead.
You'll save time and money. Plus it assures your guests of one dish they'll enjoy--their own.
Create new traditions, like taking a special family outing in lieu of gifts. Seriously, how many Xbox games do your children need?
2) Under-commit. It's OK to say no. "Sorry, I can't host the ... cook the... head up the ..." No need to explain why.
A simple, "I'm sorry, I can't." suffices.
You might need to repeat it several times, or threaten them with a mounted singing reindeer head, but it will work.
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| courtesy of digidreamgrafix @ freedigitalphoto.net |
1) Remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Focus on the joy of Jesus birth. Let cooking, cleaning, and shopping take a back seat to the great news found in Luke 2:11:
"The Savior--yes, the Messiah, the Lord--has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!"
