20 Ways to Save Money at Christmas Without Being a Scrooge
Christmas can be one of the easiest times of year to overspend, but you don’t have to let it catch you unprepared! You can save money at Christmas and still enjoy this festive time of year by following these easy tips.
We all want to help give our families a special Christmas, and sometimes, spending lots of money seems to be the easiest way to do that. However, oftentimes, the most special holiday memories cost very little or nothing at all.
Once we started having kids, my husband and I began talking about our childhood Christmases and how we want to celebrate in our own family. As we’ve reminisced, I’ve realized that most of the traditions we loved as kids didn’t cost much money at all.
Budget
If you want to save money at Christmas, budgeting is an important first step. Take some time to think through all the extra things you want to spend money on, and figure out a reasonable budget.
Also, create gift budgets for everyone on your list. Remember, a budget isn’t what you have to spend, but the spending limit. If you find a perfect gift for someone that’s on sale or slightly below your budget, you often don’t need to buy another gift just to hit your spending limit.
Choose Free Holiday Outings
There are so many free Christmas activities that you never need to spend money on holiday outings! Here are some of the best free activities:
- Drive around to see Christmas lights
- Attend a parade
- Visit a local town that goes all out for Christmas and walk down Main Street
- Go caroling
- Attend a Christmas Eve service
- Find a walk through (or drive through) Bethlehem event
Also, make sure to check your local city website for free holiday events in your area!
Center Your Christmas Around Home
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” isn’t just a classic Christmas song, but a great way to save money this time of year! Instead of going out to so many events where you’ll spend money, create fun holiday traditions at home. There are so many great ideas:
- Family Christmas movie night with festive snacks or drinks
- Bake together
- Decorate gingerbread houses
- Make handmade decorations
- Family gift-wrapping party with Christmas music and snacks
- Go sledding
- Make snow cream
- Countdown to Christmas with an Advent calendar
- Read Arnold Ytreeide’s Storybooks for Advent
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Fly on Less Popular Days
If you must fly, try to travel on days others don’t want to. Play around with dates to see when you can get the best deal.
Even better, choose to travel at the beginning of December or mid-January. Sometimes it’s worth it to celebrate Christmas on a different day if that’s the only way you can afford to be with loved ones.
Narrow Your Christmas Card List
You could always skip sending Christmas cards, but in a mostly digital world, Christmas cards are a special tradition for many people.
Think through the people on your Christmas card list. How many of them do you actually have a true relationship with? If there are people that you can’t remember the last time you talked to, consider removing them from your list. Reserve Christmas cards for the people you think would be excited to receive one from you.
Choose Affordable Christmas Cards
Whether you like sending personalized photo cards or traditional Christmas cards, shop around for the best price. Even if you have to sacrifice a little bit of quality to save money, most people will never notice.
I’ve often found that Walmart has the best prices for photo cards, but it’s important to compare prices every year.
Don’t Go Overboard with Gifts
More gifts don’t automatically make for a more memorable Christmas. Instead, take time to choose gifts that will be special to the person long after Christmas has passed and skip the random extras.
If you love having a family Christmas overflowing with gifts, give some things you would’ve bought anyway (such as new clothes your kids really need).
Shop On Sale
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the perfect times to try to finish up your gift shopping and save money at Christmas! If you see any other sales, make a point to take advantage of those as well.
Don’t Pay for Shipping
If you’re ordering online, do your best to avoid shipping fees. Most websites offer free shipping if you hit a minimum order amount, so buy a few gifts on one website so you can spend that amount.
Alternatively, some websites, such as Walmart, offer a free ship-to-store option.
Give Handmade Gifts
These can be some of the most special gifts to give and receive! Whether you like to sew, bake, knit, make jewelry, or something else, you can use your unique skill to create the perfect gift. If you need some inspiration, check out these ideas!
Play Secret Santa
For adults in the family (or a close friend group), playing Secret Santa instead of buying everyone a gift is a fantastic way to save money and create a new tradition!
You can have each person give whatever they would like or you could make it themed so everyone is giving and receiving the same type of gift. Some fun theme ideas are handmade gifts, books, candles, food, Christmas ornaments, and thrifted gifts.
However you choose to play Secret Santa, make sure you set a reasonable budget everyone is happy with.
To help keep track of all the gift giving, Draw Names is a free and easy website to use. Besides using it to draw names, you can create wish lists and share addresses if you’re mailing gifts.
Cook from Scratch
Christmas food is one of the things most people love about the holiday season! While most traditional Christmas food is from scratch, sometimes it’s easy to buy things to save time.
However, cooking and baking from scratch is one of the best ways to save money (and, as a bonus, it’s often healthier and tastier). When you buy ingredients instead of premade food, you’ll find that you spend less. Here are some of my favorite from-scratch holiday recipes:
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
Healthy Fried Apples Recipe – Dairy-Free & Refined Sugar-Free
Best Ever Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe – Juicy & Full of Flavor
Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Casserole without Refined Sugar
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes with Oat Flour
You can find even more Christmas recipes here!
Buy Ingredients in Bulk
If you know you’ll be doing lots of baking, buy ingredients in bulk to save money. Costco and Azure Standard are great places for this!
Don’t Waste Leftovers
According to statistics, Americans waste almost 40% of our food, and a significant portion of that is during the holidays. To keep the food budget lower, minimize food waste by eating all of the leftovers.
Keep track of when food was cooked, so you know how long it will keep. If you’re getting tired of the same leftovers for days on end, you can freeze them for later or repurpose them into another type of dish.
Decorate Using Nature
You can save money on artificial decorations by bringing nature into your home. Depending on what you have available, you may be able to use things such as evergreen branches, mistletoe, holly berries, and pine cones. Natural elements like this make for beautiful garlands, centerpieces, wreathes, ornaments, and more!
Repurpose Non-Christmas Decor
If you start looking at the items in your home year round, you may be surprised at how you can use them to create a more festive look!
To do so, bring red and green items (and any other color you’re using in your Christmas decor) to the front and center. For example, if you have green towels or red hot pads, make sure you’re using them this time of year. Pull out cozy blankets in Christmas colors and lay them over your couch. You can even bring out books with Christmas-colored covers and place them on your coffee table! The options are endless!
Create Handmade Decorations
This is a great activity to do with kids. You can make everything from ornaments to centerpieces to stockings!
Cinnamon Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments
Orange Slice Christmas Ornaments
Save Electricity
Christmas lights are fun for all ages, however, they can significantly increase your power bill. To keep it more affordable, be mindful when you turn on the lights.
Just like any other lights, turn them off when you leave the room. For outdoor lights, you can set a timer so they’re not on all night or turn them off before you go to bed.
Waiting until after Thanksgiving to decorate is a great way to fully enjoy Thanksgiving as well as save electricity.
Tips to Save Money at Christmas Next Year
If you want to save even more money next Christmas, you can do these things throughout the year.
Buy Decorations after Christmas
After Christmas, decorations often get marked down to great prices! As you’re putting away your Christmas decorations, make a list of what you’ll need for next year, and go ahead and buy it.
Shop Year Round
If you find the perfect gift early in the year, go ahead and buy it. You’ll be so glad to have one less thing to spend money on next Christmas! Sales can also be a great time to start your Christmas shopping early.
What are a few of your favorite ways to save money at Christmas? Let me know in the comments!
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