Monday, November 12, 2012

Aaaaaaannnddd.....GO!

Y'all, Homemade Christmas 2.0 has commenced. Supplies have been ordered/bought/procured and I have what will likely turn out to be more ideas than time. I was getting a little worried because I was really stumped, but over the past couple days it's been a crafty avalanche of ideas around here. I'm so freaking excited! I was worried about whether the kids were going to be on board, but I mentioned buying a gift the other day and Eli says, "But Mom, it's HOMEMADE Christmas!" So we're good. Santa will still be bringing "elf-made" gifts, but both kids have very, very small lists (as in, please kid for the love of God, your grandparents will be asking soon and I need more than one thing). I'm working very hard to restrain myself from going further than I need to. Which we all know is not very far. Both kids are going to be thrilled with the one or two things they've been asking for for over a month.

We're also trying to be a bit more frugal this year, although to be honest that's a goal we start with every year. We ended up not getting the previously mentioned house, which sucks, but also made a nice (and hopefully not too expensive) learning experience. And one of the things we learned is that our finances are a mess. They're not out of control, but they're not exactly "streamlined." So our goal for the next few months, before we try again, is to clean them up. One of the ways to do that is to pay off these stupid, small balance credit cards that we just drag along month to month. And one of the ways to do that is to not go crazy buying stuff the kids don't even want. We've also agreed between all seven of our combined siblings (and spouses) to eliminate gifts for each other. Grandparent gifts will be homemade by the kids (though I'll probably help :) ) I tell you all this in the interest of accountability. Because I'm sure my gift-buying restraint will waver as the holiday gets closer.

Anyway, back to YAY Homemade Christmas!! I'll try to post pictures of my progress, especially on the kids' gifts. Some of the others will have to wait until after the holidays because their recipients have been known to stop by the blog. But rest assured, all will be awesome.

What about you? Are you making any gifts or doing other things to cut down on the holiday-induced spending splurge? What about stockings? I'm totally stumped there.

2 comments:

  1. I need to do this, but I am terrible at making things. Every year we spend disgusting amounts of money on terrible heaps of plastic, overwhelming the kids with so much crap that they don't care too much about any of it. A horrible cycle that we are trying to break. This year, we are not buying ourselves anything (because we have to redo all the kids' bedrooms to shuffle the big ones around before we have the baby), so that should help. But then add in Hanukkah, and zOMG.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea! We are doing no adult gifts and all secondhand for kids on one side of the family. Did the same thing last year and it was awesome. LOVE the handmade idea!

    ReplyDelete