It’s Christmas Season, so it’s time to set your Best Christmas Budget. A good Christmas Budget is based on what you can afford while allowing you to enjoy the Christmas season and remember why we celebrate. And it will help us to enjoy the holiday more with our loved ones.
Checking Your List
The first thing we think about when it’s Christmas season, especially when it comes to spending money, is buying gifts. This is sometimes part of the problem. This presents a challenge because we think buying gifts will take up our entire budget, which rarely ever does. There are several major categories that we need to consider for your best Christmas budget. But first, let’s talk about making that list and checking it twice.
The other challenge with making a list for people to buy gifts for is you’re not always sure what to expect. Sometimes, you agree to buy gifts for a family member, co-worker, friend or loved one, and they don’t reciprocate. Or, you agree not to buy gifts for one another and surprise! They are moved to buy you something, and you are without a gift for them. This can be embarrassing, but if you set expectations and they aren’t always followed through either way, it can be an uncomfortable experience.
The best we can do is try to talk about any person we think may expect to exchange gifts and then follow through with your decision. Knowing what to expect in a situation like an office Secret Santa or White Elephant gift exchange is much easier.
Designing Your Space
One of the areas that we tend to budget less often than buying gifts, if we do so, is decorating our space for Christmas. One idea to get started is to think about indoors and outdoors. If we want to add lights, inflatable objects like snowmen and reindeer, and other similar items, we should consider that separately from other decorations. Don’t forget hardware like clips, supplies, and anything else needed to hold up the items. This is all about our best Christmas budget.
Then, we turn inside and think about whether we need a new tree, any new decorations in the house, glassware, hosting dishes, and even bakeware that we want to make cookies or cakes. Try to think about as much as you can about what needs to be replaced before we need to replace it that day to keep up with your best Christmas budget or, better yet, stay ahead. There’s typically at least something to replace.
Designing your space is a part of keeping a healthy budget during the holidays. If any maintenance or repairs need to be done as a part of the holiday, this is a great time to take note of those needs as well.
Setting a Limit For Your Best Christmas Budget
Before you start, limit how much you can afford to spend on design, decorations, gifts, and travel. Set a limit for how much you can afford to spend on each area, then that will inform how many people you can buy gifts for, whether you can afford all new decorations or perhaps better some updates instead, or whether you can afford to fly home for a holiday or if it would be better to drive this year. Setting your limits empowers you to say, no, I can’t afford to do or buy that, not this year. Setting limits for your categories puts you in control and drastically raises your likelihood of staying within your budget for the season.
Spending Categories
Spending categories are excellent and help with budgets tremendously because they help us see more clearly what we need and can afford. Tapping into categories like those we have identified will allow us to see if we are below our budget in one area and whether we can truly afford to borrow from other areas if we are over budget in those. Spending categories also allow for compromise. We can see that perhaps our area is too much, and we need to make more room for our spouse. Using categories helps us to see that.
Enjoying the Process
Making your best Christmas Budget is not about taking enjoyment out of the Christmas holiday season; rather, it’s meant to help us enjoy it. What’s not enjoyable is getting very close to Christmas, or right to Christmas, and knowing that we’ve overextended our budgets and will have to recover. It’s normal for everyone to do some financial recovery after Christmas. Still, when we measure our efforts, needs, and wants leading up to the holiday, we will be much more successful in our spending and savings goals.
All that to say, remember that we are given the gift of this season to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and God wants us to enjoy this time together with our loved ones.
It’s Better to Give Than to Receive
Finally, it’s important to remember not to become a little hard-hearted during the season of giving. Sure, it can be a challenge to save up all that we need for the season, especially for a family, but the Christmas holiday, and more importantly, the Bible shares that it is better to have a giving spirit than it is to have a receiving spirit. When we give, we do so voluntarily out of our hearts.
While it can be challenging, try not to expect anything in return. If we do what the Word says in being content with what we have, we prepare ourselves for a joyous holiday season. Rather than looking out for what we want or expect, we find joy in giving and making others feel appreciated and loved. Take time to think about why ou are grateful for the people God has placed in your life and the opportunity to make them feel special during this holiday season and see what the wonderful result will be. Have a blessed Christmas!
Leave a Reply