Plan on saving all your Christmas cards that you receive from friends and family.  If money is really tight next Christmas, you can make post cards, re-purposed Christmas cards, ornaments, decorations, and lot’s of other decorative embellishments from used cards.  If you get to next Christmas and don’t have time or need to use the cards, you can dispose of them, or continue saving them along with the new ones for future use.

Call all your friends and neighbors, and plan a Christmas cookie exchange for next week.  If you’ve never hosted one before, here’s how it works.  Each invitee (and you) bakes his or her favorite Christmas Cookie.  They will make one dozen cookies for every other guest, plus one dozen for tasting.  (If you invite more than 12 people, the tasting cookies need to equal the number of people invited.  When everyone arrives with their cookies, you spread out all the tasting cookies, provide milk, coffee, and tea.  Explain the rules.  Each person can taste one only of each different kind of cookie.  When everyone leaves they will take home one dozen of each kind of cookie.  Your best group size is 12 people including yourself.  Each person bakes 13 dozen cookies.  At the end of your “party” each guest goes home with 12 dozen different cookies, and an amazing sugar high!  You clean up the mess, and now have 12 dozen Christmas cookies.  You can freeze most of them, and take them out as needed throughout the holiday season.  NO MORE BAKING!

Time to pamper yourself a little.  Think about your

Mail all your out of town packages and your Christmas Cards.  (Overseas Packages should be mailed in late October or early November.)

Plan your menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  If you are planning on having a fresh

Now… back to Christmas.  A client was feeling bad yesterday because she is being “forgotten” at Christmas by her grown children.  She is older, and has been on a rather limited income for several years.  She owns her home, but lives on a modest income.  She is one of America’s poor.  She was planning on making something for each of her children, grand children, and great grandchildren for Christmas, since she can no longer afford to purchase even modest gifts for all 50 members of her family.  Her Children and Grandchildren all live in different parts of the country, and she spends Christmas alone.. None come to see her at Christmas, (and none send her gifts) and she is reluctant to go visit them because it would leave her mother (in a nursing home) alone.  I suggested that she forgo the handmade gifts and purchased gifts, and use the money to go visit one of her children or Grandchildren during the season instead. 

How many of you receive a gift from your parents every year at Christmas?  How many of you make sure you send your parents a nice gift each year?  How many of you make it a point to visit with your parents some time during the holiday season?  Are your parents or grandparents alone at Christmas?  Think about these things, and this year be sure to include your parents and grandparents in your plans and your gifting.    

I believe that too many people give or receive gifts based on the wrong kind of feelings and expectations.  I know that I used to.  I had this unhealthy and incorrect assumption that if I gave a lavish gift that I would be more loved and appreciated by the recipient.  Instead, I just set up expectations that seemed to require more expensive and lavish gifts each year.  Worse yet, it eventually became very clear to me that the gifts really weren’t appreciated.  Many recipients simply took the gifts back to the stores after the holiday and had a spending frenzy on me. 

Over the past few years, I have made much wiser spending decisions on gifts.  I set a budget, of course, and it is usually quite modest.  I actually make several gifts, or try to find unique items.  I will be sharing some of my favorite web sites off and on, so you can find some of these artists and small Internet businesses.  I also practice what I write about, and buy or make my gifts all year long.  The only gifts I purchase during the month of December are those special little things that the children decide they must have.  Even then, if it’s just something they see on TV and nothing they’ve ever shown an interest in before.. I don’t purchase it for them. 

Spend some time this week thinking about why you give gifts.  Examine your feelings about giving and receiving.  You might be very surprised by your findings, and it may change the way and the amount you give in the future.