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Christmas Shopping is hard.

Holly

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It's holiday time again so it's time to stress about Christmas. It isn't too bad as an adult with a family of adults, but man having a kid, living paycheck to paycheck, and trying to make it special for her complicates it. Need to have at least a present from us and stuff from Santa Claus. I usually get most of our decorations from the Dollar Tree or thrift stores so the house will look Christmassy but I'm stressing about the presents for her, stressing that I remember everyone to avoid an awkward family gathering, stressing that we provide a "good" Christmas holiday for our daughter.

And she's only 5. Realistically most toys for her age aren't terribly expensive. Just waiting until she gets older and her Christmas wishlist becomes "game console", "tablet", or "cell phone."

I wonder if my parents felt this way when my brother and I were kids.
 

Crystal

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Christmas shopping is very hard, agreed, and yeah, shopping for kids is a pain! We have a seven year old in the house and...no clue what to get her. But you're right, at the earlier years things aren't ridiculously priced just yet, but those years sure are coming! We do the Dollar Tree routine as well for decorations, because you really don't need to spend a fortune!

I'm broke this year, so I can't buy for anyone, sadly, but I will do my best just the same.
 
Have you ever used anything like Oriental Trading or Discount School Supplies? My wife has always gotten these catalogs in the mail since she is a teacher, and they have a whole lot of low priced, interesting items that aren't always in stores.

A lot of learning games, crafting items, plushes, small toys, decorations, etc that make for cheap but fun gifts. My youngest loves arts and crafts so we get most of her gifts from these. Her Christmas list right now with 8 items on them comes out to $60 at DSS.

I think 5 years olds like a few things that are really exciting and then just want to open presents. At least my kids at that age wouldn't care what the gift was, they mostly wanted to find and open gifts under the tree.

For outside decorations, we are still running the same lights on the house that we got for $15 at Target years ago, four garland light strands that were $5 a piece, and two inflatable elves that were like $15 each a few years back. Try and find deals at Walmart and Target for outside decor, and the aforementioned websites above for inside. The most expensive part of outside is the 4 extension cords and splitters.

All that said, F trees. We get a real one every year and it just hit $100 for a 6 ft tree near me. I usually leave a tip to the person loading it on my car but all I had was $100! Was not expecting that after the last few years the trees were $75 and then $80. We felt bad so my wife went back down there later and gave the guy $10 lol.
 

Holly

Resident of the GWF Retirement Home
GW Elder
Messages
471
Have you ever used anything like Oriental Trading or Discount School Supplies? My wife has always gotten these catalogs in the mail since she is a teacher, and they have a whole lot of low priced, interesting items that aren't always in stores.

A lot of learning games, crafting items, plushes, small toys, decorations, etc that make for cheap but fun gifts. My youngest loves arts and crafts so we get most of her gifts from these. Her Christmas list right now with 8 items on them comes out to $60 at DSS.

I think 5 years olds like a few things that are really exciting and then just want to open presents. At least my kids at that age wouldn't care what the gift was, they mostly wanted to find and open gifts under the tree.

For outside decorations, we are still running the same lights on the house that we got for $15 at Target years ago, four garland light strands that were $5 a piece, and two inflatable elves that were like $15 each a few years back. Try and find deals at Walmart and Target for outside decor, and the aforementioned websites above for inside. The most expensive part of outside is the 4 extension cords and splitters.

All that said, F trees. We get a real one every year and it just hit $100 for a 6 ft tree near me. I usually leave a tip to the person loading it on my car but all I had was $100! Was not expecting that after the last few years the trees were $75 and then $80. We felt bad so my wife went back down there later and gave the guy $10 lol.
I have, but I hadn't considered them outside of buying stuff for her birthday. I'll have to take a look.

We use an artificial Christmas tree that we bought after Christmas a few years ago on a steep discount. Hoping to get a few more years out of it. I can't do real trees because of my allergies and also because they're so expensive.
 

Rachel

No Problem Here
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Not sure if this helps or if it's too late. We don't do the Santa thing. All presents are from us. Our two have known from the beginning, there's no need to double up or split them into separate groups. All presents cost money.

I also remember when my uncle dropped us from the list. Just couldn't give something to everyone. We understood.
 
Interesting. I loved Santa as a kid and believed until I was 11. I love the magic of it all. I think my older daughter knows now that she is 11. She has told us her list has options depending on what is available. Kind of a bummer, but she is still making sure my 8 year old still believes. Good big sister.

I'm happy my family does presents for kids only, though. Adults can buy their own stuff through the year.
 

Kat

Orangekat
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For outside decorations, we are still running the same lights on the house that we got for $15 at Target years ago, four garland light strands that were $5 a piece, and two inflatable elves that were like $15 each a few years back. Try and find deals at Walmart and Target for outside decor, and the aforementioned websites above for inside. The most expensive part of outside is the 4 extension cords and splitters.
Personally I'd stay clear of Walmart. A lot of their holiday stuff doesn't work out of the box, and most of the rest of it will die within a year or two.

It sounds like you've had good luck at Target. I'll have to try that.

Just waiting until she gets older and her Christmas wishlist becomes "game console", "tablet", or "cell phone."

I wonder if my parents felt this way when my brother and I were kids.
I can confirm my parents definitely felt this way every time a new console came out. However, I always understood if they couldn't afford it.

If you have some time to spare (I understand this is also something people tend to be short on!), you can make it more fun in creative but cheap ways. Like make funky shaped boxes for the presents (my personal favorite is to use a paper towel tube to make a hole through the box), or bake and decorate elaborate cookies together. All of my favorite Christmas memories are things like that, not the stuff.
 

Fool's Requiem

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I really don't recommend getting anything at a Dollar Stores. Those businesses treat employees like garbage and the stuff there is overpriced and/or pure trash. Thrift stores are 100% the way to go for that.

I know Target is known for their FOMO focuses shopping experience, but you can usually find decent stuff, even in that first section right in front of the entryway right across from the Starbucks.

For gifts, it may be tempting to just buy something cheap because you're low on money, but at least try to find stuff you think your kids will use for a long while... or at least until next Christmas. Don't buy cheap, buy value.

And again, thrift stores might have something you think your kid would love.

I would say "Buy a movie your kid would love" but streaming services make that a bad gift. :(

You could spend a little extra on a couple higher quality goodies and include a bunch of cheaper filler gifts like socks, cute t-shirts, maybe a hat or something. Oh, and if you have a little girl, Claire's is great place to find a bunch of trinkets on the cheap. A few years ago, I bought my 4 nieces a bunch of headbands, and it didn't cost much at all. No idea if they ever used them, tho.
 

Mark

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To build on what @The Eye in the Sky! said about outdoor decorations… this really isn’t helpful now, but you can get decorations like lights and inflatables ridiculously cheap immediately following the holidays. That’s something my parents did growing up to alleviate some of the holiday burden. It’s easier to figure out what lights no longer work, trash them, and replace them at the end of the season than it is to go pay full price, contend with product availability since most people are purchasing decorations prior, and then short the family gifts because you got ripped off on some lights.

As far as gifts, I’m also in agreement about the engaging stuff like beginner crafts and activities of that variety. They’re really cheap compared to the more popular items, and let’s be real here… 5 year olds are gonna burn through a $5 craft kit just as fast as they’re gonna burn through a $20-$30 game they really, really wanted for their tablet or Leapfrog, and they’re going to get a lot more hands-on experience with the craft kit.
 
Well we just did our shopping online last night. The elf on the shelf finally made an appearance and with that they know to get their lists done to send to Santa.

30 minutes online are we are done with everything except for stocking stuffers and my wife's gift. She has always wanted a mother's ring or something with the kid's birthstones on them so my daughters and I will sneak out to find one this weekend.

Highlights include a legit adult bike, a snow-cone machine, 2 DDR pads, and Astro Bot.

Also just booked our flights to and from California for next summer because we were on a roll buying things lol.

Edit: OH! I forgot to mention my biggest tip of all! I started doing it 7 years ago and never stopped.

Throughout the year I auto transfer $30 per week into a Christmas account - it really helped during the holidays when things were tough. You learn to live without $30 each week (it can be any amount, even $10 a week adds up to $520 per year for Christmas). It gives me a pile to spend every December without touching the budget or having to dip into savings.

I have a free savings account through Wealthfront that I drop the money into. $30 a week equals $1560 each year, plus interest since the account earns 4.5% - so add on around $50 free interest as well.
 

Holly

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It's been a while but an update. I asked my parents for an oil change for Christmas and instead they gave us our Christmas money early. It helped so, so much. I was able to do a full grocery trip instead of the tiny "just get by" one I had planned, the car is no longer chiming at me that it's overdue for an oil change, and I was able to make sure that even the stockings will be good this year. I just about broke down crying. I was only asking for help with a $50 oil change for Christmas, I did not expect them to do that. I am so, so thankful and appreciative. I even found a "big" present that we could get her, a sealed Barbie Dreamboat that Walmart had marked down to $30 from $70.

We've all been sick with the flu the last week so having that burden of stress relieved helps more than I can put into words and I do not take their gift for granted.
 

Gloom-is-good

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Just got done wrapping things last night at like 11pm. All for work actually. I wish people liked me less at work so that they didn't gift me things and then I wouldn't feel obligated to get them gifts but heerrre wwweee are 😅

My husband and I are pretty hard to shop for so we did talk and agree we're not giving items this year, we're doing experiences instead. So for him I'm organizing an immersive VR game experience with his/our friends.
 

Kat

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Just got done wrapping things last night at like 11pm. All for work actually. I wish people liked me less at work so that they didn't gift me things and then I wouldn't feel obligated to get them gifts but heerrre wwweee are 😅
I once baked a ton of cookies for all my co-workers. They have never forgotten it and beg me to do it again every year. But the team has tripled in size since then and it was already a lot of work... I wish I liked them less so I didn't feel obligated to try to do it. :tease

My husband and I are pretty hard to shop for so we did talk and agree we're not giving items this year, we're doing experiences instead. So for him I'm organizing an immersive VR game experience with his/our friends.
That's a great idea!

Last year I did a dice game with my parents that involved swapping and stealing presents. It was fun, definitely made me think differently about present shopping since I wasn't buying specific presents for specific people but for the whole group. It also made me feel better about getting stuff that was kinda silly and funny which could seem a bit mean spirited in other contexts.
 

Gloom-is-good

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I once baked a ton of cookies for all my co-workers. They have never forgotten it and beg me to do it again every year. But the team has tripled in size since then and it was already a lot of work... I wish I liked them less so I didn't feel obligated to try to do it. :tease
Last year I baked bread and EVERYBODY got bread. This year I've been lazy so I haven't even made my sourdough starter
 

Holly

Resident of the GWF Retirement Home
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In past years I've made rum cakes or cookies to pass out to neighbors. This year I put together simmer pot bags. Everyone enjoys a nice Christmas-smelling house so I got oranges, cranberries, cloves, bay leaves, star anise, and I had a giant container of cinnamon from my own simmer pots. Threw that together, started one on my own stove to make sure it smelled good, and passed them out. I really like being able to pass out things to my neighbors.
 
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