Christmas in July Series - Make Your Holidays More Enjoyable without Spending One Extra Dime

There are many techniques for improving your holidays. If you don’t believe it, just look at the advertising circulars in your Sunday newspaper or take a quick television advertising tour.

The perfect toy will make your child happy and will fill you with the joy of Christmas. A new set of bargain priced indoor-outdoor Christmas lights will make you the envy of the neighborhood and will give you a warm sense of holiday satisfaction. Christmas, the jewelers tell us, won’t really be complete unless that special woman receives the gift that lasts forever (and takes nearly as long to pay off). Even the simple notion of purchasing a holiday greeting card is imbued with heightened significance. Tear jerking commercials remind us just how important it is to buy the name brand cards if we really want to communicate our feelings for loved ones during the holiday season.

It is no wonder holiday stress has reached epidemic proportions. We receive message after message telling us just how important everything we buy and do is with respect to having a good holiday season. Simultaneously, we are bombarded with reminders that this is the most important time of the year. Confronted with these messages, we look for a way out. We look for a way to capture that elusive sense of holiday satisfaction—often with a wad of cash or a credit card.

There’s nothing wrong with spending within your means to have an enjoyable holiday. It is, after all, a time of giving and a time of celebration and some level of cost is probably inevitable. No one should begrudge another for buying that holiday diamond or eschewing cut-rate greeting cards. However, there are ways to increase your enjoyment of the holidays without spending one extra dime.