10 Frugal Ideas For Christmas

If you don’t have the bucks to buy lavish gifts for all your gals and pals, try one or more of these 10 frugal ideas for Christmas. After all, who says you have to be a spendthrift during the holidays? You can go cheap and still make people smile. They don’t have to know how much you spent—or didn’t spend—so keep your frugal Christmas ideas to yourself.

1. Send Christmas postcards. Instead of paying a fortune for fancy Christmas cards and costly postage, purchase postcards that cost less to buy and send.
2. Wrap Christmas gifts in recycled material. The Sunday comics are colorful and can cover most medium or small size boxes. You can also go shiny with aluminum foil.
3. Use last year’s Christmas cards for gift tags. Just cut out shapes and attach them to the present. No one will know how frugal you are, unless they’re the ones who sent you that card.
4. Decorate with what is on hand. Christmas is just as merry if you garnish the tree with strings of popcorn and use pinecones from the yard for centerpieces.
5. Free ornaments are always special. Ask nieces and nephews for handmade decorations. They’ll be honored you asked, and you’ll be able to decorate for Christmas on the cheap.
6. Rent holiday videos. Instead of going out to expensive Christmas movies, invite friends over for an oldies holiday movie party. For an even more frugal evening, ask everyone else to bring a snack or drink to share, and you’ll supply the movies. Most video stores have dollar rentals.
7. Office gifts don’t have to be expensive. Buy one item in bulk, separate it into individual servings, and wrap it in tulle or festive holiday tissue. Some items your coworkers may enjoy include specialty coffees or wrapped specialty candies.
8. Suggest a recycled gift exchange. Each person brings something to re-gift, making everyone’s Christmas a frugal one.
9. Take snapshots and stick them in cheap frames from the dollar store. Your friends won’t care how frugal you are at Christmas if they like the way they look in the picture.
10. Bake cookies for everyone on your Christmas list. No one has to know they’re slice-and-bakes. Just shake some colored sugar or sprinkles on top when they’re fresh out of the oven, and your frugal gift will look like you spent all day in the kitchen.

Keep your confidence and smile through the holiday season. Your frugal Christmas ideas will seem bigger and much more expensive than they actually are.