If you plan ahead, there are plenty of Christmas freebies you can use to keep your holiday expenses to a minimum.
Christmas Freebies for Getting Organized
Anyone who is committed to frugal living knows that the key to saving money is getting organized. Making last minute decisions doesn't leave time for comparison shopping or evaluating more cost-effective ways to accomplish a particular task.
To celebrate Christmas on a tight budget, consider creating a Christmas planner. Fill a three-ring binder with organizer sheets to help you stay on track and stick to your budget as you plan for the holiday season. Organized Christmas features printable calendars as well as decorating, gift-giving, cooking, and Christmas card check lists. There's even a holiday budget worksheet, blank to-do lists, and decorated divider pages available as free Adobe PDF downloads.
Free Decorations
Decorations help set the mood for a festive Christmas celebration, but purchasing these items can be rather expensive. Save money by using Christmas freebies to make decorations. Noella Designs features several printable paper crafts that you can assemble with your children to make fun and festive holiday decorations. Try creating Santa's reindeer sleigh to stretch across your mantle, or cutting out festive snowflakes to hang in your windows.
Don't forget that nicely wrapped packages can go a long way towards making your home seem more festive. Print free wrapping paper and gift tags in the design of your choice on the All Things Christmas website. This site also features printable Christmas cards and gift certificates for you to enjoy.
Free Gifts
While it's certainly fun to give gifts to all your family and friends, this can easily become an overwhelming expense. Save money by taking advantage of ideas for free Christmas gifts. For example:
- Feels Like Christmas has a large assortment of free and legal mp3 Christmas music downloads. Assemble a playlist of your favorites, then burn it to a CD to make a thoughtful gift for any music lover.
- Visit Games2Download to assemble a collection of age-appropriate computer games for a special child. Burn the games onto a CD to make a fun stocking stuffer.
- Create a scrapbook using the free printable supplies at Scrapbook Scrapbook. Depending upon the recipient, you could make a book of Christmas memories, a baby scrapbook, a vacation album, or a collection of favorite family recipes.
Free Ways to Help Others
During the holiday season, it's especially important to remember those who are less fortunate. Here are some easy ways to help make a difference during the hectic holiday season:
- The Hunger Site features buttons for supporting hunger relief programs, as well as literacy efforts, child health initiatives, breast cancer awareness, rainforest protection, and animal rescue. Click on each button once per day and the site will make a small charitable donation. If you're looking for unique Christmas gifts, purchase an item from their online store and a portion of the profits will be donated to the group of your choice.
- Free Rice lets you work on improving your vocabulary while you have fun and help others. For each answer you get right in this online game, the site will donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger in impoverished countries.
