Cheap Christmas Ideas

Easy to Make Christmas Gifts | Homemade Christmas Ornaments

If you're looking for cheap Christmas ideas, this is the page for you. Scroll down the page for frugal holiday tips and ideas from fellow readers.

Ideas for a frugal, but cool Yule:

Shop at thrift stores for unique presents throughout the year.
Throw a potluck Yuletide dinner, where everyone brings a dish, and spreads out the work and expense.
Look for handmade Christmas ornaments in garage sales and thrift stores. They're also a good source for unique (and often valuable) vintage Christmas baubles.
Make your festive gifts throughout the year. Your local library is full of craft books with good ideas for homemade Christmas presents.
If you don't already participate, join a Christmas cookie exchange. For a little effort you'll reap the reward of dozens of delicious cookies made by someone else.
Agree to a set spending limit with adult family and friends. Or, have a gift exchange where you all draw a name out of a hat, and buy for that person.

Some frugal Christmas ideas from our gentle readers:

Cheap Christmas Presents: Make Salt Dough Ornaments

From Monique in Quebec City:

By the time you add up all the people you have to purchase small gifts for that you work with on a daily basis, it really adds up.

You might normally spend $5-10 on ornaments for the babysitter, piano teacher, or friend having a holiday party.

A great way to save money and have fun is for you to make your own holiday ornaments! For under $20, you can make upwards of 15 custom ornaments (or have the kids make them if it is for someone that they work with)!

What you will need is:

flour,
salt,
water,
acrylic paint (whatever colors you need for the design you picked),
a cookie cutter,
acrylic sealing spray and
ribbon.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Combine 2 parts flour and 1 part of each salt and water into a bowl (if you use a cup as your base measurement for one part, it will make about 7-8 ornaments). Knead until it feels like a consistent doughy texture, roll in a ball and flatten.

Use the cookie cutter (mine are snowmen!) to cut the dough in the shape of your ornaments.

Poke a hole in the top that you will use to string the ribbon through.

Bake for 2 hours. After pulling them out of the oven (and letting them cool), paint it to look cute!

After the paint dries, spray it with the acrylic seal. This may take some time to dry, but once it is set, just string a ribbon through the top and it is ready to go!

Your handmade ornaments look like they would sell for $15-20, but in reality only cost a dollar or two to make!

Frugal Christmas Gifting: Watch for Clearances and Online Discounts

From Arlene B in Texas:

My husband's family has 12 children in it, and we have to buy gifts for all twelve of them, along with buying gifts for three of them twice for another family Christmas.

Every year in late July or early August most retailers have big clearances on toys, as they are gearing up for the holiday season.

I make sure to buy toys for the kids then, when they are fifty to seventy five percent off.

I also use swagsbucks.com to earn Amazon gift cards throughout the year, which I save up to use for my own daughters gifts from Santa.

The plus side of using Amazon, is that they are delivered to my door, so I don't have to spend gas money on going out to buy them, nor do I have to go out in the crowds.

For any gifts I am missing, as Christmas gets closer, I use extra carebucks from CVS to help fill in the toys I am missing, or stocking stuffers.

This year, I've gotten gifts for everyone, including a power wheel for my little one, and spent less than a hundred dollars.

Use Deal Sites for Cheap Christmas Shopping:

From Lallie in California:

I've been keeping my eye on the deal sites for Christmas shopping this year. Surprisingly, I found many things for pennies on the dollar and even free.

For example, I bought a Plum District deal for Ecomom.com. I went to the Ecomom website and they were having a HUGE sale: Save $60 on your order of $100 or more. I checked the clearance section and filled up a cart.

In total (sale + purchased deal) I spent $20 for $110 in merchandise.

I make sure to refer friends to these deal sites so I earn "cash" to spend on other deals.

I bought a $60 bike for $15 last night.

Here's how: I purchased a Totsy deal ($15 for $30) from Plum District.

I was fortunate to have enough in credits and promos to pay 0 for it. Totsy was having a toy sale. The YBike was $40.

I used my $30 code from Plum District, making it $10, but I also had $15.90 in credits I could put toward it.

The credits don't cover shipping so I had to pay the $15.

I don't mind spending $15 on a $50-$60 bike!

Use Coupons and Shop in Your Dollar Store

By Elvira from Houston, Texas

In my family we save money on food by using coupons - if you use the right one you can sometimes save almost half. It's easy - all you do is get a Sunday paper. Problem solved.

We save money on presents by going online and looking in the clearance section of almost any website. The Dollar Store, Dollar General, and Big Lots are really good places to start.

For a Christmas party either go to your dollar store and buy party favors (they will have lots )or buy Christmas favors every year after Christmas at Walmart for half off. Yes everyone is saving money these days.

Don't Buy a Tree; Decorate a Plant You Already Own

By Alice from Darwin, Australia

We always like to have a Xmas tree, preferably a live one but we live in a small apartment.

To overcome this we decorate a large ficus tree plant in the corner of the room.

Then about three years ago we adopted a lovely Golden Retriever with a huge tail which knocked off every kind of decoration.

To overcome this I selected two sheets of lovely red and gold wrapping paper and cut them into squares of various sizes. Then, made each square into a cone and fixed the join with tape. Next I threaded coloured cotton through the top of the cones and hung them on the tree!

The result, a beautifully decorated thrifty tree which my dog could bat with her tail without problem. Try it, it works!

Save on Christmas Presents by Playing Secret Santa

By Michael from Pasadena, California

To save money when buying Christmas presents this year, my family decided to play a game of secret santa in which the whole family draws names and you buy a $25 present for that person only.

We also all pitched in together to buy the food for the family holiday get together which saves tons of money for all instead of one person having all the burden themselves.

We play games to keep everyone entertained and give prizes such as lottery tickets, cheap but a chance to win more money.

Cheap Christmas holidays take a bit of pre-planning, but you'll save money and create great memories.

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