In the modern world, December is often a stress-inducing hubble-jumble of a month filled with parties, gifts, and overdrawn credit cards. As a family of faith, we want the month leading up to and including the birth of the prince of peace to look very different from this. So here is what we do to make December a peaceful, joy-filled month.
The December Calendar
We celebrate several beautiful feasts in December. Some big ones include the Maternity of St. Anna (Immaculate Conception), the Synaxis of the Theotokos, and Protomartyr Stephen. However, aside from the Nativity, no feast is so highly anticipated by Byzantine families than the feast of St. Nicholas.
Will your church be hosting an event to commemorate St. Nicholas? If so, find out when this will be and mark it on your calendar now. Also add any Christmas tea events or craft fairs you plan to go to. Be sure to leave the day before and after any big event this month empty for some down time between the busyness. If your calendar fills up every day, than take the time to sort out your priorities. What can you give up for the sake of retaining your family’s sense of peace and avoiding burn out?
If you are going to have trouble keeping days empty on your calendar, mark down certain days as family days, or days for rest. You could even mark these days for stargazing, movie nights, making hot chocolate, or whatever you need to remember that staying home for an evening is a valuable experience for your family.
Gift Planning and Budgeting
If you don’t already know, we give gifts to our family and children on the Feast of St. Nicholas Day. This means I have less time to get the gifts and wrap them… things ordered on Black Friday sales may arrive too late.
However, this also gets the stress of getting and giving these gifts over with well before the Nativity. And I love this sooo much. As a child I remember loving opening gifts on Christmas day. But Christmas felt like it was all about me getting new gifts and stuff. (It probably didn’t help I was an only child, and the only girl/niece in the family as well). Now we do the gifts on the feast of St. Nicholas, where the saints story reminds us that gift giving is about being generous and sharing. And Christmas is free to focus on relaxing as a family and focusing on Christ.
Now that I have given my two cents on when we give gifts, let me share some tips for planning your gift-giving.
Setting the Timeline
Because our gift-giving occurs on December 6th, I start planning and budgeting for gifts early. Actually, I keep a document which I can access from my phone and computer with a running list of gift ideas and things I’d like to purchase year-round. I can add links in this document, as well as photos and written lists. I also keep track of my children’s clothing sizes there.
Having this list saves me time and money. Whenever I come across something and think “That would be good for Little Fox” or “Little Owl would love this” I can immediately add it to my purchase planning… while not instantly buying it. This both allows me to keep an eye out for sales, as well as to change my mind because I am not buying anything impulsively. An added benefit of this method is whenever someone asks you what is something your child would like, you can quickly bring up several ideas from on file!
Google docs and Google Slides are two methods you can use to implement this planning. I personally use Google Slides to keep track of all this information.
I spread out the budgeting over September, October, and November. In October I take some time to discuss purchases we want to make for St. Nicholas day with my husband. I also do the bulk of my purchasing in October and November. This gives me time to watch for sales but also time to receive and wrap the gifts.
You will need to judge how long in advance you need to order or purchase gifts based on where you live.
Saving Money on Gift Giving
First of all, not all sales are created equal. If you plan to shop an upcoming sale, make note of the regular price of the items. Some stores mark up their items before offering a sale, and you end up spending the same amount as if there wasn’t a sale! Knowing that some of these sales aren’t actually saving you money can prevent over-purchasing.
Amazon has a feature where if you keep items in your cart (including in the saved-for-later section), than you can see when the price fluctuates. Amazon raises and lowers item prices often according to its algorithm, and certain items fluctuate more than others. I keep many items in our Amazon cart so if something I have my eye on goes on sale, I can buy it right away. I have often been able to save between 10 and 40 dollars before tax on items this way. Plus buy buying while the item price is lower means that the tax is lower. So you save even more money than just the amount off the item price!
I don’t always buy when an item from my Amazon cart goes on sale, but when I see an item goes on sale sometimes I certainly avoid buying when it is not on sale!
Finally, subscribe to email lists from your favourite retailers and suppliers. You may get a sign up bonus or an email with a coupon to use during the holiday shopping season. This can save you money purchasing from somewhere you already intended to buy. Plus it saves you time searching for coupons and sales at a variety of places!
Bonus: Group Gift Exchange Ideas
When you have a large family, giving gifts can get really expensive. So here are a few ideas to consider making gift giving an enjoyable experience this year without breaking the bank.
In the Family
- Within your family: have each sibling draws names, so that each child will only buy a gift for one other sibling. Not only does this reduce the number of gifts and overwhelm, but it allows for an increase in the quality of the gift.
- In the same way, have family members draw names to buy a gift for one other family member. You can still give cards to the family members you did not draw the name of.
- If you have a large number of people to give to, and a low budget, consider using your time instead of money. Give handmade gifts or do an act of service for the family member as a gift (or give as a coupon for a specific act of service, like baby sitting).
For Anyone You Know
- For couples, give a Date-Night package with everything needed to do a date + an outline of the plans for the date. Look up free or inexpensive date ideas and then include all the materials for the date. You can probably find these items around your house, like extra paper and pens!
- Finally go through your home to find things you don’t need, don’t love, and don’t use. Is there someone you know who would love these items? Gift it to them. Use these items to put together a gift basket.
- Otherwise, see if you can sell a group of these decluttered items online, such as a lot of 2T clothing that is in good shape. You will make a sale faster and for a better amount of money by trying to sell as a group of items rather than individually. Then you can use this money for your gift giving budget.
The Byzantine Life
I hope you enjoyed this week’s article. You may also be interested in reading about The Nativity Fast, or on the Feast of St. Nicholas!
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