Christmas is such a beautiful season of Christ’s birth, light, joy, and family time. It can also be marred by the consumerism that has taken over our society. It can be stressful when trying to figure out to afford the gifts and dinners and all the various activities that come with it.
I get it.
I am a SAHM of 6 kids. My husband is our sole provider and has been for the last 5 years. We have had some extremely tight budget Christmas seasons.
Here is how we go about making our budget and then 10 tips that I’ve found to help bridge the gap.
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Making a Christmas Budget Plan
1. Decide what your family values are regarding gifts, activities, and Christmas.
Every year it is always important to my husband and I that Jesus is at the forefront of our Advent/Christmas plans and considerations.
When Advent starts to approach and we need to start making a plan for the Advent season the Christmas season as well, my husband and I come together to decide what kind of Advent/Christmas we want that year. It changes as our family changes. For example, last year I was very sick due to my pregnancy and therefore it was very important that we went simple with low effort solutions. I also had gestational diabetes, so decadent rich food weren’t our biggest focus either.
We decide who it is important for us to buy gifts for and how much. We enjoy going to our local Christmas light show, my sister and I take our big kids to our local Christmas symphony performance, and we like to go ice skating a few times as well, so these are all activities that we budget for.
2. Plan ahead
-Use last years numbers as a guide
A great way to plan ahead budgeting for Christmas is to take a look at what you spent the previous year. This is one of the best ways I’ve found to figure out what a realistic budget looks like. I can plan $5 a person, but if I spent $75 a person last year, most likely $5 isn’t realistic for my family.
Just because you spent $1000 last year doesn’t mean you have to spend that this year, but it will help you see who, what, and where you spent your money.
-Plan for all the expenses
It’s very important to include all of the big and little things you might need to budget for. Maybe you just buy gifts or maybe you make Thanksgiving and Christmas for 25 people. Budgeting just for one aspect of the Christmas season won’t be helpful in the long run.
Here are some categories to keep in mind:
~gifts for family and friends
~food for gatherings
~decorations
~travel (gas, hotels, flights) if you’re going out of town
~miscellaneous extras (baked treats, crafts, concerts, wrapping supplies, cards/gift cards for teachers and service workers, seasonal outfits/pajamas, etc.)
-Start planning earlier
Planning early can help you save more in the future. Although I will say that if you buy gifts early you can run into two issues that I have run into in the past.
Firstly, I lost the gifts that I bought. I put them in a super secure location, so secure that I totally forget where they are.
Secondly, my kids aren’t into the things that I bought them 6 months earlier. So it just ends up being a waste.
3. Set a total spending cap
It’s important to go into the Advent/Christmas season with a game plan on spending. Setting a spending cap based on how much you CAN spend and how much you WANT to spend is very important.
-Give each person a spending cap
My husband and I go through our list of everyone we’re buying gifts for and we give them each a cap. Some of them are Secret Santa gifts for my nieces and nephews that are capped at $5 because each of my kiddos pick a cousin and then they get to pick out a gift for them from 5 Below. They do the same thing for each of their siblings as well.
We typically spend $50 on each of our kids and $50 on our parents. Everyone else is $25 or less.
I know my parents spent $150 on each of us growing up, but that is just too much and our kids definitely don’t need that.
We are buying my kids a group gift of a second Yoto. My kids use the Yoto every night before bed, but my oldest shares a room with 2yo so he doesn’t get to use it as much. So now there will be one for both rooms. It’s a bit of an investment, although right now you can get it for significantly cheaper due to Black Friday deals.
4. Track spending
Keeping a budget is only possible if you are tracking your spending. When I am tracking my Christmas spending I break it up into categories:
-Feast Days and Family Traditions
At this point, we have most of the items we like to use for the special feast days in Advent, but I do enjoy buying a new book or small toy that helps bring the feast day to life for my kiddos. We also may decide to do a craft that needs materials we don’t have or are running low on.
This year I plan on making new St. Andrew Novena Chaplets, but need to replenish my supplies.
-Gifts
I break this up by person and track what items I intend on buying and then tracking how much I actually spend.
It also includes our charitable spending as well. Now that my family more streamlined when it comes to our finances, we feel more capable to give to charitable causes like Toys for Tots, Angel Tree, our local Food Bank, and of course parish. My brother is a Catholic priest in Argentina and so it’s right around this time of year that he asks us for donations to send his parishioners on retreat or other activities. That is one of the biggest benefits of knowing where your money is going and being debt free. You can help those in your community.
Here is a Christmas Gift Spending Tracker that you can print and use.
-Decorations/miscellaneous
I don’t decorate too much for Advent or Christmas and if I do, I typically use items I already have and the artwork that my kids have made through years, but if I do buy some new items, I just add it into this category to make sure I’m staying within the parameters we’ve set.
This category does include when my family goes to the Symphony, Lights on the Lake, and other activities that we do as a family.
Tips to Help NOT Break the Bank
1. Don’t go into credit card debt
We definitely didn’t always live by this, but now that we are debt free (other than our mortgage) we will do anything to stay that way. When you become debt free you feel like you can breathe again and it is an amazing.
Only spend what you can pay off from your checking account in that moment if you use credit cards. Or just use a debit card instead.
We are 5 weeks from Christmas so we will be saving $200 a week to make sure that we have the money we need pay for the Advent/Christmas season.
It is not worth spending 2026 paying off the credit card debt that you accumulated for Christmas. Only buy what you can afford. We have had a few Dollar Tree Christmas’ and my kids had no idea and loved them all the same.
2. DIY gifts are awesome
-Make gifts instead of buying them
A few years ago, we didn’t have a whole lot of money to spend on Christmas presents, so my kids and I made ornaments for my mother and my MIL. They loved them and obviously still use them now.
If you can crochet, make some hats or gloves. If you paint, you could paint them some art for their walls. There are so many amazing ideas on Pinterest. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to DIY Gifts, check it out if you need ideas.
You can make soap, candles, lip balm, etc.
I have embroidered items for my siblings in the past.
-Make your holiday decorations
I mentioned this above, but I use the holiday artwork that my kids have made through years to decorate my house for the season. It brings me and the kids such joy.
3. Streamline who to give gifts for
We’ve had to cut back on who receives gifts in previous years. We used to give gifts to both sets of parents, all 10 of our siblings/in-laws, and all the nieces and nephews. it was crazy and expensive. Now we do a combination of Secret Santa and spending caps. Which cut our gift giving from 25 to 12.
I also encourage you to be honest with your family on how much you can spend so everyone can adjust their expectations. Your family will understand and if they don’t that’s a them problem, not a you problem. Make boundaries if you need to.
4. Quality over quantity
I would rather get 2 nice quality gifts than get 10 cheap gifts that wont last. We don’t need more stuff. At this point, I have an Amazon lift of things I want and most of them are upgrades/replacements to items that I already use, but need replaced because they no longer function.
Quality is all about the investment and the intention. We should be very intentional about all of the gifts that we get for our family members.
5. Utilize discount stores
Last year I was introduced to Ollies Discount Store. It has amazing prices on books and toys. I was mad that I never knew it existed. I was able to get books for my kids for like $2-5 a piece. It was great. I find the quality of items at Marshalls and T.J. Max are a little lacking. Most of the items I get there break within a few a days/weeks. Although they do have great prices on shoes/clothes.
Aldi has had some great deals and Walmart has some amazing deals in their clearance sections as well. Big Lots was a good choice, but all of the ones near me recently went out of business. I have found some good deals from Burlington as well.
6. Look for free activities
I love checking out the Events tab on my Facebook and finding local events near me. There are so many free activities like tree lightings, parades, one of our local radio stations is having a free Christmas Spectacular at our mall, etc.
My parents would pack us up in the car and we’d go driving through the neighborhoods to look at the Christmas lights and decorations. A core memory I have and would like to instill in my own children.
Our local ice rink has free skating on Wednesdays. I bought some of my kiddos some inexpensive ice skates and we have a fun free activity to do as a family.
7. Shop in bulk
I have 6 kids. One way that I save a bunch of money around Christmas time, is that I buy big packs of items my kids enjoy, separate them, and wrap them individually for each of my kids.
I do the same for my brothers and my sisters. I will also do this if I decide to give gifts to teachers, bus drivers, and neighbors.
8. Compare prices
If I’m looking at buying an item for someone, you better believe I’m checking to make sure that I’m getting it at the cheapest cost. I will cross reference between Target, Walmart, and Amazon, especially if I’m thrifting a gift. There is no way I’m going to buy a used item for $15 if I can buy new for $16. The wear and tear is not worth the $1 savings.
Be careful if you’re items from Amazon for Black Friday deals. They’ll say $24.99, previously, $29.99, but in reality the base price was always $24.99. My point is make sure the deal is actually a deal.
9. Buy second hand
Thrifting for Christmas gifts has always been so taboo, but I think it is brilliant. We got bins and bins of clothes for my daughter from my friend’s daughter that she wore maybe once. My niece would be ecstatic to get some of the cute dresses we received.
Buying secondhand isn’t just better for the environment, but it’s also so good for our kids too. They don’t need flashy new things with brand new designer tags. A thrifted Coach bag is still a Coach bag. I also have found a lot of unopened items at my local Salvation Army too. These are great choices. Just remember if you are buying an item with lost of pieces that they are all there. I hate buying puzzles that don’t have all the pieces.
10. Sell your unwanted items
Every November there is a local pop-up kid’s consignment sale near me and every November I pack up a bunch of clothes and toys and sell them. I usually make about $100-250. Selling items that you aren’t using is a great way to make some extra money for the Christmas season.
Conclusion
Budgeting for Christmas doesn’t need to be stressful or something that dread doing. It can be as easy as setting a spending cap, keeping track of the gifts and activities we’re spending our money on, and being intentional about what we get for those we love and care about.
I hope that this post helped you. Leave a comment if you have tips that I didn’t mention. Merry Christmas!