40+ Ways to Celebrate Christmas on a Budget

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Looking for ways to celebrate Christmas on a budget? Check out this HUGE list of creative ideas for Christmas gifts, activities, and more!

Reader Question: “What suggestions do you have for a family struggling with finances this upcoming holiday season? Ideas for low-budget festivities and gifts?”

How to Celebrate Christmas on a Budget

We posted this recent “reader question” on our Facebook page and were so blown away by your responses that we decided to turn it into a full blog post!

If you find yourself stressing about over spending, we’ve got a bunch of helpful tips that will hopefully keep your budget in check this Christmas season!

Budget-Friendly Christmas Gift Ideas

1. Buy used gifts! Try shopping for books, games, and puzzles at secondhand stores or used book stores. Facebook Marketplace is a great way to get nice used gifts, too.

2. Draw names so each person only has to buy one gift.

3. Do a White Elephant gift exchange where you gift something silly you already have.

4. Create a scavenger hunt for Christmas morning. The kids have to do a task or solve a puzzle to get their next clue. It makes present time go longer and more fun without buying too many gifts!

5. Plan on experiences rather than gifts — A membership at a local zoo, science museum, nature center, etc. – some place fun you can take the kids throughout the year.

6. Do handmade gifts — Dough ornaments, do-it-yourself mixes, a cookbook of all family favorite recipes, a photo albums of things you have done together.

7. Give a shopping spree (whatever you can afford) at a quirky second hand store — Let them pick what they like within the budget you set.

8. Shop early and keep a gift box going all year long! Keep Bath & Body Works freebies on hand throughout the year to give as gifts. Use Kohl’s cash to buy gifts (candles, socks, cute hand towels, etc.) And don’t forget new-with-tags or new-looking items you find at thrift stores!

9. Give perishable food as a gift! One person said she always gives her neighbors a glass pie dish with homemade chicken pot pie. They can freeze it or bake it right away and keep the pie dish.

10. Shop sales that offer gift cards. Target often offers a $5 gift card when you buy a certain number of products or spend a certain amount. Save the gift cards and use them for birthdays and Christmas!

11. Make a tray of goodies or a favorite casserole for friends and family.

12. Don’t forget about the classic four gifts (want, need, wear, read) to help you keep from overspending.

13. Every time you’re at the store, grab 1-2 gift cards and load whatever money you have extra room in your budget for — even just $10 or $20. You can save them up all year long and then can use them for Christmas shopping.

14. Take kids to the dollar store to shop for parents, siblings and grandparents. They will love it and it will be cheap!

15. Plan a Buy-Nothing-Gift-Exchange for friends or family — Wrap a slightly used item or regift an item (make sure your gift wrap is reused too). It’s so much fun!

16. Create a Christmas Savings Account — Have a small amount of money automatically transferred to it each pay cycle. It’s like a regular bill monthly and then you have your Christmas budget funded by the time the holiday season rolls around!

17. Just do stockings.

18. OR, skip stocking entirely if they have becoming a big expense.

19. Do Dollar Tree or Five Below Stockings!

20. Just buy gifts for the kids — Talk with family and friends and see if everyone can agree on this.

21. Or, make a decision not to take part in extended family gift exchanges (be gracious but firm about it) and only do gifts with your own immediate family.

22. Utilize your local buy-nothing groups — You never know what you might find!

23. Set a specific budget with friends/family and agree to stick to that budget for each person.

24. Buy one gift per person.

25. Give coupon booklets for activities for the upcoming year ahead.

26. Take turns opening gifts one by one to really appreciate the gifts and draw out the experience of opening gifts.

Budget-Friendly Holiday Events and Activities

1. Look for free Christmas events in the area you live. Neighborhoods and municipalities often have free events with tons of kid-friendly activities.

2. Plan Christmas movie nights at home — pick a free movie (or DVD from the library) and pop some popcorn and make hot chocolate!

3. Look for free local Christmas performances and festivals (even high school concerts).

4. Have a cookie decorating party (with just your family or with friends and neighbors).

5. Make hot chocolate at home, bake a few special treats, and drive around to look at lights. If your town has a big tree, check that out, too!

6. We always find cheap fun — a local Christmas parade, a church Christmas play, decorating gingerbread houses using graham crackers, decorating cookies, making cards, getting a movie from the library, reading a Christmas story.

7. Plan a handful of easy Minute-To-Win-It games around the house using supplies you already have.

8. Plan a family game night with Christmas lights, Christmas music, and Christmas goodies.

9. Ask your family make a holiday bucket list of free or cheap things to do (you can even google for suggestions) and then be intentional about spending time together.

10. Go Christmas caroling with your neighbors, friends, or family.

11. Check out 24 kid’s Christmas books from the library and read one per night in December.

12. Create a Christmas Candy Countdown Chain (for the entire month, for 12 days, or whatever you want).

13. Plan the “big meal” of the day for breakfast or brunch since eggs and pancakes are usually a lot cheaper than more traditional holiday foods. You could even serve it on your fancy dishes to make it extra special!

14. Collect children’s Christmas books and ONLY allow your kids to read and look at them during Advent (or only during Christmas break).

15. Let the kids decorate however they want — they can be “in charge” of it all for a year, which means less work for you, more fun for them, and lots of great stories to tell in future years.

16. Look for ways to bless others — like “Elfing” elderly people in your neighborhood or church — sending them little gifts, notes, and cards throughout the season.

17. Send handmade cards with scraps of craft material you already have in the house and include a simple 4″x6″ family snapshot (instead of an expensive holiday card).

18. Advent activity calendars! One person said her family does a “plan-as-you-go” calendar. Hole punch envelopes, number them 1-25, hang them on a string, and write down an activity each day that you have time to do as a family and put it in the envelope as you do them. It keeps it manageable and the kids love it.

Remember, Christmas isn’t about the stuff — keep it simple and have fun!