Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Being Broke Does Not Excuse You for Being a Grinch!

When I was a kid, my parents went bankrupt. We actually had a Christmas with nothing store-bought! My mom, a very smart cookie, recycled clothes that could no longer be handed down into handmade toys. She crocheted slippers for all of us with that rainbow variegated yarn that was chic in the 70s.

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas that year . . . SERIOUSLY.

If you are low on cash, there is still time to build family traditions that your family will cherish, even in years in which the presents are skimpy. Why not research your family's religious and ethnic heritage to find out how your ancestors celebrated Christmas? Why not read together every night something fun like Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas or Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Online you can find a wealth of wonderful and cheap ways to avoid being a Grinch this Christmas simply because you are short on cash and can't afford this year's Tickle Me Elmo.

Here's what my mom did:

Advent - This year, the four Sundays of advent begins on November 30. Mom would send us out hunting for evergreens of any sort. She tied them all together and bought advent candles to make a simple, but beautiful wreath. Every Sunday evening, we would like the wreath (one candle on the first Sunday, two on the second, and so on). Then, we would sing Christmas carols, each one of us taking turns picking our favorite secular or religious songs. After about an hour, we blew out the candles (and boy was it a big deal who got to blow them out)! Even if you are not Christian, celebrating the meaning of each candle would help your family be mindful about making the world a better place: hope (the first Sunday), peace (the second Sunday), love (the third Sunday), and joy (the fourth Sunday).

Advent Calendar - Starting on December 1, we began to open one door every day on our countdown calendar. Even if you are completely broke and cannot afford one, there are all kinds of creative ways to make your own (even recycling Halloween candy) or find an interactive one online. Again, even if you are not a Christian, you can find or make advent calendars suited to your beliefs.

Saint Nicholas' Day - On December 6, we left out a shoe for Santa Claus to fill in honor of Saint Nicholas' feast (no, we are not Catholic). The next morning we found some small toys and fruit. Nobody ever got a lump of coal, but one of my sisters got half a stick with her goodies as a little warning. A wonderful chapter book about what real family struggles are like, read The Winged Watchman with your kids. Not only will they learn about how the people of Holland celebrate this holiday and Christmas, they will see the children of all ages have struggled when money was tight. [Interlibrary loans, Paperbackswap, and Best Web Buys are great if you are really strapped for cash.]

Wrapping Paper - Because we were so broke, we usually wrapped our presents in newspaper. Whenever we received a gift with real Christmas wrapping paper, we carefully opened the present to recycle the ribbons and paper for the next year. We could always tell a gift from Santa because he was rich enough to wrap his gifts with Sunday comics paper!

Decorating the Tree - My mother always waited until Christmas Eve to decorate the artificial tree (we could not afford a fresh tree every year). Why? If you put of the tree the weekend of Thanksgiving, on Christmas, you look at it and say, "That old thing?" On top of that, she barricaded the room with the tree because "the elves" (some say "angels") came and decorated the tree. If we were very quiet, we could hear a slight sound of fairies that almost sounded like someone ringing a bell. We knew the elves were there because every time we sent in some cookies, the plate came back covered in crumbs. We waited to glimpse the beautifully decorated tree until after sunset.

Christmas Eve - Our family has a whole Christmas program planned to mask the limited number of gifts. We dressed up in our best outfits. Mom and Dad turned on the Christmas lights with seasonal music playing in the background, and our eyes popped out of our heads as we saw the tree for the first time. Mom lit all four candles on the advent wreath and the program begin. We alternated between Dad solemnly reading appropriate passages from the Bible, singing Christmas carols, and hanging an ornament on the tree. Each one of us children had a special ornament we hung every year. We had to learn a poem, song, verse, etc. or do something special as our gift to the Christ child. Then we placed our ornament on the tree.

By the time, we opened our gifts, our hearts were very full. Because there were so few gifts, one person played Santa and handed out each gift, one by one. To heighten the anticipation, we all watched that person open their gift before moving onto the next one. My grandmother sent us Christmas chocolate and other edible luxuries for our Christmas Eve celebration. My mother supplemented that with nuts, fruit, and baked goods. We headed to church for the midnight service to top off the evening.

Christmas Secrets - When we headed off to school, there was no way we could brag about our gifts when our friends brought up their haul. However, by the time we finished sharing about the elves, the advent wreath and calendar, and the Christmas Eve celebration, we knew we would cherish those memories more than a toy that would end up in the closet in a few weeks.

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