Being frugal does not mean we have to do without or look cheap. This is true in every area of our home-holidays included! We can have a beautiful home that fills our guests with warmth during the holidays. It just takes a little creativity to make it happen. Here are some ideas we have used in our home to enjoy the holidays in their grandeur, but also stay within our budget.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love the look, smells and sounds of Christmas. There is so much reason for the season that makes this a meaningful time of year.

DECORATING
To give your home a festive feel, try adding something from the season. I fill a basket with pinecones and string dome simple white tree lights around and through the basket. Sometimes I pray paint the cones gold or silver. This basket can be large and left by the front door or fireplace, or it can be small and placed in the center of the table.

What can you do with all those cards that come in the mail? We try and turn them into part of the Christmas decorations. Sometimes we put them in a lovely basket (spray paint an old one with gold or silver paint) with a ribbon ties to the handle. Other times we have strung a ribbon along the hallway or over the fireplace and hung the cards over the ribbon. Some people have hung corkboard over a doorway, and then tacked the cards around the entrance. We try and reuse the cards as gift tags for next year: we cut the picture on the card with pinking sheers, and punch a hole in one corner for the ribbon.


CREATING MEMORIES
The best part about Christmas for me is the memories that we make together. There are so many things we can do together to make this time of year special. I have pages and pages of ideas in my folder at home, but I will select a few of our favorites for your family to try.

The music of this season is so special. I try and fill the house with Christmas songs all day (if the family will let me!). I go to the library every year and select several (go early since they go fast!). My favorite is Handel's Messiah. I love to hear it, but most of all I love to understand why it was written. Did you know that the entire performance is about the prophecies that lead up to the Messiah's (Jesus) birth, and the famous chorus is for His birth that fulfilled those prophecies? I found a copy of the performance that showed the Bible verse each song was written for. It is great to read those verses as a family before each song and understand what they are truly singing about.

While you are at the library researching songs, read about Christmas traditions in other countries. It's fascinating! Also, find a book on the story of the candy cane and its inventor.

To help the family understand and celebrate the reason for Christmas, celebrate it in a special way. Have an Advent wreath with candles to celebrate the 28 days before Christmas. Make a birthday cake for Jesus, using colors and shapes to signify the uniqueness of this birthday. The shape of the cake could be a star, the color of the icing could be white for purity or gold for royalty and the layers of the cake could be different colors for the different symbols.

Some other things we have done are:

· Adopt a family for Christmas who is having a hard time financially. Deliver food, gifts, or decorations to them. To find a family that wants this help, contact your Chamber of Commerce or local charities for an Adopt-A-Family program.

· Practice Boxing Day. In early England (400A.D.) on the day after Christmas, the churches would open their poor boxes and share the money with the poor. Later, in the Middle Ages, the gentry would wrap gifts that they didn't want and give them to their servants. Later, this day became known as St. Stephens Day, honoring the memory of this saint who was martyred. Use this day to give gifts to those who may not have gotten much. Fill a box with things you aren't using much and donate them to a local charity.

GIFTS
Gift giving shouldn't be something we dread or do with obligation. It should flow from our love for others, but sometimes our wallet stops us from showing those feelings as freely as we'd like. That doesn't mean we can't give gifts. Our family has tackled this issue a number of ways. We try to budget how much we want to spend on Christmas gifts, then we put some of that money aside every month throughout the year so it doesn't hit us all at once. We have tried to encourage others to draw names for gift giving so the gift can be nicer, and no one feels guilty if there isn't a gift from us to everyone. Other ideas have been to require the giver to make the gift rather than purchase it. This could include a craft, a poem, a letter of appreciation, etc. There have also been lean years when we have had to limit the amount that we spent on each other.

Making your gifts instead of buying them is a great way to save money. I try to make gifts throughout the year and keep them on hand. That way I am less busy during the holidays, I am less tempted to buy a last minute item for someone and I have gifts on hand for birthdays and other events throughout the year.

One of my favorite gift ideas is to present mixes, such as a soup mix, layered cookie mix in a jar or cappuccino mix, which I can make ahead and store. Whatever gift you choose to make, you can present it in a decorative fashion and give it alone or combine it with other gifts in a basket for an even more special gift. When giving a gift basket, you can offer several different items that you have made in order to work together as a theme as you fill the basket


WRAPPING PAPER
I try to stock up at the after-Christmas sales on gift wrap for a frugal way to wrap these gifts. These are usually 50-75% off. I also look for alternative types of paper. If you live near a paper factory or stationery manufacturer, they sometimes have ends of large rolls of paper to give away. Wallpaper stores have sheets of samples that make elegant looking paper. We have made our own gift wrap by buying white butcher paper and stamping, drawing or hand printing on it. My grandmother used the Sunday comics from the newspaper and raffia - this had a country feel. She also used large pieces of fabric, trimmed the edges with pinking sheers, and tied them with ribbon around the gifts.


Jonni McCoy is the author of Miserly Meals (2002), Miserly Moms (2001 Bethany House), and Frugal Families (2003 Bethany House).  She has been practicing her frugal ways since 1991. Jonni and her husband, Beau, make their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado where they homeschool their two children. You can visit her website at www.miserlymoms.com.