Planning A Successful Christmas: ALTERNATIVE GIFT IDEAS

Remember that all too often the pile of expensive presents you have struggled to buy and wrap, sit unused after the initial enthusiasm.

Here is a selection of approaches that friends and clients have used very successfully.

1. Putting a value on presents for all the family to stick to can be really helpful when you are trying to manage the budget. One of my clients sets everyone in the family and their friends a limit of £5 which is about $7. It is agreed well before Christmas and the challenge is to be as creative as you can. You can make or buy but you mustn’t spend any more.
2. Agreeing to have an experience rather than lots of presents is how another client manages presents for the adults in the family and her friends. Going skating, to the theatre, out for lunch, horse riding, go kart racing, a boat trip, visiting a a historic house are just a few of the things they have done.
3. Doing a secret Santa where everyone picks out a name from the hat and buys a present for that person rather than one for everyone is commonly done at work, it works in the family setting just as well.
4. Using the news to help you explain about managing money without getting into debt can help with children who are old enough to understand.
5. Charity shops, and ebay can be a good way to buy good quality second hand or never used presents.