Christmas on a Shoestring

How to have a happy Christmas without breaking your budget. Really.

Gift Giving Gift certificates are practical gifts - the receiver can purchase what they need. Home-made gifts such as gift baskets filled with their favorite tea and coffees, or just-baked cookies are nice to give and are less expensive than baskets bought in the store. You can find baskets at your local thrift store. Line the bottom with leftover Easter grass and wrap in colored cellophane. What goes inside is up to you. For example: your favorite fisherman may need new lures or other fishing equipment, the newest member of the family could use baby wash and sunscreen (it's not just for summer) and your sister may like a crochet book, yarn and knitting needles.

Decorations When looking for new ornaments, check your local thrift store. I found a few cute knick-knacks to go with the decorating theme I want this year. Unless you can find a good sale at one of the major department stores, wait until after Christmas to buy your decorations (for next year). Also check the craft store for decorating classes and pick up a craft sheet to make your own decorations.

Entertainment Seasonal entertainment such as plays and choral concerts may be found inexpensively at local churches or community centers. Take a drive through a light festival or visit a fun event like the Dickens Festival.

Volunteer Work A lot of homeschoolers volunteer around their communities year round. Nursing homes and hospices welcome groups performing plays and helping with craft projects. Canada has Boxing Day the day after Christmas. Pack your unused items and donate them to the shelter. Keep volunteering beyond the holiday season - it helps boost the community spirit, and the personal rewards are greater.

A bit of trivia Donder (not Donner), which means thunder, was the original name of the reindeer who helped pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. He was paired with Blitzen, whose name means lightning.

Wrapping up the Season The holidays are done. What can you do with those seasonal leftovers that aren’t meant for the refrigerator? Most people already recycle the tree, and the wrapping paper. But, even those thousands of foam packing peanuts can serve another purpose. The UPS Store has a reuse/recycle program that invites consumers to bring those clean packing peanuts in so they can be reused. Contact your local store to see if they participate. Recycle your Christmas Trees instead of throwing them curbside with the garbage. Many places will process the trees into wood chips. Recycling holiday trees is one small, but important way to discard and reuse the trees at the same time.

Christmas Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus December 25. Families get together for food, fun and football. Stores have had their decorations on the shelves since (hopefully no sooner than) after Halloween. Many children will leave out cookies and milk for Santa, who'll leave them presents, and reindeer treats for those with tired hooves. There can be great joy or great headache with the Christmas Season. Being a single parent, you do double duty alone. Hopefully you've bought your presents in advance, but it still amazes me the amount of people who wait until the last minute to purchase gifts. Some years, I have been one of those people but I find it's not good for my sanity, LOL! Cut out all the non-essential gift giving, such as at the office, and that takes a load off. Big families might draw names to buy for one person which helps also. You can type up and print out on seasonal stationery (keep an eye out for them at the resale shop or check after-Christmas sales) holiday letters to close friends and relatives far away. Don't forget to see the night sky on Space.com's Sky Calendar.

Ship your holiday packages early! See the UPS Holiday Schedule & Delivery Guarantee. For specific origin and destination delivery time, visit UPS.com to calculate delivery time. Don't forget to prepare your package to help make sure it arrives safely.

Search for Christmas Music

Christmas Unit Study CD-ROM By Amanda Bennett Learn what the world was like at the time of Christ's birth. Use this study to help your children understand the significance that the coming of the Son had for so many people. Read about the prophecies that were fulfilled by His birth, and begin to clearly see God's hand in history since the very beginning of time. This unit study is on interactive CD-ROM, in PDF format. With over 200 clickable links written into the study, the daily lessons come alive for the students. The Internet links provide a tremendous resource for a unit study, and help your student develop research skills while enjoying the learning process. Study contains 20 days of lesson plans for two levels, Lower Level (elementary) and Upper Level (Jr/Sr High). The study also includes many online resources, book suggestions, project ideas, and much more. A fascinating learning adventure for everyone!

Teaching About Winter Holidays With Favorite Picture Books By Scholastic Celebrate the diversity of winter holidays and explore their rich traditions with fiction and non-fiction books such as On Hanukkah, Santa Who?, Seven Candles for Kwanzaa, Lion Dancer, Happy New Year Everywhere, The Night of Las Posadas and many more. Includes book summaries, discussion ideas, and a wide range of cross-curricular activities, interactive reproducibles and manipulatives that enrich learning. 64 pages, Grades 1-3.

Las Posadas Mexico celebrates the Christmas season not with presents from Santa but as the birthday of Jesus. The festivities begin on December 16 with a party everyday until December 24th. People get together at a friends house where candy, food, fruit drinks and a piñata are awaiting. The people will carry the images of Joseph and Mary around the home singing the "Posadas" which are traditional verses that relate the hardship of Joseph and Mary looking for a place to stay, finally they will come to the right door and the guests will be let into the house. The party begins, there is music, celebrations, etc. and at the end children and adults will have a chance to break the piñata which traditionally will be filled with seasonal fruit (tangerines, sugar canes, peanuts, etc) not candy.

December 24th is the day to go to church and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Some lucky children may get presents from Santa but not all of them do. Hispanic children will wait until January 5th when the Three Wise Men will bring the toys. Children must leave their shoes close to the window or the door (no chimneys, it is too hot!) to receive their presents.
Posted by Araceli Swist on 12/03/03

Yule is the time of greatest darkness and the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice had been associated with the birth of a "Divine King" long before the rise of Christianity. Since the Sun is considered to represent the Male Divinity in many Pagan Traditions, this time is celebrated as the "return of the Sun God" where He is reborn of the Goddess.

Kwanzaa, an African American holiday which intertwines African traditions with American customs, is celebrated from December 26 through January 1. The core principles of Kwanzaa, the Nguzo Saba (the Seven Principles), are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work & responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith). The seven symbols associated with Kwanzaa are mazao (fruits, vegetables and nuts), mkeka (place mat), kinara (candleholder), vibunzi (ear of corn), zawadi (gifts), kikombe cha umoja (communal cup of unity) and mishumbaa saba (seven candles). First celebrated on December 26, 1966 in Los Angeles by Dr Maulena Karenga, his friends and family. He had organized ancient wisdom based on six criteria of a people with expressions in Swahili, a language of East Africa.

Each year, hospital emergency rooms treat about 12,500 people for injuries, such as falls, cuts and shocks, related to holiday lights, decorations and Christmas trees. In addition, there are 11,600 candle-related fires each year, resulting in 150 deaths, 1200 injuries and $173 million in property loss annually. Christmas trees are involved in about 300 fires annually, resulting in 10 deaths, 30 injuries and an average of more than $10 million in property loss and damage. There are more safety tips at the menu on the left of this page.

me your Holiday ideas please!

Applesauce Ornaments 4 ounces (1 cup) cinnamon 1 Tablespoon cloves 1 Tablespoon nutmeg ¾ cup applesauce 3 Tablespoons white glue ½ Teaspoon food coloring Optional: 1 Teaspoon glitter Combine ingredients. Work with the dough until smooth. Divide into several portions. Roll out ¼ inch thick. Cut out with cookie cutters. Make hole in the top. Dry at room temperature for 1-3 days. Turn over once to let the other side dry. String ribbon thru the hole and hang on Christmas tree, or give as gifts.

Christmas Bells Take a white cup, decorate the outside with glitter, sequins, beads, paper, stickers, whatever. Punch a small hole in the top of the cup. Slip a pipe cleaner threw the hole to the inside of the cup. Twist the pipe cleaner around so it forms a hook. Place a jingle bell at the end of the pipe cleaner. Now your little ones have a bell for the tree or a gift. (Don't forget about using the toilet paper rolls for crafts. You could make napkin rings, drums, toy soldiers, angels, and lots more. Want more Christmas craft ideas? Click here.

Reindeer Pokey (to the tune of The Hokey Pokey) You put your antlers in. You put your antlers out. You put you antlers in and you shake them all about. You do the Reindeer Pokey and you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about! Use these next as following verses, or come up with your own! You put your hooves in... You put your red nose in... You put your fluffy tail in... You put your reindeer body in... Want more Christmas rhymes? Click here.

How to support our service people overseas: There are lists being passed around on email groups for the gifting of our military overseas by well-intentioned people. However, how much one feels about our loved ones overseas, their security is of the utmost importance. Sometimes we can only give where it is needed and embrace them when they come home. To bolster force protection, the general public is urged not to send unsolicited mail, care packages or donations to service members forward deployed unless you are a family member, loved one or personal friend. On Oct. 30, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) suspended the "Operation Dear Abby" and "Any Service Member" mail programs due to force protection concerns. Although these programs provided an excellent means of support to friends and loved ones stationed overseas, they also provided an avenue to introduce hazardous substances or materials into the mail system from unknown sources. Unsolicited mail, packages and donations from organizations and individuals also compete for limited airlift space used to transport supplies, war-fighting materiel and mail from family and loved ones. Recently, DoD has become aware of organizations and individuals who continue to support some form of the "Any Service Member" program by using the names and addresses of individual service members and unit addresses. These programs are usually supported by well-intentioned, thoughtful and patriotic groups who are simply unaware of the new risks facing deployed military forces. Some individuals and groups publicize the names and addresses of service members, ships or units on Web sites, with good intentions. The result, however, is a potential danger to the troops they wish to support. Also the list, which has been posted on numerous websites in addition to circulating via email, contains un-verified personal information about many of the soldiers that could be regarded as a violation of their privacy, as well as a security risk. As an alternative to sending unsolicited mail directly to U.S. soldiers, the Defense Department recommends using the options on the following Websites instead: DoD "Defend America" Website: http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/ Operation USO Care Package: http://www.usocares.org/ Operation Iraqi Freedom FAQ: http://www.army.mil/operations/iraq/faq.html

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