Five frugal (and one not-so-frugal) Christmas traditions

I love Christmas but I have to be honest: when I say that, I’m not talking about the actual day.

Sure, that’s part of it. While I think Christmas morning naturally loses some of its childlike magic as you get older, it’s still a great opportunity to be together with family. It becomes less about gifts and more about having a chance to let others know you care. I’m into that.

But when I say I love Christmas, I’m talking about the holiday season as a whole. 

I can’t explain it, but there has always been something about this time of year — the period between Remembrance Day and Christmas morning — that appeals to me. When I think about the weeks leading up to Christmas, I think about music and sparkles and Starbucks holiday drinks.

The dark mornings are rough, but the evenings are cozy and even though I know I will hate having to bundle up to go outside soon enough, I look forward to pulling on boots and hats and scarves during this little window of time. 

I don’t even find the snow all that offensive in this context. The anticipation of what’s to come makes it possible to bear it.

(Well, that, and having good winter tires)

It helps that the lead up to Christmas also means an opportunity to indulge in one of my favourite parts of the season: our little traditions.  

Here are some of our favourites 

Our frugal holiday traditions (and one not-so-frugal favourite) 

We have six traditions, which can be broken down into two very lopsided categories: frugal holiday traditions (5) and not-so-frugal holiday traditions (1). 

 I’ll let you determine what goes where, although I think it’s going to be fairly apparently based on the costing.

Creating the Christmas playlist

This is the first Christmas activity I do every year.

During the first couple weeks of November, I pull up my Christmas playlist from the previous year in iTunes and start the process of revising it.

For the most part, this involves adding any new songs I downloaded from the previous season so they’re all in one place. Then, I look at the songs on my iPod and work to decide which ones will be removed to make space for the Christmas mix.

That said, while I begin the process of organizing the playlist early, I don’t load it onto my iPod until November 12.

Cost: Depending on what you have in your music library, there may be a first-time cost associated with purchasing the songs you want to include in your mix. That said, once you have some Christmas albums, the only costs associated with this come from additional purchases. I would say on average, I spend maybe $5 a year on addition songs for the Christmas mix. 

Decorating on November 12

I don’t put up any decorations until after Remembrance Day. 

There are varying schools of thought on whether or not it is appropriate to decorate for Christmas before Remembrance Day. If you’re a person who starts decorating earlier than that, all the power to you! It’s not for me. 

November 12, though? That’s a different story.

On November 12, I am in Christmas mode. This is when the tree comes out, the fireplace channel (when we can find it) goes on and we begin putting up our decorations.

Cost: About $4.Where’s this come from? Simple: we buy eggnog to enjoy while we get our little place ready for the holidays.

Advent calendars

We purchase three advent calendars every year:

1 x 24 Days of Tea (David’s Tea)
2 x Laura Secord Advent Calendar 

Most years, I purchase the two Laura Secord calendars when they go on 2/$15, which helps a bit. We share one tea calendar, in part because we find we can get two cups out of each day and because Jeff only drinks low- or caffeine-free teas.

So why do two certified grown-ups have three total advent calendars? We use them as an opportunity to connect with one another.

Most nights, we enjoy our tea and our chocolate together on the couch. Some years, we’ve used this time to ask questions, usually Christmas themed; other years, we just take a few minutes to chat.

Cost: This is easily our most expensive tradition. If we bought everything full price, we would be spending $81.63.

Most years, we don’t spend that — we find one or both calendars on sale — but that’s what it comes to without. It is a silly amount of money to spend on advent calendars but we enjoy our little. tradition. It’s worth the price tag for us. 

A gift in the form of a donation

I talked about this in my Christmas gift idea post, but each year, I try to include a gift that gives back in whatever I give Jeff. T

he Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue is one of my favourites for these kind of gifts. That said, there are so many great options out there that span the local, national and international level and just about every niche you can imagine.

Cost: $25.00-$50.00 for us, but really, it can be whatever you want. There are many worthy organization out there and any donation amount can make a difference. 

Christmas Eve service with family

We go to church with Jeff’s family every year on Christmas Eve and it’s definitely one of the highlights of the day.

The atmosphere, the music, the candles…I love it all. Added bonus: some years, we take time to drive around after the service and look at the lights.  

Cost: Apart from the cost of whatever gas is used to get to and from the service and to look its lights later, this is totally free family activity. 

Leaving our tree up

Confession: one year, we left our Christmas tree up for the entire year.

Now, in fairness, it was a mini-tree, a necessity when you’re living somewhere with low ceilings. It wasn’t decorated or anything apart from the lights and the little gold details it came with; it was clearly a Christmas tree, don’t get me wrong, but we liked the little pop of greenery it offered the room so we…left it up. 

It’s not unusual for us to leave most of our Christmas stuff out until closer to the end of January. The way I see it: we wait all year to put it up, it seems a shame to pull it down so quickly – especially when you consider the fact that winter in Atlantic Canada lasts forever.

Cost: Well, after admitting to leaving our tree up for an entire 365 days, it’s fair to say the big cost here is likely the respect of our family and friends. Whatever. Judge away. It’s fine. 

Final Thoughts

I love the Christmas season, and one of the main reasons is because of these little traditions we have established over the years.

These holiday traditions help put me in the Christmas spirit — and while some cost more than others, they’re all fairly affordable.

What are your favourite frugal holiday traditions?