Surviving Christmas

Christmas shopping can be a significant financial burden for many. This is especially true for those who have a large family or a large group of friends who regularly exchange Christmas gifts.

Christmas shopping can also be a financial problem for those who feel compelled to purchase expensive gifts. However, there are ways to deal with the financial burden which often results from Christmas shopping.


One of the ways to financial issues is to set a budget beforehand. Another way to deal with the financial stress of Christmas shopping is to shop throughout the year, rather than all at once.

This article will discuss the importance of setting a budget for Christmas shopping as well as how Christmas shopping can become less financially taxing by spreading out the Christmas shopping throughout the year.


It should go without saying, that in order to begin the process of setting a budget for your Christmas shopping, it is important to first create a list of all the people you intend to buy Christmas presents for.

Your list should include all of the close friends and family members you typically purchase gifts for as well as any co-workers or employees you normally purchase gifts for, your mail carrier and/or your children’s teachers. Include a small amount for unexpected visitors, hostess gifts, and little "extras" you might need or want to have on hand. You may also wish to budget for gifts donated to toy drives organized by charitable organizations if you typically contribute during these events. And - don't forget stocking stuffers!!! These "little" items can run a fortune...


Once you have your list of gift recipients and potential gifts, there are a couple of ways to go about establishing a budget. Perhaps the simplest way is to decide how much you plan to spend on Christmas shopping and divide this amount by the number of people on your list. This type of budget strategy may be appropriate if you plan on purchasing similar gifts for everyone on your Christmas list but it may not work out too well if you want to purchase something really special for a few of your closest friends or relatives.


Another strategy for establishing a Christmas shopping budget is to determine how much money you would like to spend on each person. Then you can use these numbers to determine the total amount of money you will spend. It might help to create categories (kids, friends, business associates, etc), set a dollar amount for each category, and then work up numbers from there.