It often happens that you want to give Christmas gifts to your friends and relatives but are short of funds. You may want to pamper your loved ones with decent gifts but don’t have requisite cash. Well, you may be surprised to know that there are some gifts you can give to your loved ones within your limited budget. Read on to know about 5 gifts you can give to your friends and family without spending many dollars.

5 Interesting Christmas gifts

Here are the 5 interesting Christmas gifts that you can give to your friends and family without spending much money:

1. Home-made delicacies: Homemade delicacies make a good Christmas gift. Homemade chocolates, truffles, fudge are quite easy to make and are extremely delicious. You can even make some Victorian sweets, gingerbread, shortbread, carrot pineapple sweet bread, etc. and gift them to your friends. An interesting tip will be to keep these delicacies in beautiful boxes, tins and decorate them with ribbons. Read the rest of this entry »

The recent American recession which took hold for almost three years has affected the financial health of the country drastically. This looming crisis adversely influenced almost every aspect of US life possible from real estate market to the Christmas shopping habits of the Americans. For the last three years the local stores have claimed to witness a sheer fall in the consumer spending during Christmas. However, it is being predicted that there may be a change in the scenario this Christmas. According to Reuters, shoppers may spend more for their Christmas shopping this December 2010, for the first time ever since the recession struck the US economy.

The Reuters reported that in accordance with a retailing trade group’s survey, consumers may spend an average of $688.87 this Christmas season. This survey released by the National Retail Federation states that there may be an increase of 1 % from 2009 in the consumer spending. Thus, there may be a sales growth of 2.3%, this Christmas. However, the recession is still not over and several families are still struggling to overcome the financial distress caused by this recession. Thus, the following points will provide you with some tips to tactfully enjoy your shopping for Christmas even during recession.

Tips for surviving Christmas during recession

Here are some tips you need to follow while shopping for Christmas this year 2010.

1. Budget – Plan a realistic budget and find out what you can afford. Create a list of all the items that you require for your Christmas and write down the dollar amount that you need to spend on them. However, you must also make sure to forgo certain things in case your list of items exceeds your budget. Such budgeting will also help you stay out of debt trouble in future.

1. Frugal shopping – If you want to keep your wallet happy, go for frugal shopping this year. Shop at thrift stores or dollar stores and you may get just what you want at a much lesser price.

1. Clip coupons – Newspapers and magazines are usually filled with money-saving coupons. Shop with those coupons and you may eventually save some dollars. You can also consider going for sales and discounts while shopping for your Christmas.

Apart from the tips mentioned above, you can also consider shopping online as this can save you a lot of money. You can try to earn some extra cash yourself by selling items that you do not need any longer. You can also consider having a swap party with friends where you can exchange items and have a set of brand new teams without paying anything. Thus, follow these tips and take pleasure in your Christmas shopping despite the recession.

Christmas without Santa Claus? I just can’t imagine. I was casually browsing through the net when I suddenly stumbled upon some interesting facts about Christmas and Santa Claus. I want to share some interesting information with you all.

Santa Claus – the Legend

According to folklore, origin of Stanta Claus legend can be traced back to thousands of years. Sometime around 280 A.D there lived a monk called Saint Nicholas in Patara, a place near Myra of Turkey. He was renowned for his kindness. He gave away all his inherited belongings and wealth to the poor and moved to the countryside for serving the destitute and sick.
One of the most popular folklore about St. Nicholas is that he saved 3 sisters from being sold by their father into prostitution. He gave dowry to their father for marrying them off. St. Nicholas’s good deeds made him popular among the masses and soon he came to be known as a protector of Children. December 6, his death anniversary, is celebrated as his Feast Day.

How did Saint Nicholas become Santa Claus?

In Dutch, Saint Nicholas was pronounced as Sint Nikolaas. Name of Sint Nikolaas was shortened to Sinter Klass. “Santa Claus” evolved from St. Nicholas’s shortened name “Sinter Klass”.
Legends of Saint Nicholas started to become popular in America during the end of 18th century and slowly but steadily transformed from Sinter Klass to Santa Claus.

Some more Santa facts?

When did Christmas become popular in America?

Christmas started to gain popularity from 19th century. Americans transformed Christmas from a raucous festival holiday to a family oriented peaceful festival.
During the early nineteenth century, rioting during Christmas season was a common phenomenon. In one such Christmas riot in the year 1928, New York police first came out to maintain peace in the city. From this time period, people belonging to the upper classes began to change Christmas celebration from a raucous one to a peaceful get-together of the entire family.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Christmas time is a time to party hard, shop, eat out, and of course who can forget the gift frenzy! But wait…all of it can make you run up credit card and break your pocket. I’m sure that of all the weirdest and crazy things that appear on the Christmas wish-lists, Santa never gets such wishes “I want more debt”. But that is exactly what thousands and thousands of credit card users get on Christmas….more and more debt .

Holiday shopping is a temptation and it can lead to overwhelming debt so much so that people exhaust all their savings and investments to get out of it…but they still can’t get out of it. I have seen my cousin getting buried into Christmas credit card debt last year. His finances were out of control to that extent that he had to get enrolled in a debt settlement firm. Prior to settling his debts, he was in a desperate state; he was swimming in a pool of high rate credit card debt but now…he has reduced almost 56% of his debts and that too with in a year.

In the initial days he had shut himself from the world, he was embarrassed. He didn’t want to let all of us know about his financial position. He was getting statements in his mail but he ignored them, you know the typical “bury your head in sand and the problem will vanish” kinda attitude. But does the problem really go off? He got the answer but at that moment he was already in mess….credit card debt can be compared to a mold it grows wildly.

Better late than never…he started thinking of the way outs to get rid of the mess. He never considered bankruptcy as an an option because he knew that he owes the debt he has to pay it off…he did not want to run away from the problem anymore. He called up the credit card companies but at that time he could not afford to pay what they were asking. He did a bit of research on several debt reduction options and finally became convinced that debt settlement was the way to go.

But the road wasn’t smooth either….he had to work harder to save money for the settlement funds. The settlement amount was decided by the firm itself and while zeroing in on the amount his monthly expenses and budget were taken into consideration. The whole debt settlement program was tailored to fit in all his needs and it worked for him!! He does not use credit cards anymore.

I was really amazed at the change he have had after this whole experience, I spoke to him last week and he said “I probably get five to six credit card offers a day but I toss all of them. I’ll never go there again. Now I can start saving some money too”

Christmas celebrations and cookies go hand in hand!!! Yummy Christmas cookies are one of the most popular confectionery items. Though cookies can be bought ready made, but for people like me who love baking and decorating, there is nothing better than homemade cookies …..they are simply fun to make as well as fun to eat. You can even send these cookies to your near and dear ones as Christmas gifts. Just imagine the smile on their faces when they will see a Christmas gift basket filled with mouth watering homemade cookies…isn’t it simply wow

Fruit wreaths cookies are a craze these days. My kids simply love gorging on them. It’s very easy to prepare and is not at all time consuming. Read the rest of this entry »