Christmas Traditions on a Budget!

This Christmas is definitely different from ones in the past. Normally both Jason and I are working and we can afford all kinds of fun things, this year however we are down to one income. That means the gifts are scaled back and some of our traditions need adjusted a little. It's kind of funny, when people hear we are on a $100 budget for nine kids they are shocked and say how much our kids are going to hate their Christmas. So far however, they seem perfectly fine knowing Santa is only going to bring ONE gift per kid and mom and dad are getting some modestly priced gifts. I do want to say, if you ever want your kids to be quiet for a while tell them Santa can only bring one gift they will spend a lot of time thinking about what they truly want. There are so many traditions we had to adjust because of money issues, the first being ornaments. When Jason and I got engaged we made a decision to make a different ornament with the kids every year, normally we buy an entire set and go from there. This year we decided to adjust that and use only what we have around the house. Our kids have two modes when it comes to crafts, they either get super creative or hate it and just do it to please me so we will see what they come up with this year! The second tradition we decided to start this year was reading a Christmas book everyday until Christmas. I will be honest, this one is more for me than the kids. Our library has a lot of Christmas books, so many that I thought my backpack might burst while I stuffed them in there. This little tradition was found on Pinterest, it was suggested to wrap them, but that seemed like a lot of wasted wrapping paper and I don't have money to replace it. So far we have loved the books we've read, we may or may not have started this one before Thanksgiving. Another tradition that we wanted to start because it's free and fun is look at Christmas lights. I know it's stupid we haven't done this before, but we don't normally have time-this year we do and I want to enjoy it. There is actually a house in our area that does a really cool light show that I went to once with my younger cousin and want to send Jason with the kids, it has strobe lights this year so I can't go sadly. Regardless it sounds like a fun thing for them to do and I'm hoping they enjoy it. The last tradition that we actually ended up getting rid of is matching Christmas pajamas. I almost cried when we made this decision, but in the end their just pajamas. On Black Friday I tried very hard to find ones that were in budget so hopefully I could convince Jason we needed them, I had no such luck. Because our kids didn't NEED pajamas we agreed that spending money on them wouldn't be a good idea. So, I'm hoping none of our children were waiting patiently for new pajamas. Our traditions may change over time, but the reason we celebrate will always be the same. At the end of the day Christmas is about Jesus and nothing else.