Although I absolutly love the idea of donating to an organization such as the Salvation Army as a way of showing someone else you care during the Christmas Season, many people would most likely not agree with me. Some people feel that you have to take the time to choose a material "present" in order to show someone else you care. But sometimes the spending becomes out of control. For example, according Teresa McEntire, author of article, "How Much Do You Spend on Christmas?" on families.com, $435 billion dollars of economic activity is generated each year during the Christmas Season. In the United States, the average American will spend $750 dollars on Christmas gifts for other people (McEntire). With this current economy, who has $750 do spend on gifts for all of their friends and family? I certaintly don't! One alternative solution that can help to stop the immense spending on material Christmas gifts is to set a budget either within your family or your group of friends. Teresa McEntire explains how she refuses to spend any more the one hundred dollars on each of her children because she does not want them to be spoiled. But for college students, like us, one hundred dollars is even out of our price range. A more negotiable price range for people our age seems to be spending between fifteen to twenty dollars on each person. According to the poll on my blog, two people have stated that they spend an average of thirty dollars for each person on a Christmas gift. If your family and friends do not feel comfortable setting a price range, another thing you could organize is a secret santa. This way each person will only have to concentrate on buying a gift for one person, and each person will receive a gift that someone spent a lot of time thinking about getting for them.
Melissa, I agree with you! My family donates to the salvation army all the time. Also, my family used to spend a lot of money on buying Christmas presents for everyone in my family but, we all decided to have a secret santa. That way we can all save money and buy one person a nice gift. I think it works out really well like that.
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ReplyDeleteMelissa, I love the post! Though I do not usually give gifts on Christmas, I do have holidays and know that the 'gift-giving spirit' can sometimes get out of control! I know that each year I set a total budget and a budget per person, so as to make sure that it's fair. And, yes the budget is a 'give or take' kind of thing where if I have a couple of dollars left over from one person, I will spend it another person, since it still fits in my total budget.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of secret santa too, but I know for a fact that I like getting gifts from each member of the family :P
I totally agree with you because I have like no money to spend especially being at school now without a legit job. This year my friends and actually did a secret Santa thing and two weeks ago, on Thanksgiving break, we all got together and picked names out of a hat. There is five of us so spending does get a little out of control. Our limit was twenty dollars. For one person that isn't so bad. But, there is a problem. In our little group, I am better friends with one girl than the rest. Around the holidays we always get each other something else and exchange the gift when we hang out alone. I know that kind of sounds horrible! She is one of my best friends though and I did not pick her name out, but I am still going to get her something. I hope I can budget my money better then last year! I can't wait to see what else you post on this blog! (:
ReplyDeleteYour solutions for this money problem are so great! As you said, being a college student, its hard to get the money to pay for all of these gifts. Being that I'm a full time student, the only time I can really work is during winter break. Luckily, I have a ski instructing job lined up for me at home every year. But this is the money that I have to last me through the whole year. Its hard to find the time to make money.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to get my friends to do a secret santa for a couple of years. We have a Christmas party every year and all of the presents under the tree looks beautiful and are fun to tear apart, but it gets expensive. Right now we are debating the present issue via facebook and still no decision has been made and Christmas is quickly approaching.
ReplyDeletePeople are definitely spending way too much money on Christmas gifts, when they could easily just make each other gifts that would mean so much more than any material item. The holidays have become all about buying and spending, when the true message is of love and spending time with the people whom we love the most.
ReplyDeleteAs a college student, I have absolutely no money. It is really hard to buy a good gift for everyone. I think the idea of a secret santa is good because it would help save money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Melissa. I remember last year I spent $60 on my brother and sister because my brother wanted Nike shoes and my sister wanted BCBG shoes and I don't even celebrate the holiday. This year, I cut down on how much we should spend on each other because we didn't want to spend all of our money on each other instead of ourselves. We have tried doing secret santa with my friends but everyone ended up getting gifts for other people to so it didn't really work out.... but it would have been great if it did :D
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