How to Plan an Epic Christmas on a Budget (2024)

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Christmas on a budget? You might be wondering how that is even possible. After all, it’s estimated that the average American spends over $900 on Christmas, and these were 2016’s numbers.

There’s no telling what the average amount is now. Now $900 is a perfectly reasonable budget to spend for those who can afford it — and whether or not you can afford $900 or $9, there is an art to doing Christmas on a budget.

A frugal Christmas budgetneeds not involve making DIY gifts or forgoing holiday fun. Quite the contrary, actually. When deciding how much to spend on Christmas, it’s important to reflect on what’s important to your family.

If it’s important to give gifts to children who might otherwise have no Christmas, your Christmas budget must reflect that. Or, maybe you love traveling to different parts of the world and you want to experience Christmas somewhere other than home. If so, your Christmas budget needs to take that into consideration as well.

How to Plan an Epic Christmas on a Budget

There is no right or wrong way to plan one’s holiday; therefore, before you stress out over creating an average Christmas budget, make sure you’re creating a holiday budget that’s right for you, not for anyone else.

With all of that said, I’m going to highlight some major areas of holiday spending and provide you with a lot of advice on how to plan an epic Christmas on a budget. You’re not going into debt for the holidays this year, you’ve come here looking for a plan, so keep reading and be sure to take notes!

Create a Christmas Budget

The very first thing you must do if you want to plan a great Christmas on a budget is actually make a budget! It seems so simple, but often people overlook this. They make a gigantic Christmas list, make plans for parties and other obligations, all without giving themselves a set amount to spend on these things.

So, yes, even though it may be tempting to dream of all the gifts you want to throw in your buggy or online shopping cart, make sure you decide on how much you can spend and create a budget. Your budget should include Christmas decorations, food, travel, gifts, and more.

Check out this post on how to create a Christmas budget in 6 easy steps.

Have Dedicated Christmas Savings

Now that you’ve decided on a Christmas budget amount, now you need a specific saving account that’s just for your Christmas spending. You can open up an account at your local bank or online, although I do prefer to do mine online with Capital One 360.

If you know how much you want to spend, you should save that amount as soon as you can. Ideally, you should start saving for Christmas in January, but with Christmas approaching, at least give yourself a month to reach any specific Christmas savings goal.

Check out this post on how to save $1,000 for Christmas in 12 weeks!

Earn More Christmas Money

Okay, so you’ve got your budget and you’ve created a savings plan but what do you do if your budget isn’t as high as you’d like it to be? What if you only have a few weeks to save money and the amount you’ve come up with for holiday spending is pretty high?

Well, if that’s the case, you’re going to have to figure out a way to earn more Christmas money. And honestly, it doesn’t have to be that hard. There are so many ways to make extra cash these days, so it’s basically just a matter of taking your pick.

Check out some of these posts for holiday side-hustle ideas:

Money For Christmas: Boost Your Christmas Savings in Just 20 Minutes Per Day

How to Make Quick Cash For The Holidays

Get Cash Back This Holiday With This…

44 Amazing Things to Make and Sell For Christmas Cash

7 Free Online Survey Sites to Join For Extra Cash This Holiday

Earn Extra Cash: 21 Ways to Add an Extra $150 to Your Budget

Shopping for Christmas on a Budget

Your budget is done, your savings are in place, but you can’t stop there! You want your money to stretch as far as possible and the key to sticking to your holiday budget is knowing how to shop for Christmas on a budget.

What I mean by that is that even though you have $1,000 in the bank for Christmas, that doesn’t mean you have to spend that entire amount! Just think…what if you actually came in under that amount and were able to put your savings towards a financial goal you want to achieve in the new year?

That would be incredible right? With that said, you want to do some smart holiday shopping and save money on your gifts.

Check out Holiday Shopping: 11 Tips and Tricks to Help You Save Money This Holiday and 10 of The Best Reasons You Need Amazon Prime This Holiday

Holiday Gifts for Christmas on a Budget

Another area to tackle is gift-giving on a budget. Again, it’s essential to shop smart, but sometimes you just need some good ideas of what people would like for Christmas. You want ideas that are budget-friendly and practical.

Decorating for Christmas on a Budget

One of the best parts of celebrating the holiday season is being able to delight in all of the decoration. So, what can you do about decorating when your budget is tight? Well, you just need to get a little creative that’s all.

A lot of decoration you could make yourself out of cranberries, popcorn, pinecones, garland, and wreaths. And the best part is that most of these items are found in your local Dollar Tree or dollar store.

Check out this post on 17 Cheap Christmas Decorations That’ll Blow Your Mind.

More tips for creating an epic Christmas on a budget

As you can see, your average Christmas budget might look different from what your neighbor would consider average. Make sure you keep that in mind when deciding how much to spend on Christmas.

Basically, I’ve given you the framework above on planning Christmas on a budget.First, you actually need a budget. Then you need to start saving, shopping smart, and having fun. Here are a few more tips that will help make your frugal Christmas budgeta reality:

Instead of throwing a holiday party this year, go volunteer with your friends instead. If you don’t want to give up your holiday party, here is an awesome article on how to plan your Christmas party on a budget.

If a holiday party is on your radar, try a themed Christmas party like a hot chocolate or cupcake party to help keep costs down. You can throw a hot-chocolate party with these frugal items, as well as a holiday-themed cupcake party.

Send digital Christmas cards this year OR have a friend to take holiday-themed pictures of your family with their fancy camera, print them up and give them out instead.

Whether you’ll have guests this holiday season or you’ll be busy on the go, utilize these cheap, frugal meal ideas during the holidaysto save money on food.

Use a Christmas Budget Worksheetto help you create your budget.