One of the biggest lessons that I have personally learned from my continuous journey of becoming an adult (sadly) involves the stress you begin to feel around the holidays because of realizing firsthand just how expensive this beautiful month of December can become. We all wish to show our loved ones just how much they mean to us, especially when the holiday season rolls around, but unfortunately we’re also broke college students. Therefore, we don’t always have the ability to afford the most extravagant gifts for those amazing people in our lives. But, in order to avoid this feeling for this upcoming holiday season, I have crafted a guide to offer some ideas that hopefully help you to show your love this season of giving without completely breaking the bank!
1. Secret Santa
The idea of playing the game “Secret Santa” is perfect and most ideal when discussing gifts among a group of friends, or even family members outside of your immediate family. If you have never heard of this game before, it’s essentially involving a group of people who must put their names in a drawing, each person picks a name and that name refers to who they will be responsible for getting a gift for, therefore acting as their own “personal Santa.” With this in mind, the whole concept of the game is to keep you identity a mystery from whom you’re giving the gift to, which makes the game much more fun and suspenseful. What’s cool about Secret Santa is that the rules are loosely-based, meaning factors such as price limits, quantity of gifts, etc. is completely up to the group. Ideally, the reason why Secret Santa becomes a more affordable option for Christmas and gift-giving is because you only have to basically give a gift to one person, as opposed to an entire group of loved ones.
2. Shop the Deals
Even on a regular day, I’m a big advocate for deals and finding the good stores with the great price ranges! Which is why I would gladly always recommend to search stores such as Marshall’s or TJ Maxx because there is without a doubt that you will find some sort of holy grail (or several) just while simply perusing the store. You can always find good quality clothes or products for such awesome prices if you really just search aimlessly in these stores; there’s always a hidden gem. With this is mind, take advantage of stores that have tons of discounts and deals because of the holidays, starting with Black Friday and Cyber-Monday.
3. Get Crafty
Everyone, and I mean everyone, loves a good self-made/ put together gift. To me, I really believe that gifts that are put together are so much more genuine and thought-out than anything from a store. There’s just something special, and more to appreciate, about getting an individual gift that represents what that person feels regarding the friendship or relationship. This can include a drawing/painting, a scrapbook, letter, a basket containing a compilation of their favorite things. Little things like this can make anybody’s heart grow three times it’s size this holiday season- even the Grinch!
I hope you have found my quick, little hand-guide helpful! Although these are just three, simple ideas, they’re completely do-able. Anyone can accomplish a heart-felt holiday season with these options, and save money as well! Reminder: show them you care, but save your money because it can be achieved any other way! Have a great holiday season and remember that at the end of the day, all that matters is love and being together, not the gifts or brands: just sincerity.
Take care loves,
Jackie