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If have a family on a tight income, the rising gas prices have cut into your budget, or even if you are a single parent, every family can use a budget to help aid them in their holiday shopping. It is very easy to create a budget, and some people refuse to have one at all – so they just take out their credit card and expect to pay it back later. The tips in helping a holiday budget work for you will help you throughout the holiday season with keeping under or at your budget, without any financial backlash.

In order to help plan your holiday budget, take a look at your last years spending totals. If you add all the gifts plus cards, wrapping paper, and shipping costs then you should get a good idea of what you spent in all. Now that you have your starting point, you should acknowledge that this should be the most you spend this year. Look at the list and see if there is anything you can take out. Maybe get generic type of wrapping paper instead of the name-brand kind. Do the same thing with your tape and holiday decorations, as well. Sending out gifts all together in one package can lower the shipping costs. You should also do your best not to overspend on your children.

After doing all this, you have established a budget, and it probably was not as hard as it originally seemed. You should distribute the money on paper and shop according to those funds. Some alternatives to buying things can be to create a scrapbook for your mother, instead of purchasing an expensive necklace. Baking cookies for your aunt or uncle, instead of buying something expensive, can also put big smiles on their faces, and will also help you keep your holiday budget. Another way of cutting back on money is to look for the least expensive stores for sales and bargains. Even thrift shops hold wonders, because as the old saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Sometimes you travel during the holidays and buy presents. So, this year invite everyone to your house for the holidays to save on travel expenses. This will help tremendously in keeping your budget and you will have more money to save. You do not even have to go to those expensive party stores, take time with your children and make decorations for the party and place holders. Having a potluck would help, also. With everyone bringing a dish or dessert, the only thing that you will have to provide is the turkey and ham. This will work wonders to help keep your holiday budget.

When your shopping keep track of any sales, but keep to you budget. A lot of people shop the day after Thanksgiving, but do not buy things that are a great “deal”. Sometimes the deals are not really deals, when they say five for a hundred dollars, do not buy five. Instead, only buy how many you need as they are all just twenty dollars. Remember to take your shopping list, only buy gifts within your holiday budget. An alternative is online shopping; you can browse the internet for different online auction bargains. You can comparison shop, and find the best price. This is really great if you are going to ship your presents, because the company will ship it for you, sometimes at a lower cost than you could ship it for on your own.

Making your own gifts can be helpful when trying to keep a Christmas budget, too. If you are skilled at drawing or sewing it would be a great gift to make something for a family member or friend. Find out their favorite animal and draw a picture of it. You could also make a collage of your family or favorite musicians. The gifts that come from the heart are the best ones and they are a lot more cost efficient. This method will really help with keeping your holiday budget, and it will really pay off.

If you have a budget you need to keep during the holiday season, it does not have to be as hard as one would originally think. Following the tips and advice in the paragraphs above, should help you along the way.

Not everyone appreciates the significance of the Christmas story. Most people know the basic story of pregnant Mary and her husband Joseph making their journey to and through Bethlehem for the Roman census (a count of the number of citizens). Mary rode on a donkey, and for some reason, Mary and Joseph arrived a little later than every one else, and the pregnant couple was denied a room in inn after inn, home after home. Eventually, they settled on a manger, where Mary gave birth to baby Jesus. Then three wise men came to visit the Christ child bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The End.

But is that all there was to it? No. For one thing, one reason why the baby Jesus was so important was because his birth had, according to the Christian belief, been prophesied and people were expecting him as the Messiah, the one who would save the world. Secondly, Christian tradition tells that baby Jesus had been immaculately conceived by God, who had planted the seed in the womb of Mary. Mary had been informed of her impregnation by an angel of God, who had told her that she was with child and that the child was to be named Jesus, and that he would be the awaited Messiah.

While Jesus Christ was said to have been born on December 25th, it is said that the three wise men (or magi) did not come to visit until twelve days later, on the date of the Epiphany January 6. The Epiphany is celebrated in some countries (e.g. the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches) instead of December 25. The wise men were said to have traveled from the east.

The wise men, or magi, visited King Herod to confirm a rumor that Jesus had, in fact, been born. They wanted to know where they could find the child, and so Herod sent them to Bethlehem, and asked that they returned to him when they left the child’s side. They followed the Star of Bethlehem in the east, and it led them right to the manger bed of the baby Jesus, where they presented him with the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

After leaving King Herod and before arriving at the stable, the three wise men were given a warning by an angel in a dream not to return to King Herod, warning them that King Herod had malicious intentions. The wise men delivered their gifts, and proclaimed Jesus the awaited Messiah. They therefore returned to their home via a different route than the one from whence they came. This apparently alerted Herod to the fact that Jesus was probably the prophesied Messiah, so Herod ordered the massacre of all infants in the area, with the intention of killing the proclaimed Messiah.

Christians everywhere celebrate Christmas as a reminder that the birth of Jesus was God’s way of allowing them into a personal relationship with Him. In His life, Jesus would die a cruel death on a cross so that the world’s sins would be forgiven and people everywhere could, through their faith in Jesus, have eternal life in Heaven.

Nowadays, during the Christmas season we tend to get caught up in the rush of the Christmas season. Preparing and sending out Christmas cards, shopping and wrapping Christmas gifts all take up a lot of our time during the Christmas season. In all of this preparation, we often forget to stop and think of the true meaning of Christmas and in doing so, we do often forget how important it is to teach our children that the Christmas holiday is not all about Santa Claus and his team of eight (or nine if you count good old Rudolph) reindeer delivering gifts and popping out of the family fireplace every year.

For those of the Christian faith, Christmas is a very special day of religious observation. While studies show these days that we may possibly be celebrating Christmas at the wrong time of the year, Christmas was first celebrated in remembrance of the birth of baby Jesus and the journey that the Virgin Mary and her husband Joseph made on a donkey to Bethlehem. They were denied lodging at every inn, for many other people were in town for the same reason that Mary and Joseph were, so an official count could be made of all of the King’s people. The family eventually settled into a manger, where the Mary gave birth to her son without the help of a physician.

A good way of teaching your children the Christmas story without making it a religious experience is to purchase the children’s story version of the Christmas Story. Small, thin books can be purchased in any store, especially during the Christmas season. During the rest of the year, larger book store chains like Barnes and Noble, Borders, and B. Dalton will carry books like this, although you may have to search in a particular section.

The internet may also be a great resource for teaching your children the true meaning of Christmas. Northpolesantaclaus.com is a great web page for kids during Christmas time. It has a link for the kids to email Santa Claus if they so choose, and there are also web pages that they can go to learn about the ways that children in other countries celebrate their Christmas holiday, including the different versions of Santa Claus that they incorporate into their celebration.

Coloring books are sold during the Christmas season that tell the story of Mary and Joseph’s journey on donkey back. Generic versions of these, in story book form, are sold at department stores and grocery markets all over. If you have a family Christian store or some other Christian book store, they will have the more biblicized versions of the Christmas Story in them. Coloring these pictures with crayons can give kids a visual idea of the story and what happened the night that Jesus Christ was born. This can also be a great lesson in reading for your younger children, as well.

Sweden is a Scandinavian country nestled in between Finland on the north, Norway on the west, and the Baltic sea on the east. Sweden is a country rich in culture, and they are famed for their devout celebration of holidays.

In Sweden, Christmas is celebrated like a popular national holiday, lasting for nearly a month. During this month-long celebration, the Swedes also celebrate St. Lucia’s day. St. Lucia’s day is a winter holiday in Sweden in which the eldest girl of the family wakes up early in the morning, clothes herself in a white robe with a red sash, and wears an evergreen wreath of seven lit candles around her head. Still costumed, she serves her family rolls and coffee in bed. In this practice, she is mimicking a popular saint named Saint Lucia who is rumored to have delivered victuals to the Christians in the early days of their persecution is Sweden. The real St. Lucia was eventually caught, arrested, and executed for her deeds. On St. Lucia’s day churches and schools may hold programs, plays, or processions and sing carols in her honor.

Sweden was first introduced to the popularized version of the Christmas tree by Germany in the 1700s, although they have only recently become customary. The Christmas tree is brought in (whether it has been purchased or cut down) a day or so before the Christmas holiday, and festively decorated in lights, tinsel, candy, and other objects. It is watered every day and kept at least a month, usually to the 20th day after Christmas day.

The height of the Christmas holiday is really Christmas Eve, December 24. A large feast is prepared on Christmas Eve, dessert and all. This is also the day Swedish children open up their gifts, brought to them from Jultomte. Tomte is somewhat of a Swedish version of Santa Claus. He has been depicted as a small elf or gnome, and is said to live under the floorboards of the family home. Tomte is credited for providing protection over the family and their flock of animals, if they have one. Just as American children leave Santa Claus milk and cookies, Swedish children may place candles in the windows of their home to help Tomte find his way to them, as well as a bowl of porridge to thank him for finally making it. Obviously, Tomte is fictional but in some households a friend or member of the family may dress up as a gnome and sneak into the house with a bag full of gifts for the children.

Most Swedish families spend most of the actual Christmas Day (December 25) in church. The following day is Saint Staffen’s day (also known as St. Stephen’s day), the day in which the Swedes honor the patron saint of animals and give their animals a little extra food in their bowls as a special treat.

On the 13th day of January, the Christmas holiday ends in Sweden. This is the day Swedish families take down their Christmas tree ornaments and dispose of their Christmas tree.

Over the years, the idea of special Christmas programming has become an assumed part of our cultural heritage as Americans. The clay mation cartoons and the music variety shows are as much a part of Christmas tradition as stocking hung by the chimney with care. As we get older, we still have our favorite Christmas specials, and we want to pass these on to our own children. So below are just a few of these beloved classics.

Who can forget Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and his adventures on the island of misfit toys? One of the classic claymation specials that runs through our networks every year, this story has become synonymous with the idea of the underdog. As we all know, Rudolph does get to lead Santa’s sleight and the reindeers to eventually let him play, but every year we come back to see the same story all over again.

Another cartoon favorite is the story of Frosty the Snowman, who can laugh and play just the same as you and me. Following the pattern of the familiar Christmas song, this cartoon leads us through the streets of town, right to the traffic cop. There is a tragic ending though, with the beginning of spring, and we learn that Frosty cannot stay with us forever.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is one in a long line of Charlie Brown holiday specials that have captured the hearts of children and adults alike. In this half hour special, Charlie Brown searches for the true meaning of Christmas amidst a mass of commercialism. Even today, the term “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” is used to describe the wilting or scrawny trees that many of us have in early apartments or dorms (or when we put our tree shopping off until the last minute).

Robbie the Reindeer is a spin-off of the beloved Rudolph franchise, but tells the story with a bit of a twist. The famous team behind the Wallace and Grommet cartoon series livens up the old reindeer games story with a bit of British humor and some reindeer romance games between the stuck-up Blitzen, femme-fetale Vixen, and the shy girl next door Donner as Robbie competes against Blitzen for the honor to pull Santa’s sleigh.

One Magic Christmas, a full length feature made by the Disney company in the early eighties also pops up into the frequently played roster. Following a popular trajectory, One Magic Christmas follows the tragic Christmas of one family from bankruptcy to bank robbery and kidnapping to a magical intervention that brings everyone back together at the end.

It sounds a little bit like the all-time favorite Christmas special, It’s a Wonderful Life. This Capra classic stars Jimmy Stewart as a man who wishes he had never been born and learns from a guardian angel just what things would be like if that wish came true. It is where we all learned that every time a bell rings and angel gets its wings. No Christmas is complete without it.

Finland is a small Scandinavian country in northern Europe. It is a land of many traditions, situated on the Baltic sea and influenced by the neighboring countries of Sweden, Russia, Estonia, and Norway.

Families in Finland celebrate the Christmas holiday a little different than families in countries on the western end of the world. One of the most apparent differences between the celebration of Christmas in Finland and the celebration of Christmas in other cultures is that in Finland the Christmas Tree is felled and set up on Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, while in other cultures the Christmas tree may be erected as far as an entire month in advance. The children of the family normally decorate the tree with apples, candy, cookies, ornaments, tinsel, and Finnish flags, and candles (or Christmas lights).

Just as in Sweden, the people of Finland have adopted St. Lucia’s day, December 13. On St. Lucia’s day, the eldest daughter of the family dresses in a white robe with a sash, and a head wreath with candles around it. Clothed as such, she distributes breakfast rolls and coffee in bed. All of this is done in honor of the old Saint Lucia who was said to have delivered food to Christians during the time of their greatest persecution, her way lit only by a few candles. Saint Lucia was later executed for her valiant acts. By popular vote, the people elect a national St. Lucia from a selection of several young teenage girls, who lead the nation in their national St. Lucia’s day programs such as pageants, carols, etc.

On Christmas day, most local store owners lock up their shops at noon, so of course the Finnish people must get their shopping done on time! At this time, the “Peace of Christmas” is proclaimed, which means the Christmas holiday is officially in effect. In the early evening, Finnish families make a trip to the graveyard where they place candles on the grave markers of their loved ones, and mourn for them.

After all of this is said and done, the Christmas celebration begins.
The Finnish version of Santa Claus, Joulupukki (which roughly translates into Christmas Goat) is a jolly old man dressed in a red suit, similar to the jolly old version of Saint Nick. That is pretty much where their similarities end. While there are a lot of similarities between the Finnish and American version of Santa (minus the walking stick that Joulupukki is said to use), such as the reindeer team led by legendary Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the fact that he travels in a sleigh, Joulupukki’s reindeer do not fly! Also, while he does travel from home to home to give gifts to the “good” children of the world, rather than popping in and out of chimneys in the middle of the night Joulupukki is said to knock on the door during the family’s Christmas celebration.

According to the legend, upon entrance into the family home he says, “Onko t??ll? kilttej? lapsia?” which roughly translates into the question of whether or not there are any well-behaved children in the home. Of course since Joulupukki is merely a Christmas myth, normally a male family member or friend of the family will sneak out of the house to knock on the door and present the anxious, elated Finnish children with their gifts as a reward for model behavior during the year. After giving out his gifts, Joulupukki “departs” and returns to his toy workshop in Lapland, Finland (no, not the North Pole) for another year.

The conventional idea of Santa Claus is the symbol of the purity of the innocence and faith that children put in the Christmas season. He symbolizes hope, love, and In the present day, Jolly Old Saint Nick is portrayed as a happy, fat old elf with glasses and rosy cheeks that delivers gifts to the children on the Nice side of the Naughty/Nice list on Christmas Eve. Santa’s wardrobe consists of mainly red suits with white trim, black boots, and red, white trimmed hats with a pompon on top. The modern day Santa Claus hates to shave, and his principal mode of transportation consists of a giant red sleigh and eight reindeer (one with a keenly red nose). He popped into and out of household chimneys, picking up scores of cookies and glasses of milk along the way.

However, Santa Claus has not always been portrayed like this. The present day idea of Santa and his many attributes can be traced back to a conglomeration of various tales and legends; the present-day Santa Claus is the end result of centuries of yarns starring kind old men and holy figures, all rolled into one.

One of the most popular explanations of how Santa Claus originated can be traced back to an old monk in Turkey named St. Nicholas Saint Nicholas was famed for his kindness and generous nature; according to legend the old monk gave away every material thing he owned so that he could spend his life traveling to help the poor and sick children of the world. At this point, I’m sure you have noticed that this version of Saint Nick didn’t start out as part of anything having to do with the holiday season.

So how did St. Nicholas ever become associated with Christmas? Over the years as he became more and more renowned for his charitable work, St. Nicholas became known as the protector of children all over. The date of his death, December 6, was celebrated with a feast and was considered an extremely happy, lucky day. The Orthodox Catholic Church adopted Saint Nicholas as the patron saint of children and seafarers, and the 6th of December is his day.

The origin of Santa Claus can also be traced back to the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, who traveled the world on the eve of Saint Nicholas distributing toys and candy to the good children with Black Peter by his side, who carried a whip with which to punish nasty children. Author Washington Irving first brought the Dutch version of Sinter Klaas to American attention in 1809 by giving account to the saint’s journey on horseback on the eve of Saint Nicholas in his book, The History of New York. In 1823 the poem, “A Visit From Saint Nicholas” (also known as ” ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas”) by Clemente Mark Moore was published, and served as the American public’s first glimpse into the conventional present day idea of Santa Claus, chimneys, reindeer, cookies and all.

The Russian Federation, also known as Russia, is the only country in the world that expands across the continents of Europe and Asia, nearly doubling the size of Canada (Canada is the second-largest country in the world). Russia is a country rich in culture and heritage; it shares a coast with the mysterious Black Sea, and borders numerous neighboring countries.

As the political structure of Russia has evolved, so has the culture of the Russian people. As the culture of the Russian people has evolved, many distinct characteristics of the Russian way of life have been altered, one of them being the celebration of the Christmas holiday in Russia.

Saint Nicholas has always been a popular Christmas figure for the Russians. Saint Nicholas is a bishop-like man in a tall hat and beard who delivers presents to the homes of children who have been well-behaved during the year on Christmas Eve, or sometimes the Eve of the Feast of Saint Nicholas which takes place on December 6th. Saint Nicholas has since been replaced in society by Dedushka Moroz, or Father Frost.

In the old days before the Russian revolution, it was a stout older woman named Babushka (whose name means grandmother in Russian) that was said to have delivered the gifts to all of the children’s homes on Christmas Eve. The tradition behind Babushka and her gift giving ways is that on their journey to visit the baby Jesus the three wise men came across Babushka and invited her to come along with them and see him for herself. She declined their offer, but later regretted it and set out to try to catch up with the three wise men, but they were already well on their way at that time. Before she left, Babushka filled her basket with gifts for the infant. Unfortunately, the old woman did not know to follow the stars the three wise men had been advised to do, so she became very disoriented and lost her way. As the legend tells it, Babushka never did make it to see the baby Jesus, so she spends her Christmas Eves wandering the world in search of him, leaving gifts at the home of all of the children who have been on their best behavior throughout the year.

Also, during the more traditional Russian Christmas celebrations, people will begin fasting as early as 39 days before Christmas (which is celebrated on July 6th). On the final day of their fast when the first stars begin to appear in the sky (in honor of the Star of Bethlehem that guided the three wise men to baby Jesus) the Russian people then begin their Christmas feast. A traditional Russian Christmas dinner will consist of twelve courses, one to honor each of Jesus’ twelve disciples. Their meal could consist of many types of main courses ranging from turkey to goose to ham. Fish is also eaten as a main course in many Russian Christmas feasts, especially when larger numbers of people are in attendance.

The Christmas holiday has been an extremely important holiday in Romania since the fall of the Communist regime, both politically and in the hearts of the Romanian people. While they have many customs and traditions that are their very own, Romania has managed to adopt several traditions from the western portion of the world when it comes to various means of celebrating their winter holiday.

An older, more traditional means of celebrating Christmas in Romania involves their younger children going from door to door, around their neighborhood singing Christmas Carols. The procession is usually led by one person, usually an older child. As the children go from door to door, they carry large paper stars with them, on which images of the baby Jesus, the entire Nativity scene, or other Christmas images are imprinted (usually drawn or watercolor painted onto the star). The leader of the band of children carries a large wooden cut out of a star with him. The wooden cut out is wrapped in foil, and bells are fastened onto the edges of the star’s points. In the middle, a Christmas scene–usually the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus–is pasted onto the foil.
The most commonly sung of their Romanian Christmas carols translates into:
“Do you receive the pretty star,
Pretty and so very bright?
It Haseko we did in the sky
Just like God thought it would be right,
Stand it could be seen on high,
Just like we did in the sky”

Still other times, children will go from door to door on Christmas Eve (or sometimes other nights leading up to Christmas) and tell Christmas stories from the Bible and Romanian legends. As Romanian children get older, they eventually stop participating in the procession, but it is an old Romanian tradition that takes place in nearly every Romanian town every year, although as of late traditional means of celebrating the Christmas holiday such as this have become increasingly less and less popular as time has progressed.
In honor of Saint Ignatius, Ignatius’ Day is also celebrated in Romania during the cold winter season. Ignatius’ Day takes place on December 20th, just five days before Christmas Day. On Ignatius’ Day, a pig is slaughtered. They stick straws in the nose of the dead pig, and throw burning straws all over the body of the pig. The pig is nicely burned, and covered with a rag for ten minutes. After that, the family can take part in the eating of the Ignatius’ Day feast, with the pig as the main course of the meal.

In Romania, as in most other places in the world, Christmas is a time for celebration of life and love. Romania has paid a careful reverence to the true meaning of Christmas, and the birth of Jesus Christ and the struggles of Joseph and Virgin Mary on the eve of his birth are a central role in their celebration of the Christmas holiday.

When Christmas is over, life can be hectic. The house must be cleaned up after company has left, the left overs from Christmas dinner must be put away, decorations need to be taken down from the inside and outside of your home, and tacky Christmas gifts must be returned for store credit.

The few days immediately following Christmas and preceding the New Year are full of things that must be done, but it is important to remember to recycle your Christmas tree, as well. Christmas trees that are kept in the home for too long cause house fires every year, resulting in the loss of people’s homes, their property, and maybe even their lives. Protect yourself and your family, and give a little help to the environment in the process when you recycle your old Christmas tree.

If you have a backyard or a garden at your residence, it might be helpful to use your old Christmas tree as mulch for your garden. The pine needles make great ground covering, and so do wood chips. If this is a project that you plan on doing at home, it might be helpful to have an extra pair of hands or two to help you take down the tree down and remove it from the home. If you happen to have a wood chipper, or one available for your use. You can feed the smaller branches into the chipper one by one, and use the wood chippings to cover your garden’s top layer of soil in the winter time. This should add nutrients to the soil and help prevent seeds and roots from freezing so easily.

If you don’t have a wood chipper at your disposal, you may also find it helpful to simply use a saw or chain saw to remove the branches from the trunk of your Christmas tree. You can tie the smaller branches together and bundle them up. Place these small bundles of branches on the ground around your flower bed. This should work to preserve and warm the soil in your garden just as much as the wood chipping mulch that can also be made with your recycled Christmas Tree.

After disposing of their Christmas trees, many people choose to store their old Christmas trees on their own property (maybe in their barn or a similar area–it is not really a good idea to store a dried-up Christmas tree on your property if you live in the city or in a house with a regular-sized lot; Christmas trees are a severe fire hazard). The reason for this is because birds find them an excellent habitat for birds and other wildlife. Many people like to put bird feed, such as peanut buttered pinecones with bird seed on them, small seeds, or pieces of stale bread. Not only does this encourage animals to congregate near your home if you like to watch them, but it also discourages animals from getting into your barn or dumpster at home.