I hope all of you had a great Christmas Day, whether you celebrate Christmas or something else, I hope you enjoyed the day off from work. If you didn’t have the day off from work, I hope you enjoyed getting paid time and a half.

When I was twelve years old, my parents stopped putting up a Christmas tree and holiday gift giving became limited to one gift per child. I didn’t mind much, even at that young age. Now that we’re older, my parents don’t put up any Christmas decorations at all and no gifts are exchanged. My grandmother still gives everyone a Christmas card and a lottery scratch off card every Christmas. We all sit around the table after Christmas dinner and scratch our cards off. I don’t remember anyone ever winning anything more than five dollars.

When I tell people about my family’s Christmas traditions, they usually act shocked and say, “But you’re Christians!”

The celebration of Christmas has little to do with Christianity. Christmas is not about a tree and buying gifts. For me Christmas is about family and friends and helping others. As a Christian, it’s about honoring the birth of Christ. It’s about appreciating your blessings and the beauty this world and your life has to offer.

Too many people spend this season wrapped up in consumerism. Too many people end up stretching themselves way too thinly at this time of year, only to find themselves starting the new year with the sinking feeling in their gut that more credit card debt brings.

As the new year begins I’m going to start writing more posts about managing finances and getting out of debt. I think it’s valuable information for many people. These are tough economic times and we need to be prepared financially and emotionally to deal with them.

In upcoming months, I’ll share with you what my family has done to manage these tough times. We’ve never had much in the way of material possessions, but we’ve always had what we needed.

Photo by Meanest Indian

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