The holidays bring plenty of fun, food and family gatherings. But they can also bring financial stress. Fortunately, you can avoid the seasonal money crunch by creating a Christmas budget early and shopping all year long, rather than trying to cram all your purchases into the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

First, you’ll want to create a holiday budget that is comprehensive enough to include all the ways you spend money during the Christmas season, including holiday preparations and other purchases that aren’t for gift giving. Then follow these tips to help you stick to your budget and avoid the holiday crunch.

1. Start early. For some people, December 26 marks the beginning of their holiday shopping for the next year. Many of us don’t think about Christmas that early, but this is a great time to take advantage of those after Christmas sales to make purchases of holiday stables like ornaments, gift-wrap, and party supplies.

2. Save a little every month. The easiest way to make sure you don’t overextend your finances during the holidays is to create a Christmas savings account that will help you reach your holiday budget goal. Many banks and credit unions offer savings programs just for the holidays, and can help you set up a program to automatically deduct, say, $25 or $50 from your paycheck or checking account and deposit it in your Christmas fund.

3. Shop for Christmas all year. Create a master shopping list with gift ideas for everyone on your gift list and keep it in your wallet or purse all year. That way you’ll be able to refer to it when you spot a good sale.

4. Comparison shop online. Whether you’re shopping mid-season or during the Christmas rush, you can use the web to help you find great deals. Use a comparison shopping site such as Shopping.com or iBestPriceSearch.com to find the best prices, and search for coupons to save even more.

5. Create homemade gifts. You can save money by baking goodies or making gifts for friends or relatives who will appreciate such a personal gift. Many people really don’t need or want more “things,” but would love a personally crafted gift, or the offer to help them do yard work, run errands or do household chores.

By following these simple tips, you should be able to stay within your budget and have a financially stress-free holiday.

Decorating trees during what has become known as the Christmas season began in Germany during the early 1800‘s. Nuts coated with sugar, apples and other pieces of candied fruit hung among the evergreen branches were the first German Christmas ornaments. Ornaments cut from gingerbread dough and marzipan also became popular. Later eaten by the children, these expensive treats were out of reach for all but the wealthy.

By the mid 1800‘s the glass-blowers of Lauscha began to produce hand-blown glass ornaments to mimic the fruits and nuts the wealthy were hanging on their trees. Long known for the quality of their glassware (medicine bottles, barometers, marbles and eye glasses) the glass-blowers expanded the ornament business into a cottage industry with the men doing the actual blowing of the ornaments, the women doing the silvering of the insides (early in the industry with either lead or mercury, then later on with a mixture of sugar-water and silver nitrate) and the children painting the outside. Thus began the tradition of the beautiful glass ornaments that Germany became famous for.

Lovely glass spheres aren’t the only German Christmas ornaments that valued by collectors. Dresden began producing gaily painted, embossed paper ornaments. Decorations of pressed tin with brightly lithographed pictures were being produced in other parts of Germany and thin strips of metal called “angel hair” began to show up on trees around the country. This “angel hair” is what we now lovingly call “icicles”. Ornaments were also made out of wood, walnut shells, pewter and wax.

Queen Victoria’s Prince Albert (a native of Germany) introduced the glass ornaments to England and by the 1870‘s German Christmas ornaments were being exported to Great Britain. Ten years later, F.W. Woolworth (the American Five & Dime giant) discovered the lovely glass ornaments during a trip to Europe and began importing them to the United States.

Though the popularity of the ornaments declined during both WWI and WWII, Germany still imports some ornaments to the United States every year. German Christmas ornaments, especially the older ones are still valued by collectors. The most popular German Christmas ornament shapes are Santa and Mrs. Claus (or St. Nick), Mary and Joseph, rocking horses, soldiers, pinecones and, of course, the German Christmas Pickle.

Of the many contributions that the German culture has made to modern society, perhaps one of the most beautiful and enduring is that of the Christmas tree and decorations.

- Sherry Law

Long before the birth of Jesus Christ, wreaths were commonly used as a symbol of celebration and achievement. Laurel wreaths were used to crown the winners in the early Olympic games, and the tradition of bestowing wreaths upon the winners of sporting events is still followed today in some events, such as horse racing and car racing. But now wreaths are most often used for another celebration – Christmas.

The first Christmas Advent wreath was invented in the 1830s by Johann Hinrich Wichern, a Protestant parson who ran an orphanage in in Hamburg, Germany. Wichern made a wooden ring and affixed red and white candles on one side of it to help the children count the days until Christmas. During each service of daily prayer, a child would light one candle, until on Christmas Eve all of them would be illuminated. It is thought that children liked this ring so much that they decorated it with evergreen twigs. Later the number of candles was reduced to four and evergreen boughs became an important component of the rings.

The evergreen branches represent everlasting life brought through Jesus Christ, and the circular shape of the wreath represents God himself, with no beginning and no end.

Typically, three of the candles in an advent wreath are violet-colored, and one is rose-colored, but some choose to use all purple or all blue candles. When used in household devotion, one candle is lit on the first evening of Advent, which falls on a Saturday. Each Saturday thereafter during Advent another candle is lit. Some wreaths have a large white candle in the center which is lit on Christmas Day to signify Christ’s birth.

The tradition of Advents wreaths took a while to catch on in Germany and spread throughout Europe, but by the time German immigrants came to America, they brought this tradition with them. Evergreen wreaths without candles also became a popular symbol of the holidays. Now it’s a household tradition for many families around the world to have a wreath made from evergreen hanging upon the front door of their home during the holidays.

by Debora Dyess
When I was a kid (more years ago than I care to recount) my daddy always made sure we each had a personalized Christmas ornament every year. He used a fine liner paintbrush and model car paint to meticulously write our name and the year on a Christmas ball, along with some memorable thing that happened that year. ‘Me, too!’ my ball reads for the year I was two. My sixteenth year ornament reads ‘Off to England!’ They are treasured keepsakes.
Options for personalizing Christmas ornaments have come a long way, baby. While the hand-painted Christmas messages are still a wonderful way to individualize holiday heirlooms, there are so many more ways available today to create your own personalized photo ornament. Here are simple instructions to help you create a homemade photo ornament using Microsoft Word and some simple materials.

Materials:
- Clear glass Christmas ball ornament
- Overhead transparency sheet (office supply store)
- Digital camera
- Computer and printer

Directions:
Open a new document in Microsoft Word. Open the drawing toolbar (view – toolbars – drawing), select an oval and ‘draw’ it onto your document.
Right click inside the oval; select ‘format autoshape’. Select ‘color and lines’; choose ‘no fill’ as the color. Click on ‘size’, and type in both height and width to match the size printed on ornament box. (NOTE: Because the ornament is a circle, height and width will be the same. If only one number is listed on the box, it is both.)

After closing the ‘format autoshape’ option, copy and paste the circle to cover the document, creating as many as you need. Insert the picture(s) by going to ‘insert’. Select ‘picture’, ‘from file’, and browse until you find your pictures. Insert pictures in circle document, resizing as needed to fit the balls. You will lose whatever doesn’t fit into the circle, so resize carefully.

Print onto transparency paper (a copy shop can do this for you). Cut out circles. Roll individual photo-circle around a skewer and insert into opened Christmas ball. Make sure the bottom of the picture is at the bottom of the ball. Once the photo is inside, it will open and fill the Christmas ornament. You may add glitter or confetti for a fun look, or decorate the outside of the ball with paint pens. Make sure not to obstruct the photo.
Using formal portraits or candid shots will change the character of the personalized photo ornament, as will how you choose to decorate each ball. You may even wish to combine the ‘old school’ method of personalization with the new, adding a name, date and words or event to remember to the outside of the ornament with a careful hand.
These personalized photo ornaments are sure to saved and cherished for many years.

Don’t overextend your budget by trying to purchase items that cost even more than you can pay to impress your family and friends. You can remain within your budget and give some really neat gifts. Nearly all of the best gifts for Christmas can be bought off-season.

You can discover discount buys like coats and electronics in the spring or summer time. Department stores are perfect places to discover clothing at affordable prices along with off-season sales also. Bookstore warehouses have great buys for readers and writers. You can also search on the Internet for sales at discount outlets. Designer apparel and goods can be found on Ebay and you can save a bundle. Electronics and video games are a few of the most expensive things to give and by doing some homework and searching for better deals, you can find new and used items at a lower price.

Christmas shopping for the children can be a headache and a hassle, but by buying online you can lay aside time and find some good sale items. Do not forget to do it way up-front of the holiday period. Most online stores will offer free shipping.

If you aren’t shopping for a primary holiday, you can still shop on an allowance. A wonderful concept for your friends can be time spent together talking over a bottle of wine and some good food. A movie with the young girls and dinner after can be the best gift for women or someone you are close to. You can likewise show them how special they are by preparing dinner or helping them buy something they have really been wanting. A gift card to their favorite outlet or stores can make what they wish less costly and it is easy on your purse.

Personalized items can be inexpensive but made special with an engraving or special message. Two hearts necklaces or matching bracelets are excellent ideas and make the best gift ideas for best friends who might be leaving for college.

Special occasions like a graduation or a wedding party don’t require an expensive gift. You may encounter some items that can be expensive, but you can afford items that will appear as if you spent a lot. Pictures, trinkets, lingerie, and gift certificates are great ideas and can be located in various price categories. It may also rely upon who you are purchasing for that determines what you spend. You can expend less on friends and more on mothers and fathers, spouses and children.

Most cultures have some version of a Christmas stocking and there are many theories about the origin of the stockings left out for Santa to fill. History gives us no written records, so let’s look at some of the more interesting legends surrounding Christmas stockings history.

One legend surrounding the origins of the Christmas stockings features Odin, the principle god of Norse mythology and his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. The legend says that each year, during the Yule season, Odin would lead a great hunt. It goes on to state that children would place their boots near the chimney and leave them filled with hay, sugar, carrots and other treats to satisfy the hungry horse after the day’s hunt. Odin would then replace the food that Sleipnir ate with small gifts or candy to thank the children for their kindness and generosity.

Another legend involves Saint Nicholas and the three daughters of an poverty-stricken nobleman. Though the man and his family had once been happy and prosperous, they had fallen on hard times. Bad business decisions and the wife’s illness and subsequent death had led to a decline in the families fortune. By the time the daughter reached the age to wed the family was living in a small cottage and the father was devastated to realize that his daughters would not be able to marry, due to the lack of dowries. Though the villagers were sympathetic to the man’s plight, they knew he was proud and would not accept charity, even to salvage his daughters’ futures.

As he was passing through the small town, Saint Nicholas happened to hear the villagers talking about the sad plight of the girls and their father. Being the generous saint that he was, he wanted to help. Waiting until nightfall, he peered into the family’s windows and saw the girls freshly washed stockings hanging by the fireplace to dry. After the family was asleep, he snuck into the house and removed three bags of gold coins from his pouch. He placed a bag of coins in each of the girls’ stockings and left.

When the girls and their father arose in the morning, they found the bags of coins and their joyous voices could be heard far and wide. It is said that the girls were all married and they, as well as their father, lived happily ever-after.

The re-telling of this story led children to begin hanging their stocking by the fireplace or leaving their shoes outside the door, hoping that they too might be the recipient of gifts from Saint Nicholas.

The hanging of Christmas stockings remains one of Christmas’ more popular traditions. While it is clear that the Christmas stocking’s history will remain a mystery, hanging stockings on Christmas Eve is a custom is here to stay.