Almost everyone enjoys the Christmas holidays, but buying gifts at this time of year can really strain your bank account, and that can take some of the fun out of the season. Fortunately, you can find ways to save money without sacrificing a lot.

Here are three ideas for saving money during the Christmas season.

Find Online Discounts
Your local shopping mall is not always the best place to look for deals. It’s too tempting to purchase items you see without comparing prices. Shopping online, on the other hand, gives you time to compare prices using sites such as BizRate.com or to look for coupon codes.

You can easily find coupon codes online that will help you save money during the holidays, or you can look for holiday-specific coupons and Christmas discounts at sites such as Christmas Coupons 365.com. This site lists coupons and deals for hundreds of popular stores and makes it easy for you to save money on gifts for everyone on your list.

Another way to save money online is to search for cheap gift suggestions. For example, here are 5 gifts under $5.

Create Personalized Gifts
If you’re craft-challenged like me, you might be tempted to skip this section, thinking that you don’t have the skills to make your own gift. Not so! Thanks to the power of the Internet, you can make personalized gifts with virtually no talent at all. If you’re making something personalized, you might feel ok spending less than you would on a generic gift? You can create mugs, shirts, iPhone and iPad covers, and much more on Zazzle and personalize them with your own photos, artwork and/or text.

Cut Down Your Gift List
One of the most obvious ways to save money is to buy fewer gifts. If you’re the generous type who likes to buy gifts for everyone, from your child’s teacher to the postal carrier, you can save money simply by cutting down your gift list or changing the way you give gifts.

For instance, if you’re from a large family and your family tradition is to buy one gift for everyone, including all the adult relatives, it might be time to suggest drawing names for the holidays. Rather than everyone buying gifts for every other adult relative, each person draws a name and then only buys one gift for that person, so each adult receives one gift, while children can continue to reap the rewards from multiple aunts, uncles, grandparents and so on.

With a little forethought, you can still give wonderful gifts and save money with a couple small changes.

Revised with permission from ,a href=”http://lisa42.hubpages.com/hub/Cheap-Christmas-Gift-Strategies”>Cheap Christmas Gift Strategies on HubPages.

guest post by Debora Dyess

“We never seem to write letters anymore,” I complained to my husband.

He glanced up. “You can fix that. Christmas is coming – perfect time for a family letter.” He returned to work, leaving me to ponder how to begin such a project.

For those of you who, like me, are not natural letter-writers, below is a list of family Christmas letter ideas. Hope they help if you decide to start a new tradition this year.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!
While you can fit a few photos into a newsletter, more is better for your family Christmas letter. Try including a CD of favorite photos and special events. For more pizzazz, try using online services such as Smilebox. You can pick out a background and song to lend emotion to your slideshow. Then have fun and create! Include a copy with each mailed newsletter (or at least with Grandma and Grandpa’s). You can also share your creation with email recipients online.

The Countdown!
David Letterman loves them, Johnny Carson loved them, and we all love them too. The Top Ten List is the hit of the show! Include it in your newsletter or family Christmas letter. Ideas for lists range from sports activities for the kids to best moments on vacation. Include baby’s top ten new words, or your kindergartner’s top ten favorite new books, movies or games. The top ten dumbest/cutest things said in the household is sure to be a hit, but keep careful notes through-out the year to make sure you get them all down!

Make Them Laugh!
Ask each family member to include their favorite joke, riddle or pun. Sharing humor is always a family favorite. For humorous holiday jokes, search online or visit Funny-Christmas.com.

Use a Template!
Trying to format everything just right can lead to frustration, un-Christmas-like obscenities and un-mailed letters. Using a template makes layout easy and allows for more time to write and less to try to fit-it-all-in. You can search for printable Christmas letterhead online or for less than $4, download an awesome Christmas letter template right here at Christmas Letter Tips.com. Using these formats, you can easily summarize important evens of the year, insert family photos and get it done in time to get it mailed. Or, to save a tree and ensure on-time delivery, email your newsletter.

However you choose to share your lives with family members far away, it will be appreciated all year long. Keeping the family tie alive may be the best gift you give or receive!

“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which debuted on CBS in 1965, was the first animated TV special starring the Peanuts characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Although TV executives thought it would be a failure, the animated Christmas special won an Emmy award and a Peabody award, captured 50% of the TV viewers on its debut night, and is still popular today. Here’s some trivia you may not know about the special.

- The number of hairs on Charlie Brown’s head changes throughout the show. In some scenes, he has three hairs on the back of his head, and in others he has no hair at all.

- Composer Vince Guaraldi was invited to write the music for the special after a TV producer heard one of his songs while riding in a cab.

- Lucy calls Charlie Brown “Charlie” in a scene right before she talks about the commercialization of Christmas. This is the only time she ever calls him by his first name only in any Peanuts special. In all the other specials, she always calls him by his complete name – Charlie Brown.

- TV execs were sure “A Charlie Brown Christmas” would flop miserably. They didn’t like Guaraldi’s music, were concerned about Linus quoting the Bible, and wanted a canned laugh track to accompany the animation.

- The name of the Charlie Brown Christmas song that most people associate with the special is “Christmas Time is Here.”

- 50% of all TVs were tuned in to watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on the night it first aired in 1965.

I know people who use Christmas cards to decorate during the holidays. I’ve seen folks stick cards on doors or refrigerators, hang them on strings to make mobiles or simply display them on a mantel. But many Christmas cards are opened, enjoyed, perhaps displayed for a short while, and then tossed in the trash with the torn gift wrapping and empty boxes after the festivities have ended. But what if your Christmas card was also an ornament that could go on the tree?

Christmas card ornaments with photos are just some of the many innovative and cool Christmas cards available online these days. They’re great for far-away grandparents and family members, and while not every person on your card list will want to put your ornament card on their tree, they will all enjoy receiving a personalized unusual Christmas card.

Pear Tree Greetings is one place that offers Christmas card ornaments with photos. Printed on 100 lb. recycled card stock, these stylish greeting cards can be personalized with your own photo and message, as you can see from the examples shown below.

To learn more about any of these Christmas photo cards, click any image below to visit Pear Tree Greetings and be sure to use coupon code SANTA15 to save $15 off an order of $100 or more.

Wood Grain Greeting

Ornamental Display

Merry Stripes

Ornamental Display

Strung Ornament

Swirling and Stylish

Find more Christmas card ornaments with photo, unusual holiday cards and cool Christmas cards.