As the college years go on, students want to participate in the Christmas hosting festivities from buying gifts to buying and preparing the food, but often they don’t get the full experience of buying all the things so they can do all the things because of their very minimal college student budget. Luckily for you, you don’t need to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to host a lovely Christmas for you, your family and friends.
You are living in the world of do-it-yourself activities. You don’t even need to spend money. Use stuff from around the house to create decorations or crafts. If you have small children in your home, know somebody who does or babysit, chances are you have stuff the kiddos can use for arts and crafts. This is especially true now with COVID going around and many elementary schools having all their students doing school online from the comfort of their own homes. Take some construction paper, cut some strips, and begin to glue them together forming a paper chain. Now you have a very quick, easy and free garland that you do not even have to keep lying around all year just taking up space in storage until you go to use it again.
If you don’t mind spending a few bucks and want some new ornaments, go purchase some clay. There are so many different kinds you could purchase from airdry to ones you bake. Create the shape you want your ornament to be with cookie cutters or random things lying around the house like cups and bowls. Let it dry according to the directions on the package, and then you can decorate it however you want whether it’s with acrylic paint, glitter glue or anything else your heart desires.
For gifts, print off some pictures of your favorite memories with everybody or even just your favorite picture of the person. Instead of paying close to $100 for a few pictures to have a store print them out, you can go out and purchase some picture printer paper to use at home. You can then place the picture paper in your printer and print your pictures like normal. You can distribute the pictures as is, or you could create a frame out of cardboard or popsicle sticks like when you were a child.
By now, you have probably spent somewhere between $30 and $50 depending on the style clay and how much photo paper you have purchased if you decided to. Chances are, all of this has already cost you less than one textbook because let’s face it, textbooks are crazy expensive for only needing them for 6 to 15 weeks out of the year.
Finally, for food, chances are you already have the basics lying around in your kitchen and pantry if your family stocks up during the year. You probably already have the stuffing and cranberry sauce and maybe even a turkey with them starting to sell out in early November. You probably even have gravy packs, but those are honestly no more than a dollar. If you make deviled eggs, or angel eggs if you call them that, you probably already have everything. At the very most, if you have just about everything, you’re only spending $50 on food. You may have to go out and get a few things, but that is what coupons are for, sweetheart. You could spend almost nothing if you find the perfect deals.
Save your dollars, honey, and throw that incredible totally inexpensive Christmas you’ve been wanting to throw. Gather all the craft supplies and find all the coupons. You can have an incredible Christmas for about $100 and still have money for the spring semester!