Holiday Magic Doesn’t Have To Cost A Lot

Gas costs money, so plan accordingly: make a list of the best neighborhoods or areas around you that have great Christmas lights. Make a scoring sheet and give everyone (not driving) one so they can make notes as you drive. Make a great Christmas play list, pack a few Christmas cookies or snacks, and get some thermoses of hot chocolate. Make sure everyone’s in cozy jammies and blankets back there, too. This is one of our family’s favorite traditions and our girls remember it all year long.

Even Pop-Tarts and bowls of cereal feel magical with candlelight. Turn all the lights off and light a bunch of candles in your kitchen for breakfast. Whether you make homemade pancakes or just toast some frozen waffles, pick a date in December to make it your “magical breakfast morning.” Bonus points if it’s a weekday so everyone gets a dose of magic before running off for the day.

Candlelight service, whether you’re religious or not, is such a lovely way to enjoy the holiday season. Typically churches have these on Christmas Eve and play Christmas hymns and songs, but there are no rules here, and if your family isn’t religious, you can still enjoy this holiday magic. Just grab some candles — battery-operated tea lights from the dollar store are great for little hands — and fill your living room or whatever space you’re doing this in with them. Pick stories to read, songs to sing, or take turns sharing favorite Christmas stories by candlelight. Your “service” can look like whatever you want, and this is a great tradition to share with grandparents and extended family members.

Do you want to enter a black hole of time-suck? Then go to this website where there are wish books and Christmas catalogues from 1940 to current day so you can reminisce about the pages you’d tear out and circle for Santa. Find the years you were a little kid and show your children what the hot toys were, what you were desperate to get, and what item you still wish you could play with. If you have catalogues for your kids now (the Amazon wish book is pretty great), let them circle their own items and make a fun list, too.

I’m talking super easy. Get graham crackers instead of the (often expensive) gingerbread house kits and some tubs of frosting and get to work. The best hack: while gingerbread houses do come with candy, they also come with candy nobody actually wants to eat (like those super hard sprinkles and gum drops), so instead of buying the kits, just buy a couple of things to decorate that your family actually enjoys. (Big fan over here of shredded coconut for snow.) The dollar store is a great place to get candies, sprinkles, and other gingerbread house decorations for cheap.

White Elephant, Yankee Swap, Nasty Christmas — whatever you call the gift exchange game, have some low-cost holiday fun by playing with friends or family, but you can only use Target Dollar Spot items. (Or Five Below store items or the dollar store, whatever works!) You’ll be surprised at how many cute items are available, and it’s always fun to open a gift and figure out who wrapped it, knowing it would be a hit. (And make it extra fun by picking items people actually want.)

Matching pajamas cost money, but consider this your one pair of Christmas jammies. You don’t have to have a pair for every night of the week or different ones for school pajama day or whatever. I know, influencers are wearing a different pair every day in December, but not you — just wear the matching ones and have a big fun movie night. There’s something so sweet and fun about everybody matching, and you can set up your self-timer on your phone and take the best holiday pictures.

Snacks like holiday trail mix or festive muddy buddies can be done on the cheap, and it’s really fun to set everything out and let your family each make their own bag (take these with you to go see Christmas lights or enjoy during your movie night). You can get a bunch of your favorite bowls or buy some of the cheap foil pans from the dollar store and pour in things like pre-made chocolate and powdered sugar muddy buddies, festive M&Ms, pretzels, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter cups — whatever you want. You can also do this with a hot cocoa bar (marshmallows, candy cane, and whipped cream all make for great, cheap toppings) or an ice cream sundae bar a la Home Alone 2.

Seriously, this is cheap and the way it looks after is so magical. Get some fishing line, tape, and a whole lot of white tissue paper. Cut out your snowflake designs and hang them everywhere — fill a whole room with fishing line and the snowflakes taped to it so it looks like they’re literally floating. This is a fun way to decorate any room in the house, have them going up the stairs, hang them over your children’s beds — just go for it.

When’s the last time you read A Christmas Carol or ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas? If you don’t own these books and don’t want to buy copies (you can find a lot of them used online), go check out your local library and pick a bunch of Christmas books. Classics, new stories, romantic holiday novels, picture books for the kids — get all the ones you can find and do some festive reading for holiday magic.

On this same note, make a tradition where someone reads the same Christmas story out loud every year. Grandparents can take on the helm if they like, or you could even have your kids read one out to the family.

Look at your local high school’s theatre department — are they putting on a Christmas show? What about a Christmas concert at the local church or some kind of Christmas program or play in your community? Tickets can be very cheap, and most shows in churches are free if you just want to hear some beautiful Christmas music.

Have you seen some of the Christmas decorations out there? Your local Lowe’s or Home Depot has a great set-up of outdoor and indoor decorations with things that sing, move, dance, and more. Some local stores are even putting up little photo areas so you can snag a festive picture with your loved ones. This is a great Christmas tradition with our own girls — we pick a night to wander the aisles and get McDonald’s after. The best.

You know what always feels magical? Themed cups and plates and a whole beautiful centerpiece at the table. But those can get pricey, so here’s my holiday magic advice — just make your own beautiful Christmas tablescape. Hit up your favorite thrift store to find plates and dishes that are either super Christmassy or are in the colors you’ve chosen for your tablescape. Get napkins, tablecloths, place mats — these things are always in abundance at a thrift store. And then (you know where this is going) add some candlesticks, make a holiday playlist, and sit down for a big family meal. Even if you’re eating boxed macaroni and cheese or Happy Meals — it’s magical.

And let your kids be the art directors! Post yourself up in front of your outdoor Christmas decorations, your tree, or wherever you all feel festive. Wear fancy clothes or those matching jammies or just your everyday clothes — don’t get caught up in what an expensive photo shoot should look like. Do what works for your family. You can use the self-timer on your phone to get some really great shots, and you can also use portrait mode on phone cameras to take some beautiful photos of your children in all their holiday gear. Remember, you just want to capture your sweet family exactly as they are this year, and that’s where the magic actually is.

Go help organize the local food pantry, pass out toys and blankets, offer to help wrap gifts for a single parent — giving back is such an incredible dose of holiday magic and will put the spirit of Christmas right into you. Even if you can’t find a local organization with volunteer opportunities, reach out to your local parent group on Facebook and see how you can help. Maybe someone’s looking for a specific used toy for their child and you happen to have one collecting dust. Maybe someone wants to bake cookies but their oven is broken and you can help. There are tons of ways to give back that don’t cost you anything but time and love.