Tips for Frugal Christmas Giving

It will be interesting to see if people change their buying habits this holiday season due to finances being so strained. You’d better believe retailers are anxious to know, because many of them depend on holiday revenue to support them until Valentine’s Day when people start spending again. But facts are facts, and retailers might just have to deal with the fact that it’s been a hard year for many people.

There are ways, however, to save money on the holiday without having to seem like a Scrooge. For example, there are gifts found online that are free for all intents and purposes. A good example are Christmas gift certificates available for download that allow you to effectively give the gift of yourself. After you download and print a certificate, you simply fill in the blank with the free gift you want to give the recipient. You can give anything you want: dog-walking, baking, sewing and washing dishes are just some of the things you can offer. And you never know, the gift of your time could mean more than a gift you buy in a store to some of your friends or family members.

If you need a gift for someone who has small kids, give the gift of fun and magic by making free Santa letters with detailed information about each of the children. These use From the Desk of Santa Claus letterhead artwork to give the impression that Santa sent them himself. Even though the children won’t know that you’re the one who sent the letters, their parents will! So the gift is actually for them as much as it is for the children.

If a homemade present won’t do it, then the next best thing is to save money when buying. An easy way to do that is to save on shipping costs. You can find plenty of holiday gifts online that don’t need to be shipped. For example, the Internet is full of gift certificate choices suitable for downloading and printing. These are offered by nearly every major retailer and many smaller companies, so it’s usually not hard to find something suitable for everyone on your list.

With so many choices available this holiday season, it will be easy to give like Santa without shelling out big bucks. That’s definitely one way to have a happy holiday!