From now until Christmas, I will be sharing my tried and true tips for saving money on Christmas and holidays. Everything from your gift shopping, your holiday cards, teacher gifts or even Holiday Entertaining....in this economy, we all need to save some money!
As much as I love Christmas and everything about the time between Thanksgiving and New Years, I almost feel sorry for Thanksgiving (if it is possible to feel sorry for a holiday).
No sooner are the Back To School deals put away at the store, the Halloween decorations and deals start to go up....and before Halloween is even over, we see Christmas decorations in the stores. Companies and stores mostly "market" Thanksgiving not as a holiday where we gather with family and friends and are thankful for the many blessings that we have in our life (and I don't care HOW bad anyone thinks their life is at any time....there is ALWAYS something for which to be thankful), but as a way to "kick off" the Holiday Shopping season. Poor Thankgiving...it's one of my favorite holidays of the year and it has been relegated to nothing more than a "Gateway To Christmas"
I know for many of you Thanksgiving is a day to meet with family, pour over the Black Friday ads and plan some Christmas shopping. But please take a moment to remember that Thanksgiving was not declared a National holiday for the sake of retailers...but because it was the ONE holiday in America on which almost everyone could agree. A day to come together and be thankful for what we have (no matter how large or small we think that is).
Thanksgiving is STILL a holiday...and a pretty special one (even if retailers haven't figured out how to monetize it like they have other holidays). Take time to enjoy it and appreciate those in your life and the blessings that abound!
As for me? I will most likely be working on this site for several hours on Thanksgiving, as I have the last few years. But it is done sitting at my sisters kitchen table, chatting with family so much that it takes me 2x as long to post anything than normal, drinking wine, eating baked brie and shrimp with endive and enjoying my family in the hours before dinner...all the while, everyone in my family is saying "Min - I need a good deal on X - find me one!"
Make sure you that check out the rest of the Countdown To Christmas tips that I have posted! Do you have a tip to share? Submit your Holiday Savings Tips and they might be featured in a future post!