8 Frugal Christmas Traditions for a Magical Holiday Season!
Try our frugal Christmas traditions in 2024!
We’ve rounded up some fun and frugal Christmas traditions for you and your family to try! This is the year to give that wallet a break!
1. Instead of buying an Advent Calendar, create your own!
Advent calendars can be pricey, especially for multiple family members. By making a DIY version, you can reuse it each year and save money! Our Hip Sidekick, Lina, shared a budget-friendly idea – a DIY hanging treat bag wooden Advent calendar! It’s a cute and affordable way to countdown to Christmas!
Consider turning your advent calendar into a gift, like our Hip Sidekick, Emily, and check off two things at once.
A DIY gift basket advent calendar makes a wonderfully thoughtful and personalized gift. Instead of traditional chocolates or trinkets, you can fill each “day” with small, meaningful items that reflect the recipient’s interests or even a handwritten note – the options are endless. Our Hip Sidekick Emily gifts hers to couples and designates alternating days for each person.
This Advent Calendar does require some upfront planning, so grab Emily’s free advent calendar printable to get started!
Hip Tip: Are you someone who loves to donate goods around the holidays? Give back with a Reverse Advent Calendar this holiday season!
2. Instead of buying matching family pajamas, buy matching socks!
Buying sets of pajamas for the whole family can get pretty pricey. If buying some new matching pajamas for everyone isn’t in the budget, consider some cozy socks for the whole family.
Every year, Old Navy has festive options in every size. Plus, you can almost always get them on sale!
- Shop holiday socks for Men
- Shop holiday socks for Women
- Shop holiday socks for the Kids
- Shop holiday socks for Toddlers & Babies
Hip Tip: If you’d rather hold out for matching jammies, consider waiting until after the holidays when they go on clearance and save them for next year.
3. Instead of gifts for the entire extended family, organize a gift exchange!
Have everyone pull names from a hat or use a website like Elfster to create a new frugal Christmas tradition! A gift exchange between all the family members is fun, different, and exciting once the holidays roll around. Plus, not knowing who’s shopping for you makes it even more thrilling! Best of all, everyone stays on a budget they’re comfortable with. It’s a win-win!
Check out our easy frugal Christmas gift wrapping techniques to make your gift really stand out this year.
Hip Tip: The 4 gift rule is a genius way to simplify your gift-giving for your immediate family too.
4. Instead of gifts, skip them altogether and adopt a family!
Now more than ever families across America need our help. Whether your kiddos are getting older or your immediate family just doesn’t need for anything – remember skipping the gifts altogether and focusing on a family in need instead could mean more than anything you’ve ever purchased before!
Call your local shelters or connect with a family through a local school or church. Either way, this idea can be as frugal as you’d like or could even be a matter of donating things you already have and don’t need. Take it from our Hip2Save reader Melissa, this frugal Christmas tradition has really impacted her family over the years:
“Let’s teach our kids the real reason for the season! I’ve always taught my girls to give (year-round), but one Christmas activity we always do together is to adopt a family in need. We’ll even buy their Christmas tree, some decorations, gas cards, gifts, household/toiletries – whatever they need!
We then come together for a ‘wrapping party’ so everyone can feel and see how we’re impacting another family’s holiday. We then load it all up and deliver it to the family. This tradition over the years has been much more meaningful to us than stressing over moving an elf or making sure our PJs match!” – Melissa, Hip reader
5. Instead of buying neighbor gifts… hand out cute bags of hot cocoa!
Who says cute reindeer hot chocolate bags can’t double as gifts?! By making some of these to hand out to neighbors, you’ll definitely be saving this year! Since it won’t cost you much more than a bag of marshmallows, chocolate chips, and hot cocoa, you may be able to gift one for each person in a family!
Need clear bags to make these cuties? You can score this 100 pack for under $8 on Amazon!
Hip Tip: Our Crock-Pot hot chocolate Grinch drink and our bucket list of the best Christmas movies should be holiday musts for this year.
6. Instead of sending family Christmas cards, film a Christmas video!
There are lots of frugal ways to order Christmas cards, but if you’re sending them to a large group of people, the rising costs of stamps alone can get pricey. Plus, a video is more fun for the family, unique to the viewers, and way more personal anyway! And hello, it’s totally FREE, so it’s an exceptionally frugal Christmas tradition to start this year!
Simply upload your fun family video to Facebook or another social media platform for select friends and family to see. Better yet, you can make even more personal videos for each recipient and send them via email or text.
7. Instead of making your own pumpkin pie, buy our favorite pre-made pie from the store!
It’s actually more affordable (and will save you time!) to pick up a pre-made pie at Costco or Sam’s Club rather than buying the ingredients and making it yourself. Our Hip recipe blogger, Lina, gave the Costco/Sams Club pumpkin pie taste test and said the store-bought versions are just as delicious. Top it off with homemade whipped cream or transfer it to your own pie dish if you want to give it that fresh-from-the-oven feel.
Here’s what one of our readers said about her Costco pumpkin pie last year:
“The Costco pumpkin pie was just requested at a family dinner and I have to say it’s better than any homemade pie! That’s saying a lot considering I grew up on plenty of great homemade pies from Grandma, Mom, and Aunts!” – Mallory
8. Instead of hosting a big family dinner, have a dessert exchange!
Why not skip the expensive dinner and instead, enjoy the best part of any meal? Dessert! Everyone can bring their favorite treat and still get their fill of quality time for the holidays with this frugal Christmas tradition.
Hop over to our dessert recipes to see which ones we suggest!
Bonus idea: Set out to see some magical Christmas lights!
This idea isn’t just frugal, it could essentially be FREE!
To celebrate with your loved ones, make sure you head out for a drive around town to spot the best Christmas lights. Not only are they sure to put you in the Christmas spirit, but they’ll make the holiday season even more magical if you have kiddos too.
Best of all, it’ll likely become a tradition everyone will look back and cherish forever! ❤️
Most importantly, Christmas is about the time spent together, not the money.
There’s no reason you can’t flip the script on expensive traditions in favor of new memory-making experiences. They may even become the things you look forward to most each season!
While attending a Holiday Open House last year, my family visited a high end hotel that was hosting a children’s activity. The hotel was gorgeously decorated and their tree made the perfect backdrop for photos. This may be something to keep in mind when taking family photos on the cheap and pairing it with Walgreens promotions etc.
Thanks so much for the awesome tip, Happy Aunt! 💕 Snapping family photos at holiday setups like that is such a fun (and budget-friendly!) idea. Love the thought of pairing it with Walgreens deals, too – super smart! 🤗