8 Inexpensive Ways to Make Christmas Special
Our eight unique and low-cost tips guarantee you don’t have to stress out planning for Christmas on a tight budget. Let’s get into them!
Cultural Potluck Christmas Lunch or Dinner
This Christmas, there’s beauty in sharing your culture through meals with your mates and loved ones. On top of tasting new cuisines and learning about their Christmas traditions, you can save yourself from the stress and money on what to prepare.
Whether you live alone or with several people, ask around your circle if they want to celebrate Christmas the same way as you. That way, you can cut costs together and plan a meaningful Christmas potluck lunch or dinner.
Feel the Christmas spirit outdoors by having a free Christmas picnic by the beach or at free campsites. You can also check for your local park Christmas events that already provide lunch.
Improvised Christmas Desserts and Drinks
There’s always a low-cost spin on Aussie classic desserts and drinks. No one will whinge about it, and they’ll love whatever you make.
Desserts
With only as little as three ingredients, you can make the classic Pavlova and other biscuit recipes to share. Christmas in summer is also the perfect excuse to chill chopped fruits for a healthy dessert.
Drinks
Stock up on drinks as early as November with bulk discounts. You can also fancy up store-bought juice with some fruits for the kids or spike it for the adults.
Creative Gift Giving
There’s so much joy and creativity to have in gift-giving. It was especially giving personalised gifts that’ll brighten up your good mate’s face on Christmas Day.
Here are some sustainable and inexpensive ideas for gift-giving:
- Handmade greeting cards
- Homemade food gifts with three-ingredient recipes
- Seedlings and small planters (for plant parents)
- Visit op shops to find excellent condition second-hand items
- Unused facilities you can re-gift to others
- DIY arts and crafts
Christmas Gift Wrapper Alternatives
Just like DIY gifts, there are a few ways you can repurpose old items at home as Christmas wrappers. If you’re good at sewing, it’s the best time to put that skill to use for gift-giving.
Here are some of our ideas:
- Sneaker boxes (sanitised) or old mobile phone boxes
- Clothes or other fabric
- Book pages or notebooks
- Old mason glass jars (for food items)
- Biscuit tin boxes
Kraft paper is also another economical alternative to luxurious Christmas wrappers. Top it up with ribbons from previous gifts, or tie it with yarn.