Do you want to throw a rockin’ New Years Eve Party but don’t have a lot to spend? No worries! You don’t have to sit on the couch in your PJs and fuzzy slippers and count down to New Year with Ryan Seacrest — unless of course you want to! If you want to have people over are ready to celebrate, then I have some good news for you. I have searched the web to find some fabulous and frugal ideas that can help you throw a memorable New Years Eve Party!
Frugal Invitations
You can get much more frugal than free, am I right? I have found a few free invitation options that you can use to let your guests know that they are invited to the party of the year — or at least in for a fun night with friends.
(photo via Evite)
One of my favorite invitation websites in Evite. There several attractive choices for New Years Eve invitations and the best part is they are free! No need to buy invitations, pay postage or hunt down your guests for RSVPs. It can all be done on the Evite website. Easy peasy!!!
I also found several free printable cards at the Holiday Crafts and Creations website. These can be printed on fancy or festive paper for a fraction of the price it might cost to buy invites.
But here is my FAVORITE…
I wasn’t able to put the photo up – probably because of copyright restrictions – but you simply MUST trust me when I say these invitations are fabulous!!! Head on over to the Perpetual Party Planner Blog and check out the post on DIY New Year’s Eve Invites.
DIY New Years Eve Favors
You can put those empty wrapping paper tubes from Christmas to good use with this craft I found on Holiday Crafts and Creations.
Just click on the photo above to visit their site and see the simple step-by-step instructions. Use your imagination and creativity to really have fun with these poppers.
Need Confetti? Have left over wrapping paper from Christmas? PERFECT! Just stick the paper into your shredder for instant streamers or confetti (depending on the type of shredder you have). Or, if you want to keep the kids busy during their Christmas break, have them cut it all by hand. It up to you 
Frugal Food
You can always ask guest to bring their favorite finger food, dessert and/or their own drinks. If you have been couponing then you have probably built up quite a stockpile of goodies. If so, now is the time to tap into that treasure and put on a grand spread for your guests — all for a fraction of the price. Even if you don’t have a well stocked pantry you can still find a lot of great deals and use coupons to save money. Frugal and fabulous!!!
(via Allrecipes.com)
One of my very favorite recipe websites is Allrecipes.com. You are sure to find a lot of delicious recipes. They have all kinds of recipes for appetizers, dinners, desserts, and even drinks. Check it out and get creative!!!
Whatever you decide to do, be sure to have fun, be fabulous, stay safe and please do NOT drink and drive!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!
Thanks for Reading!
Christie
If you are anything like me then you would be something like a Schizophrenic when Christmas time comes around. What do I mean? Well, I love Christmas. I love the lights, décor, smells, songs, weather, fashion, everything. But I despise the weight gain that seems to be automatically attached to the season. So I spend quite a bit of time enjoying myself immensely and then bemoaning my waistline soon after. What makes it worse is that there are also tummy issues to deal with after!
Well, I want to get out of this rut. I want to enjoy everything I love about the season and not have to suffer during the first few weeks of the New Year. So here are some things I have started to do this month.
- I’ve gotten into the habit of drinking more water than I usually do. Since I am not a soda fan at all and I don’t really drink alcohol that much, my beverages are limited to water and juices already. I only drink freshly squeezed or made juices (no powder or concentrates) and lots of water. Water helps naturally flush out toxins, it helps with constipation, it keeps the skin young as well, and it helps you eat less.
- On the note of eating less, well, just eat less. Period. So I have started training to cut my portions in half. For example, if I see these special Christmas cookies that I love, instead of having four like I usually do, I take 2. I know, it’s still some calories and sugar but I said that I wanted to lessen the terrible after effects and still enjoy the season. Now is not the time to start a brand new diet. It just will not work given all the parties and the celebrations and, as mentioned before, all the seasonal dishes. But you can enjoy and do this in moderation as well.
- How do you do this? Moderation and Christmas are not words often seen in the same sentence. Well, it helps if you track your food. Not the overly detailed tracking with corresponding grams and calorie count that a lot of diet plans require. That would honestly be just too much work for me for the season. But taking down just what you ate for your basic meals so you can look back and see if you are eating too much already is good enough. I have started to do this and I must say it is working.
- And then there is the food you choose to eat. I gravitate towards more fibrous dishes for many reasons. One, these really help my digestion. Two, I love crunch and color and texture. Three, I am not a sweets fan at all so the occasional cookie doesn’t send me into depression. Choosing more fiber-rich food will help anyone in the long run. And there are a lot of delicious Christmas dishes that are high in fiber so thinking that you will have nothing to eat or serve is a myth. Just do the research.
- Relax! Stress is major party pooper. I can recall so many parties I hosted, not only Christmas parties, where I ended with a headache and not really remembering enjoying myself much. In fact, I stopped hosting parties for a couple of years because of this. I am not hosting anything this year and I am not saying become a hermit or stop party planning. Just organize, do manageable meals, do things ahead of time, and remember that it is a party so smile, laugh, and have fun.
How do you plan to manage your festivities this year?
Cheers,
VICKI
I titled my post Christmas bliss because one of the definitions of bliss is – great joy! That is what we all should feel on Christmas. For those of us who honor the true meaning of Christmas, we are celebrating God’s greatest gift to us — the birth of his son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Because of this, there is so much to celebrate and be thankful for on Christmas Day.
Unfortunately, for many people it can also be a really stressful time and why wouldn’t it be? We are bombarded with commercials of people giving cars with big red bows on them, a zillion different toy commercials that have our children repeating over and over, I want I want I want and if he didn’t go to Jared well, then maybe he’s just not that into you. Others of us measure our Christmas success by how many different kinds of Christmas cookies, candies or other goodies we can mass produce in a month. What it boils down to, is many of us simply try to do too much and want everything to be as perfect as possible. Then, when we fall short — well, we feel like we have failed.
Please believe me when I say that there have been many Christmases where I mailed presents late, got caught up in the stress or wished I had just done more — but you know what? Christmas still came and I still felt great joy when the day finally arrived.
One of my favorite Christmas stories – How the Grinch Stole Christmas – illustrates this point beautifully. It has such a great message and one of my very favorite parts of the story is when the Grinch is listening for the Who’s to be sobbing and sad because all of their Chirstmas decorations and presents have been stolen by him but when they wake up they aren’t sad. They feel great joy and instead of crying, the Grinch hears singing and you know what…
“Christmas came just the same…It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.” Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas he thought doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas …perhaps…means a little bit more.” ~ How the Grinch Stole Christmas • by Dr. Seuss
So how can we enjoy all that this blessed season has to offer and still keep things in perspective. I touched on this a bit in the post I wrote last year The Magic and Meaning of Christmas and I’ll provide a few simple tips on how you can feel the true joy of Christmas through and through.
1. Scale it Down a Bit – Don’t overdue by trying to be perfect. Don’t overspend, don’t over plan just don’t over extend yourself to the point where you and your family are stressed and miserable. See those gingerbread cookies pictured above. I made them. They aren’t perfect (gingerbread heads were rolling) and even though I had wanted to make about 3 different kinds of cookies, I got so stressed out making those that I decided not too. This year St. Nick is going to have to be happy with the cut and bake cookies from the store. Whew! What a weight off my shoulders.
2. Give Generously–This can be of your time, talent, heart and/or your treasure. Whenever you give, give with love and not out of a sense of obligation. I just read a wonderful story about an anonymous person who paid off a bunch of layaways for some people at Kmart. It honestly brought a tear to my eye. While the season can sometimes bring out the worst in people, it also certainly brings out the BEST in people too. You don’t have to spend money to be generous, you can volunteer to help with a toy drive, ring the bell for the Salvation Army, work in a soup kitchen or winter shelter, there are so many things you can do and it will really help you to feel the true spirit of the season.
3. Simplify Gift Giving — If you have a big family you can draw names or choose just to buy for kids. There are lots of fantastic DIY Christmas present ideas and photo gifts are fun, special and usually economical.
4. Stay Home– Traveling to see family is something that many people do but sometimes it just can’t happen. Traveling (especially with children) is stressful on a normal day but during the holidays you multiply that by about a thousand! I’m not just talking about traveling out of state either. I know many families have several places they need to be. Consider hosting your own celebration, trading off every other year or visiting one family on Christmas Eve and one Christmas Day. If you have a lot of invites it is a huge blessing to know so many people love you and want to spend the holidays with you, but it can be tough too.
5. Celebrate the True Meaning of Christmas — If you are feeling stressed or getting caught up in the holiday craziness instead of appreciating all the beauty, wonder and magic think back to that first Christmas. When a young mother gave birth to her sweet baby boy in a barn. She and her husband didn’t have much but they wrapped him in some blankets and laid him on soft clean hay in a manger. Simple yet miraculous.
John 1:14 — The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!!!
Christie
What is it about Christmas that just brings out such glee in kids? Is it the wonderful, beautiful lights that festoon every lamppost or anything upright for that matter? Is it the entry of seasonal, very delicious meals? For kids, Christmas time is Santa time! The moment my tree comes out of hiding at home, my kids automatically do their own short versions of Balki Bartokomous’s ‘Dance of Joy’ (age hint here). It is such a funny thing to see and truly the excitement from them is fantastic. Then the pressure sets in and I start to feel all the responsibility attached with Santa Claus and making sure they have a memorable Christmas.
This year, I started to think about this tradition. What is it really? Where did it come from? And how do I divert the seemingly mindless consumerism of the idea of Santa Claus to what Christmas should truly mean? I did some reaserch first (naturally) and this is what I found.
Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and simply “Santa”, is a figure with legendary, historical and folkloric aspects who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.[1] The modern figure was derived from the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, which, in turn, may have part of its basis in hagiographical tales concerning the historical figure of gift giver Saint Nicholas…Santa Claus is generally depicted as a plump, jolly, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots (images of him rarely have a beard with no moustache)… According to a tradition which can be traced to the 1820s, Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, with a large number of magical elves, and nine (originally eight) flying reindeer. Since the 20th century, in an idea popularized by the 1934 song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”, Santa Claus has been believed to make a list of children throughout the world, categorizing them according to their behavior (“naughty” or “nice”) and to deliver presents, including toys, and candy to all of the good boys and girls in the world, and sometimes coal to the naughty children, on the single night of Christmas Eve. He accomplishes this feat with the aid of the elves who make the toys in the workshop and the reindeer who pull his sleigh. (Wikipedia)
Basically, it appears that the current tradition of Santa Claus and gift-giving is in fact a mix of ancient Greek folklore, Germanic Paganism, and Dutch folklore. The figure of Santa Claus can be derived from a combination of the Greek Saint Nicholas of Myra, a Christian saint known for giving generously to the poor, who is also the basis of the Dutch Sinterklaas, and the Germanic god Odin who was known to ride his eight-legged horse Sleipnir over great distances and giving gifts to children who would leave carrots and star and treats for his horse to nibble on as he passed their chimneys. Sinterklass is a stately old man who gives gifts to well-behaved children, and Odin is known as an old man with a long white beard. Over the centuries, all these figures appear to have merged together to become the Santa Claus of today. Of course, thanks to Coca Cola, we have the ubiquitous jolly, round, old man with a long white beard, in a bright red suit.
All in all, the main theme of what are the supposed origins of the current tradition is giving and this is what I want to focus on this year. I am trying to teach my kids that this is the season for giving- giving to the people you love as an expression of love, to your friends as an expression of friendship, and not so much in expectation of something in return. I have started asking them what they want to give their friends and cousins and aunts and have tried to tell them that it does not matter what they get if they get gifts and that the important thing is that they are able to show friends and family their love and friendship. Now, I don’t want them to be too materialistic so I tell them that they don’t need to buy anything expensive to show how they feel and that they can make their gifts too. Of course, I don’t want to be a complete Scrooge and take away the joy of wishing for favorite toys so I have also asked them to make their list to Santa but I have told them that he won’t be able to give everything on the list because he has to give other children gifts too and that it is still great if he gives them one or two from their list, to which they expressed satisfaction.
What do you guys think? Too Scrooge-y or over-thought?
What are some of your thoughts about the meaning of Christmas, beyond the lights and the commerciality of it all?
Cheers,
VICKI
In the Phillipines, Halloween is not such a big deal. It is considered a more Western tradition and is thus not really given all that much attention. Sure, it answers our inner need for dramatics and our seemingly inherent sweet tooth but, on the whole, the day and the event go by with not too much fanfare.
That doesn’t mean nothing happens at all.
In some villages in the suburbs, the association organizes a village trick or treat event which give the kids (and the parents!) the opportunity to dress up in their most creative costume. This is one part of what a lot of those involved find fun. Here, not every costume needs to be scary. In fact, dressing up like your favorite super hero or your favorite childhood character is more than enough. You will see the simplest Casper costume, to the elaborate Jesse of Toy Story, to any of the Disney Princess, to Ben 10, Justice League, even Thomas the Tank Engine! It really is that time to let the imagination run free.
But it isn’t just about getting all dressed up. This is just a part of the fun as was mentioned earlier. Another big part of the fun is dressing up your home’s entrance for the visiting ghosts, witches, princes and princesses. Since the kids and accompanying guardians don’t really go beyond your front door, all care is taken to dress up this block of wood, any front-facing window, or even the smallest patch of garden or front lawn.
For single moms like me, the cost of dressing the front portion of my home is just an expense that falls far below the list of essential expenses. But I also would like for my kids to experience the trick or treat and dress up fun that really only comes once a year. So it is a challenge for me to allot money towards this event.
Here was what I did this year. I decided to decorate my front door and two front windows with spiders, rats, and clay pots. Sounds interesting doesn’t it? Well, I thought it was and really, really easy and inexpensive too!
First, I bought 4 packs of these realistic looking rubber spiders (6 to a pack), about ping pong ball size each, for php60 ( 1 USD= 43 PHP by the way), and used super glue to glue white yarn to parts of their body. I then thumb tacked the other end of the yarn to the tops of my door and window frames to make them look like they were hanging down from the top of the door and windows, in the act of perhaps making a spider web.
I then bought 2 packs of again-realistic looking rubber rats, black with the red eyes, each about the size of a small empanada and 8 to a pack, for php70, and lined the rodents up on the edges of the windowsills.
Finally, I took 2 medium sized clay pots, filled them with some Christmas light (handy to get these tested for the coming Holidays, too!) and them lightly covered them with orange reflective paper. I didn’t enclose them nor did I place the paper anywhere need the bulbs to avoid creating a fire hazard and I made sure that the lights I used were the outdoor, all-surface ones. This gave off an orange glow. Then I placed the remaining rodents around each pot.
These were super cheap, super easy things to prepare and to fix up for Halloween. They are also really easy to put away after. The best part is that I can use these props again next year, for another Halloween design. All in all I spent around less than $15 on everything.
Although Halloween is not a major activity in my country, it is still a day that brings joy to a lot of kids playing dress up, running from house to house, asking for sweets and treats. It feels great to join in on the fun without breaking my wallet.
Happy Halloween everyone!
Cheers,
VICKI
We are nearing the end of the month of October, known in a lot of parts of the world as the “spooky month”, and we have been reveling in horror movies, ghostly and ghoulish costumes, and sugar overload. It has been a lot of fun for those that take the time out to celebrate this kind of holiday, this kind of tradition. Little is known though about the two days immediately following October 31, and the fact that, again for some groups of people, these days hold some significance.
To be specific, November 1 and 2 signify something in particular mostly for Roman Catholics or for followers of Western or Eastern Christianity. I took the time to look up the simplest description of the two days (other than my own words) and here is what I found in Wikipedia:
All Saints’ Day (in the Roman Catholic Church officially the Solemnity of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas[1]), often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honor of all the saints, known and unknown.
In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries. In the Roman Catholic Church and many Anglican churches, the next day, All Souls’ Day, specifically commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven. Catholics celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day in the fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual communion between those in the state of grace who have died and are either being purified in purgatory or are in heaven (the ‘church penitent‘ and the ‘church triumphant‘, respectively), and the ‘church militant‘ who are the living. Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways.
Does it sound like a lot to take it? I can understand that it would. Especially for those who choose not to look at days or traditions that are religious in nature, these two days and what they appear to mean is a lot to adjust to.
In my country, which is known to be very Roman Catholic, these days are observed and are also often declared holidays so that families have time to make arrangements in the other provinces within the country. But this tradition has also changed in practice and in meaning to a lot of people.
Before, these two days really did mean that families all went to cemeteries, in the Metro and in other provinces, where close relatives are buried, spend time around gravestones, light candles, pray and reflect on the dearly departed. Today, this holiday is also used as just general time to get some rest and to spend time with the family. Yes, people do still go to cemeteries to pray for their dead. They still light candles or bring flowers. But some families also bring food and drink as a form of celebration for the life or lives of loved ones who have passed. It sounds morbid, true, but a lot of people find more comfort in remembering their dead during the good times, retelling stories of past achievements, funny moments, memorable events.
Others choose to remember and pray in a different way. They go to church, light candles there, and pray specific prayers for their dearly departed. Then they retreat to family homes and have dinners or lunches, not parties with revelry, but more of gatherings with food where family can spend time together, maybe catch up with relatives and friends who live far and who are only seen at this time of the year, and just remember good times and good people; To remember, to reflect, to be with family.
So, I bet you are wondering why I chose to blog about this. Well, aside from the fact that these days a few days away, being a single mom has made me more aware of the traditions I would like my kids to be exposed to and the meaning of family, death, the importance of life, memories, and making sure you live to the fullest, strive to be happy and good. So close after Halloween, the days of witches and ghosts, and a month away from Christmas, it seems to me a good time to pause the partying and to think about the people that matter the most and the meaning of death and life.
I don’t know if you all have similar traditions but it would be interesting to find out the ways in which you celebrate life, reflect on death, and emphasize family.
Happy Reading!
Cheers,
