How to Protect Your Peace and Your Wallet This Holiday Season
Christmas is quickly approaching, and with the spending frenzy beginning right after Thanksgiving, let’s pause and think about what really matters. This season can be joyful, meaningful, and peaceful — but only if we enter it intentionally, not stressed and slipping into debt like the scenario below.
When Christmas Spending Steals the Joy
She unloads her basket onto the countertop as the cashier begins ringing up a pile of gift items. A knot the size of a cantaloupe sits like a boulder in the pit of her stomach. The sweaty palms of her nervous hands make it hard to find her credit card as she watches the number on the cash register escalate with each item.
I hate Christmas!
The thought startles her, and she silently rebukes herself for such sacrilegiousness. Of course she doesn't hate Christmas — it’s the pressure.
It’s too much this year.
My kids need clothes, my car needs an oil change, rent is due, and I’m buying things I can’t afford, she reproaches herself.
There never seems to be enough money to do everything I want to do. How do other families provide such nice Christmases for their kids? I don’t want my children to feel cheated.
She justifies the purchases that sink her further into debt — all in the name of keeping up with the Joneses.
Overspending Is Not the Gift We Think It Is
Christmas is certainly a time to celebrate BIG, but we actually do our kids a disservice when we go beyond our means and act like it’s normal. We unintentionally teach them to live a life enslaved to credit card debt by modeling it ourselves.
Instead, create repeatable, affordable traditions your kids can carry into adulthood — traditions rooted in peace and presence, not pressure and debt.
If a few small items tucked into stockings are all your family can afford, it’s truly okay. Your children will respect you far more for providing a stable, grounded home than a stressed-out atmosphere driven by interest rates and rising balances.
Simple Traditions Create the Best Memories
With intentional effort, you can create a festive, joy-filled atmosphere in your home. It starts with something beautifully simple:
A smile on your face and a song in your heart.
It may sound silly, but children genuinely crave happy, playful parents more than anything wrapped in shiny paper. That is a free gift they’ll remember forever.
Here are easy, cost-free or low-cost traditions that bring warmth and connection:
- Keep Christmas music playing throughout the season
- Bake banana bread, sugar cookies, and simple treats with your kids
- Choose one night every week in December for family game night
- Attend a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service together
These small rhythms build anticipation, nurture belonging, and weave meaning into the season — all without straining your finances.
Celebrate Within Your Means
Christmas should be a delight, not a burden. Give yourself and your family the gift of a peaceful home by choosing to celebrate within your God-given means.
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, remember to plan with wisdom, clarity, and intention. Your joy, your peace, and your financial stability are far too valuable to sacrifice for a fleeting moment of holiday pressure.
Remember: Celebrate wholeheartedly — and wisely — this Christmas season.
A Simple Guide to Teaching Children the Heart of the Holiday
Wrapping paper lays strewn across my bedroom floor, while unwrapped boxes wait in line for their turn to be draped in beautiful paper and tied with elaborate bows.
Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, and as our days begin to be filled with decorating, baking cookies, preparing for parties, and shopping for gifts, I wonder how much of the true meaning of Christmas my kids are soaking in.
It is absolutely possible for children to grow up and continue all we do during the holidays—without the heart behind it. After all, even families who do not celebrate the Christ-child go through many of the same motions.
So how do I draw the distinction?
How do I pass on the purpose behind our actions?
How do I anchor their hearts in the reason we celebrate Christmas?
How do I pass on the purpose behind our actions?
How do I anchor their hearts in the reason we celebrate Christmas?
Talk About the Wonder of Christmas
The first thing I do is talk about the wonder of Christmas with my kids. We read the Christmas story in Luke, and I display nativities all over the house.
Some are “look with your eyes and not with your hands” nativities meant for beauty. Others—wooden, plastic, and durable—welcome chubby little hands to hold, move, and explore.
I tell the story with the nativity pieces.
I explain why the kings came, why the shepherds were invited, and why the angels sang.
I explain why the kings came, why the shepherds were invited, and why the angels sang.
Intent. Purpose. Teaching.
Keep Christ at the Center of Every Tradition
Christmas is nothing without the Christ child, so this truth is woven into each activity we do.
We read books that make Christmas heartier than a sugar cookie hung on a tree. Some of these stories even explain the Santa tradition and help my kids understand the heart and generosity behind filled stockings on Christmas morning.
As you decorate, bake, wrap gifts, and prepare for gatherings, take time to sit down with your kids and read stories that reinforce the true meaning of Christmas.
These moments matter more than perfect cookies or flawless garland.
Christ-Centered Christmas Books for Kids
Below is a short list of rich books to read with your children this month. There are many more, but these will get you started and help anchor your traditions in Scripture, story, and meaning.
Scripture
- The Amplified Bible – Luke 2:1–20 (The Christmas Story)
Picture Books + Family Reads
- One Wintry Night — Ruth Bell Graham
- A Child’s Christmas at St. Nicholas Circle — Thomas Kinkade
- The King’s Christmas List — Eldon Johnson
- St. Nicholas: The True Story of the Christmas Legend — Julie Stiegemeyer & Chris Ellison
- The Legend of the Candy Cane — Lori Walburg
- Unwrapping the Greatest Gift — Ann Voskamp
Final Thought
As parents, we get to shape how our children experience the season. The cookies, lights, and presents are wonderful—but they are not the foundation.
Slow down.
Read together.
Tell the story again.
Let them hear, see, and touch the wonder of God coming to earth.
Read together.
Tell the story again.
Let them hear, see, and touch the wonder of God coming to earth.
Merry Christmas & Happy Reading!
