Is Christmas Just A Racket?

By Heather (Balance With Purpose)

 

“Let’s face it. We all know Christmas is just a racket
set up to make people buy lots of stuff they don’t need.”
~ Lucy Van Pelt

Is Lucy from Peanuts right? Is Christmas a racket? Are we sucked into buying more than we can afford by retail ads promising the “lowest prices of the season?” Do we buy items we wouldn’t normally buy just because they were truly low prices?

So, how have you fared this holiday season? Did you overspend? Did you keep to your list? Did you set and stick to a budget?

Click to read more ...

Works For Me Wednesday: Gingerbread Houses

By MAD21

Like most people, we have many traditions in our house during the holidays. I think traditions are important. They not only provide opportunities to build the bonds of family, but they are also wonderful memories over the years.

One tradition we have is to build gingerbread houses. Not just for us, but to give away as gifts to grandparents and close friends. They are easy to make, the kids LOVE making them, and the people we give them to look forward to receiving them each year.

For each house, you will need:

Click to read more ...

Works For Me Wednesday: Christmas Shopping

By MAD21

It's November and people are realizing how close we are getting to the holidays. One of my favorites is definitely Thanksgiving because it means family and friends... and food. But mostly it's because it's a time to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for. Not that we don't do that every day, but it's nice to have a time to celebrate those things together with everyone.

But Thanksgiving is something else for me. It's a deadline. It has been my goal for years to have as much of my Christmas shopping done by 'Turkey Day.' It probably started even before I was married with my own kids. Because I live so far away from my family, I had to have everything done early enough to get it in the mail without paying a fortune to have it delivered by Christmas day.

Click to read more ...

Santa Christ? Jesus Claus?

By Erika (Rambling, Musings & The Occassional Insight)

I recently finished reading Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What, which is a book composed of Miller's thoughts and experiences with God. Miller's books are always entertaining and thought-provoking. He is one of those authors who always seems to be able to put those things we struggle to verbalize into words with an artistic flair.

Chapter Two of this book spent some time exploring the parallel between a child's understanding of Santa Claus and Jesus Christ:

Click to read more ...