Comments on: Happy Stress-Free Holidays!

By: Frugal Babe

Frugal Babe — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:09:22 +0000

Gypsie, I’m ever so sorry for your loss. I hope that 2010 is a better year for you.

Cindy Brick, About the cold frames… they were doing great until December when we had a really cold snap (down to -10F most nights for almost two weeks straight). That was a bit much for our greens, even in the cold frames. A lot of them froze, but the swiss chard have come back (they grow like weeds). The mustard greens and kale haven’t recovered yet, but we’ll see… We have some new greens growing under lights in in our basement, and will move them out to the cold frames once they’re a little stronger. We’re in the middle of another really cold snap, so we’ll wait until that’s over. Good luck with your hydroponic garden!

By: Cindy Brick

Cindy Brick — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:22:53 +0000

I guess I’m the freakish one here…I actually did more this year than last! But it was mostly in decorating, using things we already had, and getting rid of the beat-up molting wreaths, etc. I’d been storing (and not using). Both daughters got some of the nice stuff I couldn’t use, and when I take the tree down on Monday, they’ll each get a shoebox full of decorations for next year!
Granted though, my dad was extremely sick last year (he died last Feb), and it was really difficult to get in the mood to decorate at all last Christmas. This one was filled with more recovery — and hope.
Babe, you haven’t mentioned it for a bit — how are your cold frames and other veggie growing plans doing? My daughter just gave me a hydroponic set for Christmas, and I am really looking forward to following your lead on this. Any suggestions for good plants to grow, especially tomatoes?

By: DJ

DJ — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:24:47 +0000

I love this post, it reminds me that my efforts at scaling down are worth it! My family are quite pragmatic when it comes to Christmas gifts – we all agree that we have quite enough stuff, and if we need things we can buy them ourselves, so token gifts or vouchers to our favourite stores are what we appreciate the most. But my husband’s family are very big on Christmas – stockings, gifts, Santa gifts, etc – and so I was happy to have budgeted enough in advance to meet those demands this year, plus we bought a lot of gifts second-hand or from ebay thereby keeping it personal and unique, keeping out of the shops and keeping our budget down! Next year I hope to scale it down more with homemade chutneys and gifts!

By: gypsie

gypsie — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:24:33 +0000

We didnt do Christmas this year for the most part. My younger brother passed away at the age of 24 just three weeks ago so there wasn’t really a desire to do anything this holiday season. We sent gifts to my husband’s parents and nieces and that was it. Of course we did talk to the family on that day, but it was mostly sadness. we didnt decorate. We didn’t buy each other gifts. We did purchase ourselves a Sony PS3 for blu-ray movies, games, and netflix streaming but that was something we had discussed purchasing for a while. Also, we placed the subfloor and floor of our kitchen, laundry, and half bath.

By: Zella

Zella — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:51:52 +0000

Advent calendars are chocolate! Seriously, we do them annually because chocolate advent calendars are one of my favorite traditions from childhood. It’s not counting down/wishing away the days– it’s chocolate every day and goofy fun to see what the shape is.

I think the season is about making traditions that you enjoy, not about skipping things for the sake of skipping them. We have advent calendars, Christmas Eve lasagna, Christmas Day cinnamon buns and a few other ridiculous things that we look forward to every year.

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:46:52 +0000

Congratulations on finding a balance that works for you and your family! We all need to make courageous decisions like you did to stay sane. For anyone thinking ahead to holiday season 2010 but not sure how to cut down the holiday craziness, I posted a time and expense worksheet on my blog today that provides options to save time or money on holiday preparations. http://www.beruly.com/?p=509

By: Alissa

Alissa — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:18:22 +0000

Hey Frugal Babe,
Sounds like you had a lovely, enjoyable Christmas.
We seem to downgrade a bit each year, too. We’ve come to realize that the kids really don’t need much “stuff”. We’ve pretty much stopped buying for extended family. We try to give homemade gifts whenever we can. And it’s been a couple of years since I’ve stepped foot in a mall over the holiday season – that in itself is bliss!! I’m also inspired by Sheri over at Green and Crunchy, her family skips out on the holiday altogether! I’m not sure I could convince my family to do that, but the important thing is that we emphasize togetherness, and not the commercialism.
Alissa