Our Christmas shopping game plan

We’re in the process of wrapping up our Christmas shopping for this year, and we thought it would cool to share with you our process for staying sane (mentally and financially) during the holiday gift-giving season.  So here’s a quick overview of the tricks and tools we use to ensure materialistic success!

Step #1: My Christmas Wish List

Julie’s family had been using My Christmas Wish List for some time before we met in 2007.  It’s a website that allows you to create your own Christmas list to share with others, who then have the opportunity to mark items on your list as purchased or as something which they are planning to purchase.  It essentially eliminates duplicate gifts and also ensures that the items you receive are things you actually want.

We use MCWL in a “Secret Santa”-style format.  We draw names (on both sides of the family), set a monetary limit, and go to town!  With a total of 8 siblings + spouses + kids on both sides, this also means that everybody doesn’t have to buy gifts for everyone else.  This makes sense to us, as most of us are working professionals and don’t necessarily need anything when Christmas time comes around.

Step #2: Google Doc

We do an all-cash Christmas, so we try to keep pretty good track of what we plan to spend (our budget) and what actually gets spent.  To that end, each year we create a Google Document with the following columns:

Person   |   Target Price  |   What?   |   Where?   |   Actual Price

It’s the same principle that guides the way we do business regularly: make sure we know where our money is going before it even goes anywhere.

Step #3: Never pay full price (if possible)

‘Tis the season for deals, right?  We take advantage of sites like Retail Me Not (coupon codes for online shopping) and Beat My Price (set a price target for an item, and they’ll go out to the major sites to make sure you find the best price) to ensure that we are getting the very best deal possible.  We also plan to make one big Amazon order every year, since people are usually asking for books, music, and movies and TV shows (affiliate links), although increasingly we’re getting closer and closer to being able to order our entire Christmas list from Amazon!

So that’s our plan! It’s a lot of fun to bless our friends and family during this time of year, but more importantly, the time when we remember the One to came to give us His ultimate blessing.  Our obedience should be reflected in blessing others all throughout the year, not just at Christmastime.  This obedient heart may best be summed up in Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel, found in Luke 1:38,

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”

Blessings from Julie and I for an awesome Christmas holiday!  We thank you for being a part of ours.

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