The holiday season can be full of joy—but it can also come with pressure, busyness, and financial stress. In this episode, we talk about how to shift our focus back to what truly matters: celebrating the birth of Jesus. We share practical, budget-friendly ways to approach Christmas with intention, reduce overspending, and create meaningful traditions that don’t revolve around gifts or money. If you’re longing for a simpler, more peaceful season rooted in faith, this conversation is for you. (00:00) Intro (01:55) Parents Overspending, why you don't have to! (07:43) Budget Friendly Decorating (12:53) The Real Focus of Christmas- the Gospel of Jesus (18:37) Christmas Traditions (23:07) Gift Giving (37:30) Tradition Ideas (43:41) BREATHE (45:36) Giftcard Give away! (47:55) Simple Swaps --- Transcript: Welcome to Sisters Unwind, the podcast where real life meets real. Talk with a sisterly twist. We're your hosts, Rebecca and Ruth, two sisters, on a mission to explore life's greatest Fs from faith to family and fitness, and yes, even finances. We're diving into the moments that make us laugh, cry, grow, and everything in between. No filters. No facades. Just two sisters. Keeping it real and keeping it fun. So grab your favorite drink, get comfy, take off your bra and come unwind with us. Welcome back to Sisters Unwin, i'm Rebecca, and I'm Ruth. And today's episode is focused around the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas, . We're talking all about how we can be intentional with our time and money around the holidays, what the Christmas season is all about, and how you can make lasting memories with your families without breaking the bank. We know that this season can be full of fun, magical memories, but it can also be overwhelming and stressful. How many gifts need to be bought for who and where exactly is the cutoff or who you need to buy a gift for? Where is the cutoff? I don't even know where it is. When does gift giving become an obligation rather than a joyful sign of love? We're talking about all of that and more on today's episode. Wherever you are in that spectrum of emotion, we hope you leave this episode feeling inspired, refreshed, and excited for the celebration of our savior Jesus Christ, coming to earth in human form. And BONUS ALERT! Bonus alert. We have another, I said another gift card giveaway for the holidays, so stick around until the end to hear how you can win. So let's jump in. So gifts around the holidays and spending money for your kids in particular can be overwhelming, right? Mm-hmm. I think a lot of parents struggle with wanting to give their children a very nice Christmas, maybe a better Christmas than they had. And I think at the end of the day, most parents are just doing the best that they can. And you wanna do something right by your kids. You wanna have, your kids have this awesome, amazing experience. You wake up on Christmas morning, it's this magical time. And so I think families can struggle with how much to spend on kids. Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of families. I don't wanna say do it wrong, and we'll get to it later about what the actual meaning of Christmas is, but I think a lot of parents overdo it on Christmas. Yeah. And back in 2024, there was a news article in which, 2,500 parents were surveyed on their spending around their children at Christmas time, and the survey found that parents expected to spend $461 per child. And this is on average for Christmas. Yeah. And on the high end, 9% of those parents said that they were gonna spend $1,000 or more per child. That's insane. And on the low end, it says 4% said that they'll keep it around or under a $100. Nearly half. So around 49% of parents said they expected to go into debt to pay for Christmas this year by way of credit cards of buy now, pay later services. Dang. And in Illinois, the average that parents were expecting to spend was about $641. The fact that half of parents said that they were willing to go into some form of debt to pay for Christmas. Yeah. I don't know. I think that seems like stupid. Yeah. Yeah. I, I just wanna be like, but why? Right. Why? And mean, I'm sure there's many reasons, I said it before I think a lot of parents might try to do better by their children, then maybe they grew up with nothing. Right. Right. Maybe, you know, our parents came from, well our mom, she came from like a family where she didn't have a lot. Mm-hmm. She literally didn't have a lot, so she always wanted to give us the best of everything. Yeah. , And I don't think she ever went into debt for it and would finance our Christmas experience for it. Yeah. But definitely wanted to give us a better experience with things than she had because she had very little. Yeah. So maybe that's it. I just can't imagine like the average middle class family going into debt. Over my kids' Christmas. Ever. Not now. Not later. I, yeah. I told my husband like, I don't think I'm buying the baby anything for ...
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48 mins