Alternatives to buying Christmas gifts
What you need to know:
The festive season comes with economic strains on most family budgets. But, did you know that you can spend the season without necessarily splashing the cash? Justine Juliet Rukundo shows you how.
Christmas is here. The King is born. However, as a family, you may have traditions that strain the budget.
You could cut on that and try out something else. If you are tired of spending on new use-once-and destroy items for Christmas, do not worry. This year has got to be unique. Do not get stressed over what to give or shop for the lavish friends, colleagues or family members. Read on for clues.
Make craft gifts
Sometimes we think the best gift has to come from a store. Not really. You can get a little artistic. If you are spending the Christmas period in the countryside, pick that small piece of plywood or the remainder of a neat manila paper and boil some cassava porridge( instead of office or super glue).
Set aside a quarter kilo of millet grains or banana fibres in your plantation or millet grains or any other attractive seeds.
Start by using a pencil to write a Christmas message. Pour the glue on the paper or plywood following the letter shapes and pour the grains in the same manner. Let it dry and voila, Christmas gift sorted!
Give to the needy
Lately, the fashion trend seems undefined. So, instead of wearing the tight or very loose clothes in your closet, think otherwise.
Do not wait to use them as rags or even let cockroaches lay eggs in them (yucky!) Pick those clothes, wash and iron them and then fold them neatly and pack in a presentable bag. Just identify a needy family and surprise them with that package.
If not, you can give them some food to cook on that day or any other home essentials items. That way, you shall not have stretched your purse strings for unplanned expenditure. What a lasting Christmas gift and impact you will have made.
However, ensure what you give is not threadbare or torn and patched up. Even the needy deserve respect just like yourself.
Identify what others like
During the festive season, certain families prefer to play a certain music genre or listen to particular songs. Find out early enough.
With greater access to Internet and tech savvy lifestyle, download the music and burn it onto a CD and wrap it nicely with a small handwritten note. Then, hand-deliver it (if possible). This way, you shall have catered for one of the family’s favourite moments during Christmas and will not feel guilty for not buying each of them a gift.
Cook a family meal
At restaurants, meals are expensive regardless of the many discounted offers in the festive season. Since most people use this time as reunion in their country homes, storm that plantation and harvest some matooke or collect the sacks of millet from the granary.
Have some aunts and uncles bring the greens, the chicken and all those four-legged creatures to slaughter. That way you shall not have to spend on a heavy one-day hotel banquet that could leave your pockets overstretched. You shall have sailed smoothly through the festive season.
