Are You Cutting Back This Christmas?

No cutting back here. I plan on giving of my time and cookies just as much as last year.

Absolutely. After our lovely Christams dinner, I am going to dress my boys (ages 17 and 15) in overalls and pull out one of my "Waltons" cds and show the boys how it was in the first Depression. I will then refer to them as Paul boy and Chris Bob for the rest of the day. I will also refer to one of our two dogs as Reckless as well. I will still call my husband by his name though. I do not want to get to carried away with the role play.

There is nothing in the Bible that tells anybody to celebrate Christmas or Birthday!!!!

Don't be a party pooper.
Go to church (or where ever one goes).
Cook a nice dinner - just make it tasty.
Buy what gifts you can; make the rest.
Give of your time - that makes the best gift.
Count your blessings.

Out of work; our of money?
Then get a new plan.
Just don't give up.
Put one foot in front of the other.

You seem to have forgotten those nurses who cared for Claudia in Spain after her stem cell transplant. Don't forget the nurses!!!!!!!!

Are you kidding me? The stores around here are jam packed and people are buying. The stores you had in your news piece also seemed to have a lot of people shopping. Something they wouldn't be doing at all if things were really really bad. Wow, people are looking for sales and bargains? Since when weren't they looking for the best deal? You've been cheering on bad economic times for two years and finally now that things are really here, you seem to revel in presenting bad news. It's a shame you can't tell the real truth. Credit markets are tight and stocks are in the tank but people are still out on the roads in force and still buying stuff up in stores. Please finish the rest of the story and stop trying to portray everything as so bleak.

Yes.
Going back to more tranquil times.
Quiet diner and conversations of better
times, before greedy politicians.

Def cutting back this year. only buying for immediate family. Will be enjoying a nice dinner together with family and time together. Gifts are not what is important during this time.

I absolutely agree and applaud those who are celebrating the holiday for the meaning rather than the spending. Perhaps this is the silver lining that will help families creatively embrace the act of giving rather than buy for the sake of buying. Happy Giving Everyone!

The irony of Christmas and gift giving is that 99% of the goods are not made in this country. Buying tons of oversea goods won't help stimulate our economy. We'll just stockpile useless (and probably harmful) plastic and synthetic junk! It's time to be honest with kids, get them involved in problem-solving Christmas gift-exchange, and change some traditions. We don't give kids enough credit (no pun intended).

Yeah The news media makes everything sound so bad.

I think the media is the one that scares people not to spend, so we all start saving our money as we listen to you and push the economy in the toilet. You preach all this bad news to scare us while your taking home millons every year... G THX

sisterdearest, the Bible may not mention Christmas or birthdays, but it certainly does mention celebrations: feasts, weddings, dancing, and music. If you think that the men and women of the Old Testament didn't enjoy life and celebrate it when they had a good excuse to do so, then you don't know your own scriptures.

Funny how atheists like me, who've had good professional reasons to study the Bible for decades, seem to know it better than the so-called religious do.

TY for the great christmas bush

I get my gifts from garage sales... there is beautiful stuff out there...I give of my time, the most precious resource, to family and friends, I put aside a little money for my nieces and nephews each year at their birthdays and Christmas and give the a printout at Christmas of how their money is growing each year...so they'll understand how it grows and that I am saving something for their future, they will get that money upon High-School graduation...that way I am not giving plastic items or clothes that they don't want or out grow...I look forward to a delicious home cooked meal surrounded by family and friends...more great gifts of life to be shared with others...one of the biggest gift we can give ourselves is a paid for house, no debts, no revolving payments...that's not something to celebrate at Christmas but all year through...I will not be stepping foot in one store this year for Christmas shopping...but then, I've lived like this for over 20 years, so it is nothing new for me...

I like the comments about giving time and homemade gifts. We are emphasizing savings, cutting back, and thriftiness. We are spending more family time together this year, doing things like making salt dough ornaments. Also, baking from scratch, and enjoying low-cost or free community activities. We are accepting the need to be frugal, concentrating on living within our means (the essentials), and choosing to be fiscally conservative overall.

This year Christmas is going to be food baskets of exotic gourmet organic food. No sales tax in California. No waste. No leftovers. A political decision to deliberately withhold spending on taxable discretionary goods. i.e. We have taken a vow not to spend one cent on anything we don't have to buy such as food or gas until the Obama/Biden administration is sworn in. Bush’s so called rebates of our own future tax refunds and his pleas to go shopping show the importance of consumer spending to the legacy of Republican economics. Bush hijacked the country for the benefit of the wealthy for eight years. Let the wealthy keep the Bush consumer economy going for the next two months until the Republicans are flushed in disgrace. Learn about and patronize your smaller locally owned businesses and pay cash so it's under the radar of statistics. We're hoarding all our discretionary spending until the Obama Administration when the recovery can begin.

We are definitely cutting back - and we'll probably enjoy Christmas a lot more because of it.

I will use all of the on going economic bad news as an excuse not to give out any gifts this year. Thank god. An excuse that people will finally believe. Then I go spend all the money to be $1 stocks.

Signed, Shameless one.

wouldn't it be nice to know if any of the sad sad news the media dishes out is really true? yes my husband lost his job along with millions of other americans,but we have 4 kids,we are still eating,still keeping wal marts profits in the billions along with every other person in my town,there are NO parking spots at wal mart,ever!it sure seems that nothing has changed here. I do have an idea though,how about buying all american made goods for a change, you think maybe that might help people here have jobs????

I am definitely cutting back, this year. With the price of ultilities, food, and gas. I can't afford anything extra this holiday season.