Christmas Clearance

Every year, after Christmas has ended, I go shopping for CLEARANCE ITEMS to decorate with the following year. Christmas decorations can be so expensive that purchasing them after Christmas really pays off! Some of the items I have purchased for 50% - 70% off over the years:

- ornaments

- stockings

- garlands

- lights

- books

- stocking stuffers

- candy

- bath soaps and other "gift baskets"

- nuts

Wal-Mart always has a whole section devoted to Christmas Clearance - you can really get good deals! I will purchase gift sets of bath gels, lip gloss, makeup, etc. and seperate them out and stuff stockings with them. We always have our Christmas shopping done by November each year - sometimes earlier! We are always shopping the clearance items in any store we visit with a mindset of - "This would make a great gift!"

Since we have nine children, 2 daughters-in-laws, 2 son-in-laws, eight grandchildren, not to mention grandparents, aunts and uncles, neices, and friends to buy for (and our family seems to grow every year!) we have to be frugal! We never give "junk" gifts and our gifts are always thoughtful - something we know the person will love, can use or needs.

Often we will give similiar gifts to family. One year we gave beautiful patchwork quilts to everyone which we had found on sale for super cheap at Kohl’s. Another year we purchased beautiful scrapbooks and I filled the pages with scrapbook layouts using photos of their family.

One more tip I want to share - look for nuts after the holidays are over. Two years ago we went to Wal-Mart and all their leftover baking nuts - walnuts and pecans - were on clearance. We bought the entire supply and put them in the freezer. I have been able to use those nuts - to my heart’s content anytime I wanted - for two years now and I have finally run out. I am hoping to get lucky again this year!