Did we just dash from summertime fun to the holiday season in a blink of an eye? Suddenly, the stores are packed with seasonal items and just when you are finally settled into the back-to-school routine, it’s time to plan those holiday events!

Let’s face it - the holidays can be stressful. There is so much pressure to perform, to decorate, to buy the perfect gifts and make the quintessential meal. And as a parent, you might also feel the added strain of creating holiday traditions that your children will enjoy and remember.

Evaluating and revising current traditions

1. Which holiday traditions have your family outgrown? Have you continued the traditions you learned from your own parents even when they don’t always fit your own family or even don’t represent your personal values? Or maybe your kids are older and what used to be fun no longer excites them. Remember: change can be hard for some people! If your extended family questions your choices, remember to keep your answer personal rather than critical. Saying: "Well, I just don’t want my kids to stuff their faces and then watch TV all day" might not be well-received. Instead, an explanation such as "our kids just love being outside, so this year, we are going to the cabin for Thanksgiving to enjoy nature" might be much easier to swallow!


2. What new family traditions would you love to include this year? Perhaps you and your partner/spouse came from very different backgrounds and have struggled with combining your traditions. Make new ones! Have a family meeting, including the kids, and discuss ideas for the holiday season. Work towards a consensus. There will be more harmony if you respect all family members' desires and conflicts regarding familiar traditions before embracing new ones. And don’t throw out something that one member treasures. Try to reach a compromise by including the tradition but with a new spin!


3. What can you do to make this year easier and simpler? Maybe you limit the number of parties your family attends and be more selective. Saying “no” during the holidays can be challenging but necessary (especially for your sanity)! Perhaps you agree to do a gift exchange with your grown family members and draw names instead of giving everyone a gift. Or maybe, just maybe, you take some of the pressure off yourself! Remember, you don’t have to make everything from scratch or knit every gift yourself…What is most important is that everyone has fun and feels connected, even you!

Ideas for new family traditions

• Have every member of the family write out their ideas for family traditions for the holidays. Place them in a big jar and draw one or two to include this year. Next year, you can draw again!


• Write letters to each other and put them in sealed envelopes to open next year.


• Volunteer as a family at a soup kitchen or community event.


• Put together a family scrapbook using all those photos that you have been collecting in stacks over the past year. Let the kids do the decorating!
  
• Help your kids make holiday greeting cards to mail (or email) to family and friends.


• Research different holiday traditions around the world and include some that represent your family’s heritage or interests – or just sounds fun!
  
• Go into the woods and decorate a live tree for the animals! Eve Bunting’s Night Tree tells the tender store of one family’s tradition of sharing holiday cheer with forest creatures!


• Celebrate Winter Solstice (December 22nd)! The longest night of the year is honored by celebrating with light. You can teach your kids about seasons and also create a relaxing evening in the midst of a busy time. Have a peaceful candlelit dinner or just go outside and stargaze!


• Give a gift to someone who is not expecting one from you. Help the kids bake cookies for the mail carrier or make a card for their librarian! Every year, they can choose someone outside the family to appreciate – there’s a great new tradition!

As we head into the holiday shopping season and a recession that may well turn into a depression, it is more important than ever that we spend consciously. Here are a few tips to help your family get through the holidays in a safe and financially sustainable way.

Be a savvy consumer

Ignore the term "sale" and examine the offered price of a product as though it were the normal price. Is that price worth paying? Many products are overpriced, and use sales to bring their stratospheric retail prices down to Earth; having them temporarily offered at realistic prices doesn't automatically mean they're worth your dollars!

Coupons are generally offered by companies that sell products which are distinguished from their competition primarily by a premium name-brand. The name brand is premium because it is marketed heavily. Marketing is expensive, and is reflected in the price. Coupons help make these prices temporarily competitive with lower-priced brands that do less marketing. While coupons can offer real rewards if used in a programmatic and well-informed manner, allowing them to drive your purchases in a sporadic manner often means paying more in the long run, as companies are working to establish brand loyalty with consumers who would otherwise shun their premium prices. If it didn't work, they wouldn't do it!

Better deals are steep discounts on discontinued or overstocked items, out-of-season merchandise purchased for later use, and combining coupons and store discounts for items you would already be purchasing (not just item type, but brand). Business news reports suggest that bottom-line concerns by retailers are forcing them to understock rather than risk huge discounts this season, so don't assume that hard times mean that stores will be dumping goods at fire-sale prices.

The best deal to be had will always be in learning to make do with less. If you are considering a purchase of something you have survived without so far, ask yourself what it is that makes you think you need it now! It may be a real need - or it may just be marketing. Remember, there are few consumers who do not feel they are "above average" when it comes to filtering out marketing and sales tactics, but we are all susceptible at times.

Examine shopping habits

U.S. News and World Report cites statistics that between 2 and 5 percent of U.S. adults suffer from "shopoholism." This is not just buying stuff on impulse - it's doing so consistently, destructively, and in a way that is dangerous to your relationships and your financial security. It often involves hiding purchases, making frequent returns, and intense feelings of guilt after making non-budgeted purchases - which can, sadly, trigger more shopping to ease the pain. If you suspect you may be shopping beyond your means in order to relieve stress (generating additional stress as you wonder how you'll pay the credit card bills in what appears to be an economic collapse), we encourage you to confront the issue, whether it be by getting rid of credit cards or making them inaccessible (freezing them in a block of ice is one extreme option - then you can get the credit card if it's really needed, but have a self-imposed "waiting period"), going "window-shopping" after hours or without your wallet or purse, and putting items on hold or saving them in an online shopping cart to allow yourself time to consider whether purchases are actually needed. Additional help might include medications (antidepressants) and/or cognitive-behavior therapy.

Stick to a budget

How much do you want to spend on holiday shopping for each member of your family? If you haven't identified a number, you should, particularly in troubled economic times. Identify how potential gift purchases fit into your budget plan, what portion of the budget they would consume, and whether that matches your goals for overall gift-giving for that person. If your budget needs to be lower than last year, discuss your family's financial situation and needs with whatever family members are appropriate.

Acknowledge trade-offs

Would you rather your child had more toys, or a premium car seat? Extra clothes, or unisex clothes that can be used for a toddler son and a planned future child to come? Prepared food for a year, or the ability to make the freshest, healthiest baby food yourself? Credit cards offers us the power to pretend that trade-offs don't exist, but they only allow us to defer them, at greater cost.

Seek quality, not quantity

Consider the real cost of items you are buying - all of the pros and cons, including how long something will last, what it is made of, how much it will be enjoyed and used before it is outgrown or no longer usable, the space it will take up in your home, and what you will not be able to buy by buying this item. The more you ask these questions of your purchases, the more likely you are to find yourself buying fewer items that may cost more than the least-expensive options. Products you buy for children and parents this holiday season - be they toys, dishes, baby gear, decor - should be those you believe will best serve your needs for the longest term possible, especially in challenging economic times. This does not always mean spending less on a single item, but considering the total value you want to get from your purchases, and how you wish to distribute that value among various items. A few high-quality toys or items with unique educational or play value might get far more love and use than a pile of presents which have more "wow" factor before being opened but which may be lost in a child's room when the holidays have passed. Tap into your skills at making things, or those of people you know - perhaps you can trade your skills with another crafter to offer both families gifts, adding variety to handmade gifts.

It's all about the experience

Themed gifts of numerous inexpensive items, scavenger-hunt-style searches, and thoughtful packaging can go a long way in making an "ordinary" gift extraordinary. Fewer gifts also mean less time spent opening them and more time for new or revived family traditions. Think about what you most enjoy about holidays spent together as a family, and you will see how fewer, more well-planned gifts actually offer an opportunity in expanding those areas and making holiday family time more memorable.

Give

The holidays are always a time to remember the less fortunate, but this consideration is even more important now, as many families face risks so serious they will likely be forgoing any gift-giving this year. Look to local charities that help pass on gifts to underprivileged families, and know that the demand for these services will be particularly great. Volunteering your time can be just as valuable, or more valuable, than giving money, and would make a great family event - or series of family events - to participate in this holiday season.

Do you have any other tips for shopping smart for the holidays and beyond? Share them here so we can all keep them in mind!

Google Maps recently rolled out a series of enhancements to its driving directions that make it pretty much the best mapping tool available for figuring out how to get around, and earned themselves a few green points for offering alternate walking routes (all surface streets, and unconcerned with one-ways), traffic monitoring so you can adjust your route to avoid it, and even public transportation routes for some major cities. In the process, however, they stripped out the feature that saved us the most gas, money, and time. Why, Google, why?

Multiple destinations haven't been supported for long in Google Maps, but when they did roll out it was with the option to reorder destinations so that users could determine the most efficient route for getting around. All it took was a click and drag and you could switch the order, see how your total mileage and driving times were altered, and preplan the most streamlined afternoon of errands ever.

It's odd that in an era of record-high fuel prices, the company would choose to add traffic reporting - a great way to increase you fuel efficiency and time savings when planning routes - yet take away the ability to reorder your destinations and find a better overall driving route.

If Google ever wished to address this eliminated feature, the Google Groups thread about it would be a great place for them to chime in. Administrators and even programmers regularly monitor Google Groups, and although a failure to respond to user complaints is often a sign that a fix is months or years in the making, they also frequently wait until the solution is at hand before making any promises. Who knows, maybe they have something even better in the works? They aren't the best mapping service around for nothin'.

Here's a quick rundown of all the great features that remain in Google's driving directions mapping service:



What do you do to save on gas and time spent driving? Share your tips with other Tranquil Parent readers!