Money Mom Podcast

85: Making the Holidays Magical (Without Breaking the Bank): Stress-Free Tips for a Meaningful Season

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Feeling overwhelmed by holiday spending, family expectations, and the pressure to create a “perfect” season? In this episode of the Money Mom Podcast, host Rachel Coons shares heartfelt stories and practical strategies to help you reclaim the magic of the holidays—without breaking the bank.

Rachel dives into:

  • Setting boundaries around money and energy
  • Creating meaningful family traditions that don’t cost a fortune
  • Navigating Black Friday and holiday sales with intention
  • Communicating your financial goals with loved ones
  • Focusing on presence, connection, and giving back

Tune in for inspiration, relatable stories, and actionable tips to make this holiday season joyful, intentional, and stress-free. Whether you’re looking to avoid January remorse or simply want to bring more peace and meaning to your celebrations, this episode is for you! Listen now and start creating the holiday season you truly want.



xoxo,
Rachel

Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons

Join me for my next LIVE training 'Save $600 On Groceries'!: REGISTER HERE

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Money Mom Podcast, the show where we empower moms to take control of their finances, break free from money stress, and build a life of freedom, confidence, and abundance for their families. I'm your host, Rachel Coons, mom, money mentor, and your personal cheerleader on this journey. Whether you're here to save money, pay off debt, or dream bigger for your family's future, you're in the right place. Here, we believe that being a mom is already a full-time job. But your role in shaping your family's financial success is just as important. And the best part, you don't need to sacrifice everything to start winning with money. Let's get started. This is the Money Mom Podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, and welcome back to the Money Mom Podcast. I am your host, Rachel Koons, and we're wrapping up November here with Thanksgiving week. So if you are in the United States and celebrate Thanksgiving, or if you are traveling, spending time with family, whatever it is you're doing, I hope you have a wonderful week. And gearing up for the holidays, this is why I'm recording this podcast today and why I'm releasing it today was very intentional because recently on my Instagram I asked a question as to what are you struggling with when it comes to money? What are your worries? What stresses are you having? I got tons of responses, but one of the main themes that I saw in the responses was the pressure that the holidays are putting on you and your family and how to create a holiday that is magical, that's everything you want it to be, without feeling like it's destroying your bank account, without having that remorse in January of overspending in these next couple weeks as we lead up to Christmas or whatever you choose to celebrate. This week, especially, there is going to be a lot of noise when it comes around Black Friday sales and people trying to get you purchase as much as possible. And it's easy to feel like you're already behind on Christmas before December even starts. So today I want to slow down and step back and remind you that you get to create the magic that is the holidays. You get to create that magic in your own home and with your own family, not the stores, not the consumerism, not the ads, not everyone else's Instagram highlight reel or what everyone else is doing, but you. And you get to be intentional about how you create that space for you and your family. Somewhere along the way, we started believing that the holidays have to look a certain way. You need to have a certain amount of presence, or you need to go to certain events. Everybody has to have matching pajamas, and the elf brings something special every day, and you have to have the perfect holiday decor around your house. But the truth is that your kids don't need that. They don't need 10 new toys. They don't need a trip to Disneyland to feel the magic that can be the holiday season. They need your presence, your intentionality, and your love more than they need anything else. Some of my favorite holiday traditions, holiday memories with my family don't even cost a single thing. And I in fact, I think the ones that are my most fond holiday memories had nothing to do with swiping my credit card. I grew up in a very, I wouldn't say poor. We always had enough money, but we were always just getting by with my family. I come from a family of seven children. And while my dad had a stable job, a stable career, we never had excess. And so our Christmas mornings looked very different than even my Christmas mornings with my children nowadays. It was very humble. And I think I probably got one or two brand new gifts every single year. Most of the stuff was hand-me-downs, presents from a thrift shop, or homemade items that my siblings had made for each other. In fact, my parents always emphasize the importance of us giving gifts to one another as children and getting creative with how we gave gifts, whether that was like a special time that we spent with a sibling or creating an experience with them. One time my sister opened up a journal that my dad had given her, um, had wrapped and given her under the Christmas tree, and we all laughed so hard because it was a used journal. Like my sister opened up the journal and some of the pages had been written in by who knows, I don't know who had written in the journal, but my dad had found the journal in his drawer a couple nights prior to Christmas and decided, well, I should give this to one of my children. He had wrapped it up, placed it under the Christmas tree, and it was a used journal. And while that could have been like really frustrating for my sister to not get something brand new, we all just laughed so much about how my dad was so intentional about how he saved money and how he didn't want to buy a brand new journal when he had a perfectly good journal in his drawer to give to someone. So we he ripped out the pages and my sister used it. So again, that memory has nothing to do with my dad buying something. In fact, I don't remember any of the presents that I received on Christmas morning, but I do remember that present because it created such a funny, laughable experience for me and my family. The real magic of the Christmas season is connection with each other, tradition, creating family traditions that your kids have to look forward to every year, and joy, happiness. And if you are always, as a mom, trying to create a magical holiday where you're overbooking yourself and you're feeling stressed every single day because there's so much to get done before December 25th, and you're not showing up as a happy present mother, your children are gonna feel that. Kids don't need full schedules, they don't need an activity every night of the week in order to feel like it's the special Christmas season. None of that, the connection, the tradition, the joy shows up on a credit card statement. But I do, I get it that there is this invisible pressure at this time of the year to keep up, to buy what everyone else is buying. That pressure can turn a joyful season into one of guilt, anxiety, and even more financial stress when January rolls around. So I want you to hear me clearly right now is that you have the permission to do less this holiday season. You have the permission to set a boundary around your money and your energy, and you don't owe anyone the perfect holiday season. And that's why I wanted to put this podcast out right now, because now is when we can get intentional. We don't want to wait until the middle of December when everything's chaotic to make a financial plan or a decision as how this Christmas season is gonna look. But right now is the perfect time as we head into this week to sit down and get really clear on what you value for this time of the year. What things do you want to spend your money on, and what things aren't really that important that we can just kind of let go of and focus on what's really the most important thing. So decide what you want to be able to afford this season and what maybe you shouldn't be affording. Look at your budget, look at your savings, and then give every dollar a job before it is spent. And make sure that whatever your value system is, the money is going towards that thing. Also, communicate those boundaries with whoever that needs to happen with, whether it's your partner about sitting down and really creating boundaries with how you're gonna do gifts for your children, whether that looks like gift exchange with siblings or parents or nieces and nephews. If you are in a season where you're trying to get intentional with your finances, you're trying to pay off debt, you're trying to make the money go further, it is okay to let family members know, hey, this year we're really focused on getting out of debt. And so this year we're not gonna participate in the family gift exchange. We would love to be a part of it in whatever way we can. Or this year, our gifts are gonna look a little differently. And you actually might be surprised at how many people feel the same way and will be relieved when you speak up and when you say something. And once you create those boundaries, stick to them and own them. There's nothing wrong with you making a financial decision that is good for your family, even if someone else's feelings get hurt. Because it's not their life, it's not their credit card statement that they're worrying about, it's not their debt that they have to worry about. So you get to decide what's important and what's not. And then once we do that, really start to shift your focus onto what kind of things create the magic that I'm trying to create rather than what do I have to buy in order to create that magic. Some of my favorite Christmas traditions that we do with my family is we always do a Christmas movie night where we get in our pajamas, we make holiday cookies, and then we whip up some hot chocolate and sit down together and watch a Christmas movie. Another one that we do is we love to go get peppermint shakes from our local Chick-fil-A and then drive around the town and look at Christmas lights. Or we go caroling with our family to sing to other families, or we make some Christmas plates to take it around to our neighbors and friends. Those things don't cost a lot of money. But my kids ask about them every single year and we always make sure we do them because it's so special and it's a tradition that they look forward to. One of my favorite things that we like to focus on during the Christmas season is giving and serving. I think that the most joy we can feel in life is through serving other people. So instead of my kids focusing on what are you gonna give me, I try to reframe that as what are you going to give other people? And whether that means that they sit down and I help orchestrate a craft or a note or an experience for a sibling, that is where they're gonna feel the most amount of joy, is when they start to get outside of themselves and think about other people. Could you drop off food at a local shelter or food bank? Could you deliver meals to people that are in need? Or could you adopt a family that needs presents and supply them with presents? There are so many ways around the holiday season to focus on other people, and getting outside of yourself doesn't have to cost a lot of money, and it can just kind of open up this ability to feel more joy and to feel more connected with other human beings. So let's talk a little bit about Black Friday because this probably could have a whole episode in and of itself. I really do love a good deal. I love it when some the things that I want to buy go on sale and I can stock up on whatever that item is. And I shop Black Friday sales, I'm not against Black Friday at all. But the problem with these times is that you could very easily buy more than you needed or more than you wanted to spend because there's so much noise in the marketplace. So before you buy anything this weekend, I want you to make a plan. And what I do is the whole month of November, I'm asking my kids what they want for Christmas, and I start to create a list, a full list of all the items that I'm planning to buy them for Christmas. So I go into Black Friday with intention. I'm not just shopping the deals and seeing what's for sale. I'm going and I'm specifically looking up those items that I know I'm probably gonna buy anyways, and I just see if they're on sale for Black Friday. Make sure you ask yourself before you add anything to your cart on Friday, was this already a part of my plan? Or am I just getting excited about something that may be a deal? And spoiler alert, a lot of times Black Friday deals aren't actually a deal, and they just hyperinflate the normal price to think that they're giving you a deal. And make sure that the purchase aligns with your priorities and your values. And then make sure that there's not going to be remorse when you think into January. Are you going to be glad that you bought this item? Is it going to be something that you're going to be glad that you bought when you did and not feel bad about it later? You shop intentionally. You can absolutely shop. I, again, big Black Friday shopper over here, but don't let the hype control your wallet. Don't let the excitement of what's happening take over your peace in the future. So as you head into these next few weeks, here's your reminder: you're the magic maker in your home. You get to decide what the holiday season looks like. Your joy, your laughter, your peace, your calm gives your children something more than any gift could. And that's what your kids will remember. So it's not about how many gifts are under the tree. It's how we show up and how we create the magic in our home. And just like most of you, I'm super excited about this time of year to kind of slow down, really focus on what matters most, and then focus on what I want 2026 to look like and how I want to bring that positive, happy energy that we create this month into the next year. Thank you for tuning in today, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Head Shot

Rachel Coons

Host