Keeping the “Special” in Special Occasions: 10 Tips for Celebrating During Hard Times

Who doesn’t love special occasions?  Holidays are a great time to relax and enjoy life and family.  But what if life isn’t so good and your family is going through a hard time?   Large scale disasters, or personal disasters like experiencing job loss, family stress, or loss of a loved one can severely limit the time, energy, and money available for “extras”.  Regardless of our personal situation however, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and even super special occasions like weddings will still happen.  Being able to set these days apart as special is a morale booster that may be particularly necessary if you are going through a hard time.  You don’t need a huge party to let someone know they are loved and honored.  Try some of these low budget ideas to keep the “special” in those special occasions even when resources are limited.

1.  Do something instead of buying something.  Experiences can be more memorable than gifts.  Even if all you can do is something small, make a memory.  Walk in the woods.  Picnic on the grass (or in the living room).  Read a special book together.  Have a karaoke night.  You get the idea.

2.  Make something instead of buying something.  Homemade gifts speak volumes about the level of thought you put into celebrating the other person or event.  Use your crafting skills and make something meaningful.  A friend of mine has a metal rose made by her husband who was a welder.  Absolutely beautiful, low cost, and more meaningful than a box of chocolates.  Can you work with wood?  Knit or crochet?  Paint or draw?  Surely you can write!  Create a book of things you love or admire about the other person, or write a heartfelt note.

3.  Involve friends and family.  Having special people over can be a treat in itself.  Or have each friend or family member write down a memory they have shared with the person who is celebrating their special day and box them up as a gift.  Free but priceless.  This does take some prior planning so everyone can participate!  No procrastinating here!

4.  Make your own bouquet.  Want to give flowers?  How about a wildflower bouquet.  Or cut flowers from your own flower garden. If you don’t have a flower garden, ask a friend or neighbor who has one if you can use some of their flowers for a bouquet.

5.  Shop all year.  Clearance sales and other special occasion sales like Black Friday can produce some great gifts. So can some yard sales.  Buy it cheap, stash it, and you have something to give when that special day rolls around.

6.  Give things you already have.  This can work lots of ways.  Maybe an older brother doesn’t use his toy car anymore and you can gift it to the younger one.  Clothes that were worn very little by one sister might be loved by another.  Make sure to get the permission of whoever is giving up the soon-to-be-gifted item!  Some of my favorite gifts were given to me this way by my grandparents–ornaments off my Grandma’s Christmas tree, vases and a nativity set from my other grandparents.  Things you might think have little value become valuable because they are a piece of you.

7.  Use special place settings.  Break out the china.  Or just give the birthday boy or anniversary couple special plates.  Pick up holiday themed paper plates and napkins on clearance after the holiday and they’ll be ready to use the next year for making anything you put on it a little more special.

8. Keep party stuff in your food storage and emergency supplies.  No need to go overboard here and buy out a party supply store!  A few cake mixes, frosting, or ingredients to make them will go a long way.  If the power is out, you may need an alternative method for baking your cake.  A Sun Oven, dutch oven and coals, or HERC tea light oven would all work great.  And you do have candles in your emergency supplies, right?  Stick one on that cake you just baked, or use them for a candlelight dinner.

9. Learn to produce some of your own specialty foods.  As you plan your garden, farm, or hunting season, plan for the foods you want to have for your special occasions.  Love pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving?  Grow pumpkins.  Want a turkey?  Raise one.  One year my family produced everything we needed to make our own Thanksgiving meal.  It was a little different (nobody could grow cranberries and we had fish and venison in addition to the turkey), but it was fantastic!

10. Simplify now.  As parents, sometimes we want to give our kids everything they want.  If you regularly go to extremes celebrating special occasions, it might be hard to do something small when you’re experiencing hard times.  The good thing is that people, especially kids, don’t need a lot of the “stuff” we get them.  Trimming back on what you spend and simplifying holidays now will help if there comes a time when you need to do less.  One family I know has simplified Christmas by giving each child only four gifts: something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read.  Are there traditions you could start now to simplify your special occasions?

Celebrating should not need to end if things get hard.  Using these ideas can help your family keep the “special” in special occasions regardless of your personal circumstances.  Have any other ideas?  I’d love to hear them in the comments section below!

Keep preparing! Angela