This post is sponsored by First Alliance Credit Union
How to Have a Happy Holiday Season in 2020
At this point, it’s safe to say that the 2020 holiday season is going to be different than any other. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual holiday concerns of buying gifts for everyone, setting up travel plans and preparing a Christmas meal have been replaced by the concerns of staying safe this holiday season and how you’ll be in the holiday spirit with all the uncertainty lurking in the background. It’s enough to make you wonder if it’s even possible to have a happy holiday season this year.
While it’s true that the holidays will be different this year, you and your family can still enjoy the holidays. All it takes is some planning, a little innovation, and a good Internet connection.
Focus on Holiday Traditions
While the thought of not seeing friends and family over the holidays can be disheartening, just remember there are a lot of holiday traditions you can still uphold, like hanging up your Christmas lights. In fact, you might want to really go all-out in decorating your home this year. After all, you’ll be spending more time at home, so why not put a little extra effort into making it the winter wonderland of your dreams? To help keep your winter energy costs manageable, consider using LED lights for your décor.
You can also decorate some Christmas cookies with your children, do some Christmas arts and crafts and even help your children write letters to Santa. You can also get creative with your Elf on the Shelf activities this year.
However, you can also use this time to shake up some existing traditions, and perhaps come up with some new traditions on your own. If you’ve never really liked preparing the traditional Christmas dinner, for instance, why not change up the menu?
You could even put a new spin on Christmas dinner by coming up with new spins on old dishes, such as turkey tacos or turkey alfredo, or go in a completely different direction and barbecue a nice cut of meat. You might even skip cooking altogether and support local companies with some Chinese take-out.
What to do With the Money you Were Saving for the Holidays
One of the biggest effects of the coronavirus pandemic has been the drastic reduction in people traveling. Thousands of people have canceled their holiday travel plans to avoid exposure to COVID-19.
If you’re one of those people, you’re probably feeling a little sad about not being able to see your loved ones. However, there is one big advantage you might have overlooked: you won’t be spending any of the money you were saving for traveling on the holidays. That means you have some extra money in your savings account that you can put to good use.
The easiest option is to simply keep the money you’re not using in a traditional savings account. It’s an especially good option if you’re going to use this money to fund your holiday trip next year, and you’ll get a bit of extra money in interest. If you have enough money saved up, you can keep it in a money market account to earn even more interest or store it in club savings account to make sure it doesn’t get touched until next year’s vacation.
You can also use the money you were saving for holiday travel to pay off your debts, like the credit card debt you probably have after buying gifts for people. Just remember to start with the debt with the highest interest, then move onto other loans. It may not be as exciting as spending it, but the sense of relief you’ll feel once you’ve paid off a debt will be worth it.
If you’re willing to put in a bit more work, though, you can invest your vacation money for a year and get a higher rate of interest. For instance, you can put your money into a 12-month CD and collect it in time to pay for your holiday traveling next year.
You can also put the money toward another large project you’re working on, like buying a new appliance, remodeling the bathroom, or even taking an online course. Why not use your holiday travel money to fund these projects? Once the project is complete, you can use the money you were saving for that project to fund your holiday vacation next year.
Another good way to use the money is to spend some of it on a nice activity for your family. Consider getting something you and your family have always wanted. It’s a good way to avoid feeling deprived, and it will do wonders to improve your mental health.
Finally, consider donating to your favorite charity. The pandemic has affected a lot of people, and by donating to a charity, you’ll be helping a lot of people to have a happier holiday season.
Affordable Home Holiday Activities
Just because you and your family will be spending most of your time at home doesn’t mean you have to limit your holiday events to ordering takeout and watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel.
For instance, you could go on a walk through your neighborhood and look at your neighbors’ Christmas lights. Afterwards, you can talk with your family members about which house’s Christmas lights they liked the most.
You can also make a holiday playlist with your family. Ask everyone which holiday songs they like the most, then create a playlist based on their answers. You can even send your holiday playlist out to your extended family and encourage them to make playlists of their own.
Another fun option is to devote a night solely to one Christmas activity, such as making Christmas cookies, decorating the house or playing holiday games.
Of course, your activities don’t all have to be holiday themed. You might want to get your family moving after weeks of not leaving the home by having everyone follow along to an easy workout video on YouTube, or you can have a family reading night, where everyone grabs a book and just reads for an hour, then share with each other what your book is about.
If you want to kickstart your holiday home activities, we also recommend registering for Rochester Mom’s HoHoHome for the holidays virtual event sponsored by First Alliance Credit Union. It features several virtual activities that range from a cookie decorating demonstration to an exclusive Christmas lights tour and see behind the scene videos of Rochester’s real Santa!
A Very Virtual Holiday Season
Even though you might not be able to see your friends or family in person, that doesn’t mean you can’t see them at all. If there’s one good thing that’s come out of 2020, it’s that most of us have become very comfortable with the idea of video calls, be it Zoom, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams or even Google Duo.
You can still take part in a lot of fun family holiday traditions by taking advantage of these programs. You can sing carols together, play family games like charades and holiday trivia online. In fact, if everyone in your family has a tablet computer, you can play boardgames online, including popular board games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.
Have a Happy Holiday Season With First Alliance Credit Union
The 2020 holiday season is definitely not going to be traditional, but just because your usual plans have changed doesn’t mean you and your family won’t have fun.
You can also make sure you have a happy holiday season when you become a member of First Alliance Credit union today. In addition to saving money in our traditional savings account and club accounts, you can use online banking and the First Alliance mobile banking app to keep a close eye on your finances, as well as transfer money between accounts, pay off your holiday credit card bill and even send gift money to your loved ones with Zelle.
