The holidays are a mixed bag of emotions for many people. On the one hand, we get excited about all of the wonderful things that we get to experience during the holiday season. On the other hand, the holidays can be a highly stressful time of year. A lot of that holiday stress comes from financial concerns that crop up during the holidays. Right after the holiday rush a lot of people have to start looking into credit card debt negotiation, debt consolidation plans and other ways to settle credit card debt because they spent too much money during the Christmas season. If you can avoid going in to debt this year then you can enjoy the holidays more fully. If you cut back on your spending in three areas – presents, travel and parties – then you should be able to minimize the amount of debt that you acquire during the holidays this year.

The biggest problem area for a lot of people is the problem of Christmas presents. There are certain people in our lives to whom we feel obligated to give Christmas presents. This ends up costing us a lot of money. If you can find a way to buy fewer presents this year then you will have found a way to minimize your need to settle credit card debt once the holidays are done. The key here is to talk to the people in your life with whom it’s reasonable to discuss the problem. Parents, adult siblings, friends and spouses are all people that you can talk to about holiday spending. Most of us are in the same position of dealing with financial difficulties and we can help each other out by relieving each other of the burden of spending a lot of money on presents. Agree to only buy gifts for the kids, do a holiday potluck instead of exchanging gifts with friends or do a “white elephant” party where each person buys for only one other person in a group. These methods reduce what you spend on Christmas presents and help you avoid the need to review debt consolidation plans at the end of the year.

Next you may want to reconsider your travel plans for the holiday season. A lot of people travel to their hometowns for the holidays. Some go for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Others go to both their own parents’ homes and their in-laws. Consider whether or not that’s a smart Christmas investment this year. Maybe you can plan one big family get-together in the spring instead when travel fares may be cheaper. Or perhaps you can go to just one gathering instead of several. Or maybe you can get with the 21st century and use the Internet and video conferencing to bring everyone together in one space on Christmas even though you’re in different parts of the country. Barring that, at least reduce your travel costs by looking for good deals on travel, keeping costly travel activities to a minimum and eating at home with the family instead of dining out in restaurants during the trip. All of these things reduce your holiday spending and help you keep out of debt so that you don’t have to look into credit card debt negotiation after the holidays.

Finally you’ll want to make sure that you keep your spending limited when it comes to holiday parties this year. Holiday parties are pricey whether you are throwing them yourself or just attending a variety of different events. Attendees feel the need to dress up, make sure they have fresh haircuts, bring a bottle of wine with them and even bring gifts for their hosts. To keep the costs down in this area you’ll want to limit yourself to the number of parties that you choose to attend. Make do with the clothing that you have in your closet already instead of buying dressy new clothes for the event. And stick to bringing an affordable bottle of wine or even a homemade dessert rather than a gift. These things all help to make sure that you don’t rack up a bunch of credit card debt by attending holiday parties and keep you from needing to settle credit card debt later on. And all of that makes it a lot easier for you to fully enjoy the holiday season!