Coming from a large family, I really understand how it feels to face a long list of christmas presents to buy with a limited budget. You have to be a magician to keep everyone happy. After years and years of dedicating to the same task, I have decided to share my experience with others.

The first word is organization. It is necessary to be organized, to keep track of which christmas presents you have already bought, which ones are still pending and how much you have spent. This will help you avoid stressful situations like realizing at the last minute that you forgot to get something for your mother-in-law. One way of implementing this is to write a list of all the presents you need to get, with columns for: idea, bought (you mark an X if you bought the present, for example) and amount spent. You can keep the list in your computer where it will be easier to maintain, or in paper if you don't feel comfortable using the computer for this.

Organization comes hand by hand with planning. It is a good idea to start getting presents well ahead of time. This way, you can take advantage of sales, for example. You can do this with small presents, or even big ones if you have a place to store them away.Try not to leave much of your christmas shopping for the last days.

If you have a limited budget an alternative is to make some of the presents yourself. This also needs to be planned ahead of time so you can purchase all the items you need and make the presents. Are you a skilled painter? You can paint small pieces for your friends which will be really appreciated. For example you can buy white mugs or plates and hand-paint something on them yourself.

When you're buying christmas presents it is a good idea to classify people in the list, group them somehow to make it easier to get the presents. For example, if you have three uncles, you may buy similar presents for the three of them: a shirt, a scarf, a CD, a book, some pairs of socks, a tie. Whatever you decide to get, this way you make just one decision for several people in the list. I used the uncles example because in my case, it is a real one. Besides being practical, getting the same christmas present for my three uncles eliminates possible conflicts about giving one of them a more important present than the others. One year it was shirts: I got three shirts in different colors. Another year I got them scarves. Or umbrellas. Always the same item, just different colors.

So the rules are: organize, plan and classify. By following these guidelines, I have avoided stressful moments and many headaches. I hope they're useful for you too and help you enjoy christmas shopping this year.