Did you know it is only 52 Days until Christmas? Will the next few months be a silly season full of stress and financial anxiety or a time to find the peaceful quiet moments to focus on family and the true meaning of Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior?
I read a funny quote this past week that said ‘organised people are just too lazy to look for stuff’ made me giggle ... But ... when it comes to surviving the silly season and turning it back into a time for family and to focus on the miracle of the birth of Christ, organisation is the key to peace and harmony.

Over the next few weeks I thought we would take a look at Christmas and put a welfare spin on it starting with Family Finances.
The Church has some simply marvellous material devoted to Family Finances. They can be found at www.providentliving.lds.org Available as a PDF and as a paperback from the distribution centre is a booklet called ‘One for the Money’ by Elder Marvin J Ashton. In it he outlines 12 steps to financial stability. The 12 steps plus a
sentence from each are: 1: Pay an honest tith. Paying tithing promptly to Him who does not come to check up each month will teach us and our children to be more honest with those physically closer at hand 2: Learn to manage money before it manages you. Financial peace of mind is not determined by how much we make, but is dependant upon how much we spend.
3: Learn self discipline and self restraint in money matters. Money management skills should be learned together in a spirit of cooperation and love on a continuing basis. 4: Use a budget. Every family must have a predetermined understanding of how much money will be available each month and the amount to be spent in each category of the family budget. 5: Teach family members early the importance of working and earning. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ is not an outdated counsel. It is the basic of personal welfare. One of the greatest favours parents can do for their children is to teach them to work. 6: Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacity to comprehend. Family unity comes from saving together for a common, jointly approved purpose.
7: Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare. As children mature they should understand the family financial position, budget, and investment goals and their individual responsibility within the family.
8: Make education a continuing process. Based on potential lifetime earnings, the hours spent furthering your education will be very valuable indeed.
9: Work toward home ownership. Home ownership qualifies as an investment not consumption. 10: Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program. Costs associated with illness, accident and death may be so large that an uninsured family may be financially burdened for many years.
11: Understand the influence of external forces on family finances and investments. Inflation continues to off set a major portion of average wage increases.
12: Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage and emergency preparedness program. Accumulate your basic food storage and emergency supplies in a systematic and orderly way.

Financially, for us at Christmas time we should be set a budget and stick to it, avoid last minute shopping, make a clear agreed on list of presents or amount per person. Some people have a wish list up throughout the year so the children can write what they truly would like, it does make them think about their choices. Make lists and cross off each item as it has been done. Christmas jars is a fantastic book by LDS writer Jason F Wright. The story revolves around one family’s decision to save all their loose change throughout the year and use that money, and that money
only, for their Christmas gifts. An act of love by their young daughter sees their Christmas jar given to a woman in desperate need of financial help one year, creating a tradition of anonymous Christmas jar giving that spreads through out the country. The idea of putting our spare change into a jar and setting it somewhere where we can see it grow through the year is a good one. I know of many families who have adopted it both as an act of service and for their gift
purchasing. It helps to A: remind ourselves of the greatest gift of all given to us at Christmas and B: helps us to stay within our means and truly enjoy Christmas as a time together.

I hope and pray we each enjoy the lead up to Christmas and enjoy the spirit it brings when we apply gospel principles
and sound counsel to our lives.