6 tips for saving money during the holidays

Holiday entertaining and gift-giving can be expensive. Here are some ideas to trim costs:

• Reuse dishes. Search estate sales and flea markets for inexpensive mismatched dishes. They make the perfect vessels for delivering home-baked goodies to co-workers, friends and neighbors. Best of all, there's no need to ask them to return the plate.

• Set limits. Establish a spending limit on gifts from your spouse or closest friends, says Sara Noel, who runs frugalvillage.net. You could do a second-hand gift exchange. Or only swap stocking stuffers. Noel and her husband give each other the same "favorite things" each year. She gets a box of chocolates and he chooses nuts and cheeses.

• Help others. Talk to your family about volunteering or giving charitable gifts to take the focus off buying and wanting. Help a food bank or soup kitchen. Or agree to exchange gifts that support charities.

• Give the gift of time. Make gift certificates or coupons to offer free baby-sitting to your friends or to prepare a home-cooked meal for them. Kids could give breakfast in bed to their parents. A husband might offer candlelight dinner at home.

• Let the kids make wrapping paper. Stock up on inexpensive butcher paper or newsprint and let your young artists go to town with finger paints, crayons, rubber stamps and stickers. Each package will be a one-of-a-kind.

• Get thrifty with decorations. Use branches, pine cones, wire and ribbon to create your own holiday wreaths. Let kids create paper snowflakes (embellished with glitter glue for extra sparkle) or other decorations. For craft ideas, see Better Homes and Gardens' 100 days of Holidays at www.bhg.com/holidays or Martha Stewart Living's projects at www.marthastewart.com/holidays.

Seattle Times staff contributed to this feature