Christmas Archives - What's up Fagans?

The Easiest and Best Way to Save Money for Christmas All Year Long

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

March 7, 2017 By Katelyn Fagan 1 Comment

Even though Christmas comes but once time a year, it's a big expense. That's why I'm excited to share what I think is the best way to save for Christmas in partnership with Sears Mastercard. I used to really not like Christmas, but it's grown on me a lot since having my own children. And, like my husband, I want to make it magical for our kids. It's the one time of year that I want to give them all-the-things. I want to spoil them rotten because I love them and I don't spoil them hardly at all during the year. But this seasonal desire clashes hard with my ever-present frugal inner self who hates spending money, hates going into ...

One Crucial Way to Take Christmas to the Next Level

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

December 13, 2016 By Katelyn Fagan 3 Comments

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Christmas Tree Promotion Board. My husband and I celebrated eight years of marriage at the end of November. Over those eight years we created memories, children, and traditions. It's been super fun having our own simple everyday family traditions, as well as holiday traditions. Christmas is my husband's favorite holiday and he wants to go big every year. Because of his attitude toward Christmas and the joy it brings myself and my growing family, it has quickly become my favorite holiday as well, even more than Thanksgiving, my old favorite holiday. But, for eight years my ...

How to Limit Christmas Gifts to 3 or 4 Without Being a Scrooge

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

November 28, 2016 By Katelyn Fagan Leave a Comment

This post is sponsored by Carter's; however, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I can't imagine Christmas morning without gifts. It's like having a birthday without a cake or people singing Happy Birthday to you at least once. It just would not be the same. At all. No matter how tight money was when I was a kid, my parents, eight siblings and I all managed to have at least a few gifts under the Christmas tree every year. Even though my greed at Christmastime sometimes prevented me from appreciating the gifts I received, I still received gifts! Of course Christmas isn't really about gifts, and birthdays will ...

5 Fantastic Elf on the Shelf Alternatives You’ll Wanna Start This Year

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

November 10, 2016 By Crystal Barnes 6 Comments

If Elf on the Shelf isn't for you, here are five Elf on the Shelf alternatives for your family. Start a great new family Christmas tradition that you can totally get behind this year. Just before Christmas last year, my kids were 3½ and 1½ and I was 37 weeks pregnant. And I turned into a crazy person. I had this super intense need to make the looming holiday mean something “more”. I scoured Pinterest, and I harassed my family and friends about their traditions. I needed to find a way to connect my kids to the meaning of the holiday and not to the fluff. And then I gave birth to our third minion two days before Christmas. ...

33 of the Best Gifts to Get Kids Outdoors

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

November 16, 2015 By Katelyn Fagan 4 Comments

A large majority of my best memories as a kid happened outdoors. And I grew up in the age of video games, TV, and computers. I'm only 27 years old. I did indeed play a gross amount of video and computer games growing up, in large part because I had six older brothers who were really into them as well. Our family bought a Windows 95 computer right as it came out, and we paid for our internet usage via a coin jar. Before that computer we had a green screen one that we also played games on. We had the original Nintendo and every Nintendo Gaming System (and a few others) through the years. We owned lots of VHS and eventually ...

The Great Big List of Toys that Your Children Will Play With for Years

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

December 3, 2014 By Katelyn Fagan 10 Comments

This post is sponsored by SheSpeaks and Duracell. It also contains affiliate links. My husband and I carefully select the toys and gifts we give our children. And it's especially true during big gift giving times, like Christmas and their birthday. We always want to give our children gifts that will last, that will be cherished, that will be played with countless times. We don't want to waste our money, or limited apartment space, on the wrong gifts and toys. Nor do we want to regret buying a certain toy. Most often, we give our children classic toys as gifts, things like balls, puzzles, books, dolls, coloring books, crayons, and ...

What’s up Fagans? Fridays – Holiday Edition 2013

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

January 3, 2014 By Katelyn Fagan

We're back! We took a break and vacation over the holidays, but are now back, and ready to blog, to write, to play, and to start instilling New Year Resolutions in our lives. Stay tuned over the next several weeks to find out what some of our resolutions and goals are! Now, our weekly family update (for the last two weeks): *Affiliate links are used below* 1. We celebrated Christmas with my in-laws the Saturday before Christmas. They gave the girls some new art supplies, books, and swim lessons! Michael got some new baby toys and some new clothes. After our yummy homemade breakfast, thanks to the gift they gave Josh and I, a 5 ...

What’s up Fagans? Fridays – December 2013

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

December 21, 2013 By Katelyn Fagan

1. Last Friday night we had our Church Christmas party. It was enjoyable, eating food, and watching the kids act out the Nativity. The exciting part came as we got into our car to go home. Josh thought it would be fun to do donuts in the fresh fallen snow in the church parking lot. No sooner had he started to turn the wheel when Lisa threw up in the car. She went on to throw up once more at 1am on the floor in her bedroom. No one else has gotten sick though! And it gave me an excuse to clean the car seats (they still had sand on them from this summer's trip out to Virginia). But, because she was sick we didn't do anything on ...

What’s up Fagans? Fridays – Dec 2013

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

December 13, 2013 By Katelyn Fagan Leave a Comment

Friday is here again! Yippie! Here's what the Fagans have been up to! 1. Last week our Church Christmas party was cancelled due to some bad weather (it's been moved to tonight). So, we decided to invite some friends to come over, despite the weather. We ate pizza, talked, and enjoyed their friendship. 2. Saturday we went to the Indiana State Museum again, but this time checked out the whole museum, which we've never done before. We met up with a bunch of local Indiana bloggers (shout out to Katy of Indy with Kids for the tickets!), took a group picture, and checked out Celebration Crossing. We rode the train and the girls ...

What’s up Fagans? Fridays – December 2013

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

December 6, 2013 By Katelyn Fagan

I skipped last weeks What's up Fagans? Fridays post due to our anniversary, so the following will try to cover the last two weeks. *Disclosure: My affiliate links are used below.* 1. We've been sick around here. Michael had pneumonia and pink eye, and then passed the pink eye to me, then Lisa, and finally Alison. We're over that, mostly, but Michael now just has a respiratory cold. That poor baby. What this has all meant is cancelled plans and way too much time spent at home!! We cancel preschool this week (I was supposed to teach), didn't go to play group, didn't go to story time at the library, didn't have any friends over, ...

40 Ingenius Ways to Reuse and Recycle Christmas Cards & Wrapping Paper

This post likely contains affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions.

December 7, 2011 By Katelyn Fagan 4 Comments

Want to know what to do with Christmas cards after the holidays are over? Want awesome ways to recycle Christmas cards and Christmas wrapping paper for other purposes? Check out the following ideas! Even though I am not one to be exceptionally crafty, or decorate much for any holiday beside Christmas, as I think crafts can be tedious, I am frugal and I love reusing and recycling objects I already have in order to save money. That's why I loved learning about some truly awesome ways to reuse and recycle Christmas Cards and recycle wrapping paper too. For a Church activity recently, I was asked to teach the ladies how to reuse ...