Avoiding a Christmas credit card nightmare

Christmas is coming, the banks are getting fat,

Let's put more money, in the banker's bowler hat.

If you haven't got a credit line, a credit card will do,

If you really don't have either, then God Bless you!

That's not exactly the nursery rhyme I read to my baby daughter sometimes, but it did come to mind a short while ago. I had just finished working on both my Christmas websites, and was about to make the switch to work on my credit debt site. It's early, and I'm on a tropical island, but for much of the past month I have had to already "think Christmas" because of those two websites.

The nursery rhyme, of course, is quite the opposite; the hat belongs to the old man with no money. And he had no recourse to credit cards in Olde England.

Christmas and the holiday season are, of course, boom times for retailers, for restaurants, for travel agents and hoteliers. As the days pass between September and January, consumer spending escalates. As consumer spending rises conspicuously, people not already sucked into the whirlwind and with no cash to spare, will be wondering what on earth they and their family are missing out on.

December will arrive, and no gifts bought, no special nights out arranged, no parties planned at home, or no ski-ing trip organised. Everyone else is going to enjoy themselves, but not you, your spouse and children.

You cannot bear the thought of either missing out or appearing to be broke, so out comes the credit card or the credit line cheque book. A big sigh of relief! We can enjoy ourselves.

What you didn't know was that most of those already making it known they were spending a fortune on Christmas, were also doing so on credit. That bankers bowler hat is really going to overflow this year; lucky he has big vaults to transfer it to every night. Or is it every millisecond?

New Year will come and just about everyone's feeling broke, wondering how on earth to pay off those Christmas debts, which have piled on top of other debts; making New Year resolutions to stop smoking and drinking and spending so much money.

Why follow the suicidal crowd when you can plan early, and save cash to spend on all your Christmas gifts and anything else you plan for the holiday season? If you spend $1000 every Christmas, then budget to save $80 a month? Can't afford to? Then you can't afford to spend $1000 every Christmas. Budget for what you can and spend that. That sounds simple, and it is common sense, but when it comes to credit, debt and the Christmas whirlwind, common sense can be in short supply. Grab your share early and you will be one of the minority who come through Christmas as cool as a debt free cucumber.

Why spend the holiday season in Cloud Cuckoo Land, with its unpleasant post mortem of debt ridden misery, when you can have a great and relaxing time with your family, all paid for out of real money? Your money.

Why not ignore the banker and his bowler this year and next, and from then onwards? Bowlers are old hat anyway. Far better to have your own personal family t-shirt, emblazened "We're having a credit free Christmas" on the front. You never know, you may start a trend. Concerned about the blank back on your t-shirt? Then how about "Stuff the Bank Manager, Not The Turkey"?