Christmas is a joyful day, a time to reflect and plan for a New Year. A friend once said that Christmas was his time to buy holiday gifts, with next year’s money. His thoughts have changed today, though. The recession has affected his way of living and planning for the future.

Christmas is only two days away. It is a special day to spend with family and friends for fellowship, gifts and love. For many of us, it brings back our childhood days and the pleasures of our youth as we grow older. Yet several questions need to be addressed to meet the many changes in these turbulent times. We need to keep track of spending, set goals on savings and investments, and give our children the best possible educations. We also need to help those who are less fortunate than we are, even when things are tough for everyone.

Americans, and Mainers, in particular, are generous people. We try hard to take care of our friends and neighbors, when they need our help. Schools and churches and other non-profit organizations throughout York County have had toy and food drives, collecting supplies for those who are having an otherwise bleak holiday. This is a great time to talk to the young people in the family, about managing money and obligations. For too long, we have allowed ourselves and our family members to believe that the value of assets like homes would always go up, that we could buy everything we wanted on credit, and pay for it someday in the future, when we would earn a lot more money.

But guess what? It didn’t turn out that way. We are learning why our older relatives, who lived through the Depression of the 1930s, believed in saving, more than spending, and worried so much about what would happen if the economy tanked again.

To do well in this economy, use the holidays as an opportunity to plan with your family. First, figure out what you are going to need to spend for each month next year. A monthly budget for necessities is needed after Christmas expenses, so that you will not exceed your family’s household net income.

Next, estimate your potential income. A written list should be made, to set aside monies for rent or mortgage payments, food, heating and utility bills, car expenses and insurances. Try to pay in cash instead of with a credit card, to buy only what you need, and can pay for. This will eliminate high interest rate charges on those purchases, too. If you are tight for cash or unemployed, why not offer to barter your services for goods? Or sell excess household goods at a garage sale. You might even sell your second car. Consider holding off buying items that are not critically needed, if it would require you to spend over your total monthly spending budget.

Christmas time is a good time to teach your children on the value of money and saving it. If your children have received some cash gifts for the holidays, you have the perfect opportunity to explain the importance of saving for the future.

Children should learn why it is important to have the responsibility to save and bank their own weekly allowances, too. Children should be taught how to “waste not, want not,” in these difficult times. A family should communicate together and discuss concerns affecting their well-being in money matters. Children who are old enough to understand, need to know the importance of saving money, and keeping records of their holdings, in order to get the things they want in the future.

Yes, gifts are important for children at Christmas time, but the best gift we can give our children are lessons of thriftiness and savings. The right habits of giving and receiving can be positive traits that, learned in early childhood, will benefit them as they grow older, and give them a leg up on acquiring assets, in the future.

And try to help others, in the Christmas spirit. Share what you have with those who have too little. Share your love with those who depend on you. Share your knowledge with your friends and neighbors, who are out of work. Let them know that if a job opening occurs where you work, you will let them quickly know about it. Often, by the time a job is advertised, it is already about to be filled.

Christmas is a time of gift giving for you and your family and friends. Remember that gifts come in many forms.

— Bernard Featherman can be reached by e-mail: bernard@featherman.com.