Amanda Maze, a home health nurse and mother from Kentucky, once took out loans to buy Christmas presents for her family. She claims that this decision led to a vicious cycle of debt and year-round payments.
Her half-million TikTok fans are now learning that the holidays may truly be priceless, or at least very close to it. Maze provides an alternative to an otherwise extravagant holiday season by discussing her personal experience budgeting gifts for her and her fiancé’s five children and finding festive décor from charity stores.
Maze stated, “I believe my goal is simply to help people understand that things in life are only temporary.” You are not required to have such a materialistic existence.
She is one of a few TikTok creators who have increased their budgeting-related content around the holidays in an effort to reduce the burden of people who have financial difficulties during this time.
Festivities like Hanukkah and Christmas are frequently associated with lavish presents, beautiful décor, and sumptuous dinners. More than half of respondents to NerdWallet’s annual holiday spending report stated that holiday purchasing stresses them out, despite the fact that Americans are expected to spend more than $17 billion more on gifts alone than they did the year before. Additionally, the study discovered that about 10% of consumers could put gift-giving ahead of bill payment.
Sara Rathner, a personal finance specialist at NerdWallet, stated that people are feeling pressured to spend money on gifts, often to the detriment of their capacity to fulfill other financial commitments.
People are under pressure to spend money on gifts, often to the detriment of their other financial commitments.
-Sara Rathner, NerdWallet’s personal finance specialist.
The development of underconsumption core, a TikTok phenomena that pushes users to reject microtrends and concentrate on the items they genuinely use and love on a daily basis, coincides with the increase in holiday videos that are cost-conscious. Videos describing their plans to participate in a no-spend challenge in 2025 are already being posted by a large number of users on the network.
Emmy Kluemper, a content creator who has been sharing TikTok videos that encourage a more frugal lifestyle, stated, “I feel like people are tired of [having] influencers throwing things in their face ever since the underconsumption trend started, and more normal people like me have started to become more popular.”
According to Kluemper, her goal is to dissuade new audiences from overpaying on customs like holiday home décor.
Kluemper, the only breadwinner for her family, stated, “I think on social media, sometimes it becomes normalized that you need to have a new Christmas aesthetic every year.” However, I don’t think that’s practical for most individuals.
According to Sarah Falls, a mother from Darwin, Australia, she uses TikTok to be candid and upfront about the challenges of parenting, such as finding affordable gifts.
She shared a video this holiday season showing how she is spending $150 on secondhand Christmas presents for her three kids. Some of her 25,000 followers have praised and criticized her for a number of hauls that she has shared. A number of commentators have voiced their unhappiness with the Falls children. However, the creator has made it clear that her children are not without.
You have alternative options if you are frugal or wish to follow the sustainability path, she noted. For your children to have a happy Christmas, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars.
It’s never too early to start creating holiday budgets and even buying presents, according to Rathner of NerdWallet. She claimed that overspending frequently results from impulsive shopping.
“As many people may suffer in silence financially during the holidays, see if you could adjust expectations among all the people you’re going to be surrounding [the] holiday with,” she noted before creating your budget and gift list.
Kluemper expressed a similar viewpoint, pointing out that the most appreciated gifts are those that are considerate.
If you’re stressed up about keeping up with other people, it might ruin the season, she said. You can be glad for the season you’re in, but I hope kids see how we handle it and realize that there will always be those who have more, who are nicer, who are newer, whatever it is.
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