The holidays should be a fun time to get together with friends and family. Unfortunately, many of us put so much pressure on ourselves to host the perfect holiday party that it's

not enjoyable at all. If you're completely over the idea of spending too much money on food, gifts, and decorations. If you're tired of spending weeks planning and days cooking. If all the work that goes in seems like it doesn't pay off in what you're really aiming for - great quality time with the ones you love - there's a better way to do it. The truth is that hosting a holiday party doesn't need to be extremely expensive. And you don't need to stress yourself out over perfection. Here are a few laid back tips to help you stay on budget and still enjoy your gathering.

The Meal

One of the biggest stress points for a holiday party is the menu. Coming up with enough food for a large crowd can be expensive. Not only that, but it's time consuming to try to prepare every dish by yourself. The outcome is that the hostess winds up spending all of their time working in the kitchen, and none of it enjoying the party. Here are some ideas to make the preparation easier and save on expenses:

Make it a Pot Luck. If you're hosting a party for a lot of people, a great idea is to ask guests to each bring a specific dish and let them know you will provide the main course. This lets your guests get some credit for their excellent cooking skills and cuts your grocery bill down a great deal.

Make it a Buffet. A beautifully set table can be an elegant choice if your party is small enough. With a larger guest list, though, it can be very time consuming to set the table and get all the food in place. A great alternative is setting up a buffet so that each guest can serve themselves.

Use Disposable Cookware / Dishes. It's free to use real dishes that you'll have to wash later. But the amount of time you spend cleaning up makes it completely worth it to use inexpensive disposable dishes and cookware. This allows you to just throw out as you go and the cleanup will be minimal.

The Entertainment

Making a memorable holiday doesn't need to cost a great deal of money. There are a number of holiday traditions that don't cost anything.           

Caroling. Resurrect an old tradition and take the whole family out caroling door to door. You can cap off your singing adventure with hot coffee and hot chocolate while enjoying some holiday treats afterward.                                                                                                  Sightseeing Holiday Lights. For many families, driving around to look at stunning holiday displays is a bit of a tradition. In most areas, you can even look in the paper to see where the biggest displays are located.

The Games

There are a number of gift giving games that are fun to play and inexpensive for everyone. This one comes with a few versions. Each person needs to bring a number of "presents" (you might stipulate three or five per person). Each present has to be wrapped and it needs to cost less than $5. The items might be something as mundane as a package of batteries or a key chain. The only other thing you need to play is a pair of dice. Each person puts their presents in the middle of the circle in a pile. You go around the circle, and each person gets to take a present until each guest has the same number of presents in front of them. A set activity is assigned to the dice. For instance, you might say that if you roll a 2 or 3, you can switch gifts with someone. For 4 or 5, you can freeze a gift so no one else can take it. If you rolled a 6, you can unwrap one gift. This play would go around the circle until everyone has unwrapped their presents. There are other variations of the game, using poems or assigning numbers to presents as they are put in the pile. The objective is that everyone gets something to open and no one spends a great deal of money on the gifts. You can also make the gifts a theme - maybe they all need to be holiday ornaments, or they all need to be food related.

It's easy to get lost in the commercial appeal of the holiday - spending more on gifts or decor than you should. But the truth is that you can have a very memorable holiday gathering without all the extravagance.