There was once a time that Amanda Maze, a home health nurse and mother from Kentucky, took out loans to pay for her family’s Christmas presents — a decision she said caused a “vicious cycle” of year-round payments and debt.
Now, she’s teaching her half-million TikTok followers that the holidays really can be priceless, or at least closer to it. Through sharing her own experience thrifting festive decor and budgeting gifts for her and her fiancé’s five children, Maze offers an alternative to an otherwise spend-heavy holiday season.
“I think my goal is just to help people understand that things in life are only temporary,” Maze said. “You don’t have to live such a materialistic lifestyle.”
She’s among a handful of TikTok creators who have ramped up content related to budgeting around the holidays in the hopes of easing the stress of those who struggle around this time.
Holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah are often synonymous with elaborate meals, aesthetic decor and over-the-top gifts. Though Americans are projected to spend over $17 billion more than last year on gifts alone, more than half of the people surveyed by NerdWallet’s annual holiday spending report said holiday spending “stress[es] them out.” The study also found that roughly 1 in 10 people may prioritize buying gifts over paying their bills.
“People are feeling the pressure to spend on gifts, sometimes to the point of harming their ability to meet their other financial obligations,” said Sara Rathner, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet.
People are feeling the pressure to spend on gifts, sometimes to the point of harming their ability to meet their other financial obligations.
-Sara Rathner, personal finance expert at NerdWallet.
The uptick in budget-conscious holiday videos comes amid a rise in “underconsumption core,” a TikTok phenomenon that encourages people to reject the microtrends and focus on the things that they actually use and enjoy on a daily basis. Many people on the platform are also already posting videos about their intentions to take part in a “no spend challenge” in 2025.
“Ever since the underconsumption trend started, I feel like people are tired of [having] influencers throwing things in their face, and more normal people like me have started to become more popular,” said Emmy Kluemper, a content creator who has been posting TikTok videos that promote a more budget-conscious lifestyle.
Kluemper said she aims to “de-influence” new audiences against overspending on traditions, like home decorating around the holidays.
“I think on social media, sometimes it becomes normalized that every year you need to have a new Christmas aesthetic,” said Kluemper, who is the sole provider for her household. “But I think for the majority of people, that’s just not realistic.”
Sarah Falls, a mom based in Darwin, Australia, said she uses TikTok to “be open and honest” about the difficulties of parenting, including buying gifts on a budget.
This holiday season, she documented how she is thrifting Christmas gifts for her three children on a $150 budget. She has posted several hauls, which have drawn both praise and scrutiny from some of her 25,000 followers. Some critics have expressed feelings of disappointment for Falls’ children. But the creator has emphasized that her kids “do not go without.”
“If you are hard on money or you want to go down the sustainability track, then you have another option,” she said. “You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for your kids to have a good Christmas.”
From a financial perspective, Rathner, of NerdWallet, said it’s never too early to start planning holiday budgets and even purchasing gifts. Shopping without a plan, she said, is often the cause of overspending.
“Before you set your gift list and set your budget, see if you could adjust expectations among all the people you’re going to be surrounding [the] holiday with,” she added, emphasizing that many may “suffer in silence” financially during the holidays.
Kluemper shared a similar perspective, noting that it’s the thoughtful gifts that are “appreciated the most.”
“It can suck the joy out of the season if you’re getting stressed about keeping up with other people,” she said. “I hope that they see the way we handle it and understand there will always be people that have more, that have the nicer, the newer, whatever it is, but you can be grateful and thankful for the season that you’re in.”
