Being the daughter of some pretty frugal parents, one year mom and dad had envelopes on the tree with our names on them. When we opened them, they were filled with about $1500 of play money. We then had an auction and were able to bid on the things they had to offer----coupons for a "dinner at the farm" we could choose what mom fixed, an afternoon of dad helping clean our garage or basement, a coupon for an oil change from dad, one for a tire rotation, there were also jars of homemade jam, loaves of homemade bread, bags of mom's noodles, pies, etc. It was one of the best and most memorable Christmas' ever. We had such fun bidding against each other. Mom and dad loved seeing their gifts bring in outrageous amounts like $500-$700 for the last jar of jam, $800 for an oil change and so on.
Christmas doesn't have to cost a lot to be enjoyable.