Math Blog: Christmas Budgets

Christmas is a great time of year to talk about budgeting with your students. And budgeting itself is a great way to show basic math in action and to discuss biblical stewardship.

You could give your student a real or hypothetical Christmas budget to manage—or even a budget for one person’s Christmas gift. (If you don’t do presents, you could always do a budget for an event or for end-of-year giving.) Then walk with them through all the decisions they’d have to make to live within that budget, pointing out both the math they’d have to use and discussing some biblical truths on wise stewardship.

Say your child’s hypothetical (or real) budget has $100 in it. They could then list the different things they want to buy or give and how much each will cost and total up the costs. Is it more than $100? They’ll have to either readjust what they buy or give or change the $100 budget (which, in real life, would require taking that money from somewhere else in an overall budget). As they work through this exercise, they’ll use a lot of basic math skills, such as addition and subtraction. Want to see what percent they’re spending on what? That will bring in percentages. Want to see how much they’re spending on a particular person? That might require addition…or even division, if they bought a package with multiple items in it and need a per-item price. Need to find a total with tax? That uses percentages.

Not only does this exercise help show students how math applies (which can help students understand why they’re learning it in the first place), but you can also use it to help them think about wise stewardship. At any point in time God’s entrusted us with a certain amount of money. We need to seek Him for what we’re to do with it…and follow the wisdom He’s set forth in His Word.

Did you know there’s more than 2,000 Bible verses on money? There’s no lack of things to explore—a biblical view of debt (especially since many go into debt over Christmas), giving, avoiding the love of money (i.e., escaping materialism), and saving, to name a few. I’ve been amazed as I’ve written my new Consumer Math course (coming out in 2025) just how much God has to say about personal finances…and how much I need to remind myself of those principles regularly. A good place to start is 1 Timothy 6:10.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 Timothy 6:10 (ESV)

Discuss with your student that this doesn’t make money evil—just loving it. Talk about what that looks like—and what it might look like for them to steward the Christmas budget out of a love for God instead.

You might also discuss debt, and how the Bible warns about how debt ends up making us a slave in a way (Proverbs 22:7). After all, a recent survey indicated that around 46% of Americans are still paying off last year’s Christmas debt. That means that all year long, rather than having money earning interest, they’ve been paying interest on purchases from the prior year. With teen students, you could explore the concept of interest and how much these people have spent extra for what they bought.

There’s much more that could be explored, but hopefully that gives you a few ideas of how math and budgeting can help navigate Christmas gifting decisions—and of how you can use the time of year to have biblical stewardship conversations with your students. Remember too that children learn by watching, so consider letting them watch you think through some of the financial decisions you’re making.

(Look for more details about Consumer Math in the upcoming months–a full-scale high school curriculum that will help your students explore math in their everyday money decisions from a biblical worldview. We’re in the final editing stages, and I look forward to sharing more soon.)