The holiday season has been in full swing for a few weeks and you can already sense that this year is different. In spite of our financial woes everyone in charge is telling us to spend, spend, spend in an effort to boost the sad economic reality. Yet the media tells us that no one is spending...and is it just us, or have the holiday party invites taken a dive as well? Stores are already having sales (a true Italian Christmas miracle if we've ever seen one) and parents are already preparing their kids for a ‘leaner' visit from Babbo Natale.

Taking the holiday festivities cancellations to a new level, the Croatian government has apparently banned Christmas and New Year's parties in public sector offices because of the global financial crisis. State-run firms and organisations have also been told not to buy Christmas presents in an effort to ‘be serious' about the global meltdown.

We at The Florentine would like to propose an alternative to the negativity-you won't have as many presents under the tree, so what? You have the whole city-all decked out in holiday glory-waiting at your feet. Go ice skating, take in an independent film or two, eat a slice of panettone, wander aimlessly through a holiday market, visit each and every one of Florence's nativity scenes, bundle up and enjoy an outdoor concert...the options are limitless.

So don't let the half-priced holidays get you down: make it a full-on, 100 percent, frugal-on-the-gifts, but  lots of love in your heart holiday season.