Last Year’s Gifts Create A More Relaxed Christmas
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Over the years, our family Christmas gatherings had been getting more and more overblown. The wife and I each come from fairly small families, so it wasn’t that we were buying for a ridiculous number of people. But for each of them, a number of not inexpensive gifts would find their way under the tree. In other words, far too many gifts costing far too much money.
Since we have finally come to the realization that more does not equal better, last year we scaled back our gifting giving quite a bit. It wasn’t a ‘just sock-n-underwear‘ Christmas by any means, but it also wasn’t a ‘hey, could you lend me a hand carrying all these boxes in?‘ one like in the past.
One gift we gave to our younger brothers and sisters on both sides last year was a copy of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, in an attempt to give them some alternatives before they ended up dealing with painful levels of debt. And they read it! My sister and fiance even went so far as to tell me that it has changed their lives. Never heard that when I was giving out, say, $200 DVD players… 
Needless to say, this year revealed much more subdued gift giving all around. And guess what? We had just as much fun, appreciated everything just as much, and had even more time just to enjoy everyone’s company. Amazing how that works… 
Hope you and yours had a Great Christmas!
Anne said,
Wrote on January 4, 2008 @ 11:18 am
I hear you. I come from a family of four and my husband came from the same until his mother’s death. His father’s remarriage led to another 4 step-siblings. This year we sat down and announced we couldn’t afford it anymore and decided to only purchase gifts for the kids. Even then, that was $500 gone in no time.
Mapquest said,
Wrote on January 6, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
Yeah, I can relate easily. We always been - ummm - budget conscious with our presents. And we always believed that the monetary value of the present is not what is important
Tony said,
Wrote on February 15, 2008 @ 7:29 am
Christmas has lots it’s true meaning, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ not necessarily a time to give and share.