Just say no to Christmas gifts

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

Brandi Apana — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:54:01 GMT

When my daughters were small, I could not afford to buy gifts, so I went to Woolworths and bought glaced fruit and made 25 lbs of fruitcake. I sent some to every member of the family and it became a tradition. They loved it.

Since then I have crocheted blankets, scarves, etc.

This year I am going back to making the gifts. I enjoyed it much more and it was appreciated. I even found some cute animals to crochet for my youngest grandson.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

Brandi Apana — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:54:00 GMT

Since then I have crocheted blankets, scarves, etc.

This year I am going back to making the gifts. I enjoyed it much more and it was appreciated. I even found some cute animals to crochet for my youngest grandson.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

Rachel in Kentucky — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:51:09 GMT

DGreene, I have come to the realization that my gift giving is out of control too. I buy for my parents, my siblings, their families, their partners, one aunt, my parents' elderly next door neighbor, my kids, my husband (including a gift from each of the three kids and one from the cat), my SIL, my ILs, and all the nephews and nieces on that side too. I think all told I have spent upwards of $1500 this Christmas. Next year I'm cutting them all off except for the kids. But I do console myself that even though my gift-giving is out of control, my mother's is even worse - she buys a gift for the neighbor's cat!

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

mridul1111 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:43:07 GMT

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re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

John — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:24:13 GMT

Reading some of these posts I can completely understand why so many people are in financial trouble. Christmas isn't about buying anything. Why does Christmas mean buy, buy, buy to so many people. Is Christmas a waste of time if you can't afford to BUY someone a gift? How about this, don't buy anyone anything and see if you can understand what Christmas is about. I don't need anything for Christmas. I only want a Healthy family. If you have your health then you should be greatful and help others who don't. Stop supporting the corporate greed that has completely distroyed basic values becasue the way things are going none of us will have enough money to buy food and shelter.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

miranda — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:10:37 GMT

my son and i purchase/donate one item through heifer international and print cards with our families' names on them. we present the cards as the gifts, in essence donating in that person's name to a family that is much much less fortunate then any of us are. heifer international allows donors to select a type of live stock, poultry, goats, sheep, cows, etc and it gets donated to a family in a country that can raise those animals to sell the fur/eggs/milk for their needs. we stopped doing the "what to buy for the person that has everything" thing years ago. xmas has become far too consumerist for our liking, and he's only 12. so the concept of "needing" to buy something for the children isnt accurate. we can teach our kids to donate and to do something to help the people in the world that dont even have enough food for a xmas dinner, let alone frivolous gifts.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

Paul — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:45:25 GMT

Have done it the last three years with wife and 3 grown up children....very liberating.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

Elaine — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:00:45 GMT

My family stopped exchanging grown up gifts about 7-8 years ago. Instead of trying to find the perfect gift for someone who really doesn't need anything, we pool the money we would have spent and give it to a needy family. We always do this on Thanksgiving so that the family will have time to shop for Christmas. And, we do still buy for the small children. If you want a blessing, be a blessing.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

AJ — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:24:44 GMT

I absolutely LOVE Christmas! It is my favorite time of the year. I love everything about it, decoration my house, spending time with my family, making special treats, having a wonderful dinner and giving & receiving gifts.

My husband & I both have decent jobs; however in this economy there is always the chance of a lay-off – especially if people don’t spend money this Christmas. The only way to stimulate the economy is to get money flowing through it again.

That said, I do intend to me more careful this year than in previous years. For the first time in many years I plan on using cash not credit for my Christmas shopping. I wish that I had been more prudent with spending for the last few years, but I have managed to dig myself out of most of my credit card debt and I have cash in the bank to spend.

Yes – that will leave me a little lean if something happens in the next few months, but it really is worth it to me.

I have 3 siblings, all with spouses, and as we have all had children we have changed our gift giving to each other. We used to all buy for each other when we were single, and my sister and I did a stocking for everyone also. As we all got married, we started to pick names, one ‘big’ gift (between $50 - $75) and a stocking ($30-$50).

As we started to have children we cut back further, so now we pick a name, and we do a stocking for that person for $50. We now include my Mom & step-Dad in this also. We all love it, we have some general guidelines as to what is a ‘stocking’ present, it doesn’t have to ‘fit’ in a stocking, just has to be a stocking type of item. So no sweaters, but a scarf is ok. We all try to get something that is around $20 – and as many other things we can get for the other $30 – that is not junk . It is fun and you have to think about what you are doing, and really know the person you are shopping for. The goal is for them to like and use what is in the stocking – things that will just get tossed, or end up in a yard sale shouldn’t be purchased. We pick around Halloween so we have plenty of time.

We do all buy for the kids in the family, and to me there is nothing like watching kids open presents on Christmas. It gets harder as they get older, but we try and limit the kids gifts to $25 - $35 (I have 6 besides my own to buy for).

My son is 15, and certainly doesn’t ‘need’ anything – but that is not what buying him gifts is about for me. In the past, I certainly bought things just for the sake of having more gifts under the tree – not so much because he expected it, but because I loved to buy gifts. It is really the one time of the year that I like to shop.

I try and pick things up throughout the year, but I do most of my shopping at this time of year. I go out with my sisters the day after Thanksgiving and we have a ball – I have never had a problem. Sometimes you don’t get everything you have on your list, but you can get some great bargains, and we love to be together.

If you have no idea what to buy for someone – you don’t know them well enough to be giving them a Christmas gift.

When my entire family was a little more ‘flush’ we used to adopt a group home for Christmas, and we always tried to get them as much as we could that they actually wanted. I wouldn’t buy something for someone else that I would not buy for someone in my family (ipod for a 6yr old – no way!) but if all there friends have things – why should we be offended if they ask for ‘expensive’ things.

You don’t know the family’s situation - there are people that may have been fine a year or so ago, and are not now – that is very difficult for kids to process, and I always want to get them the thing they really do want – not the practical things.

My Mom got hurt a few years ago, and no longer works, my sister’s husband just got laid off, my other sister’s husband took a pay cut a few years ago to get out of the financial industry and they have struggled ever since, my brother opened his own business right before the economy took a nose-dive, so they are not exactly in great shape either – but if I ever feel I can’t afford to buy a gift for a child off the giving tree – then I had better be buying nothing for my family either, in other words, my son & my family have a lot, regardless of the tight financial situation this year, and I know that there are many people that have a whole lot less than we do – I will always find a way to buy something for someone else, if that means putting something back for my son because I am running out of money – that is what I will do.

re: Just say no to Christmas gifts

Annie — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:35:48 GMT

I always make edible gifts for a lot of people, but my husband is an artist, so everyone gets handmade Christmas cards, which, collected over the years, makes

a great collection of gifts that mean something. I am from a large family, so we draw names(even our mother draws from that pot), inlaws included. All of our children, who are mostly grown do a name draw for their cousins, also. they love that.

I made my son, who is living on his own for the first time since getting out of the service a cookbook - copies of all his favorite recipies that I and his Mimi have made over the years. i very seldom spend much on Christmas gifts, and try to do some shopping year round, but I often can't remember where i put the gifts when the season rolls around! We do send Hallmark series collectables every year to our two grandchildren. they love those, and that's only about $10-$15/child. I send checks to my mother-in-law and mother as donations to their churches, because they have everything else and then some, and are always happy to have me give to their churches.