We have always been a Thrifty family, but this year we had a few financial setbacks. We decided to spend this Christmas focusing on doing nice things for each other, and making gifts by hand, rather than spend money on presents. I have to say, this is probably going to be the most sentimental Christmas we have ever had. I think we can sometimes lose track of what the holidays are really about when we are drowned in society's expectations that we be consumers first. My kids will not be getting much to unwrap this year, but they will have fond memories. I'm thankful that I have children who understand the value of what we are doing, and when I asked them what they got for Christmas last year, they couldn't remember. So I feel good knowing that although times are tough, we have a lot to be thankful for.
I agree that we can easily lose track. It sounds like it will be a nice Christmas for you and your family. It's beautiful that you can all agree on it, and still enjoy the holiday. If you're making things for your kids, and you want them to have something to unwrap, you can always get creative with the wrapping, using up newspaper, old magazine pages, fabric scraps, grocery bags, etc. Reusing things in great, creative ways is a fun way to save money.
The one assumption most people make is that kids will not appreciate a hand-made gift. I remember reading a story about a father who'd carved something for his son because he had no money to buy any gifts from stores and was ashamed of giving him what he'd made because relatives had bought his son a number of expensive gifts. The son however insisted that his dad should give him his gift. And when he did, guess what the boy said? This is the best gift I've ever got, dad. Kids don't mind much what gift they get, as long as they get something.
Here's a short comment that I hope get people to thinking about the word present: I'm just glad I am "present" to be with my family and friends [lover or to love; that's what it etymologically means]. People who are far off from their family and friends during holiday times or special celebrations, understand what context I am using present as.
I agree and my family definitely is a harsh reminder of how we lose track. Last year I had NO MONEY. I drew my brother's name for a secret santa thing and instead of buying him a present I made him cookies. My girls ate them before I could give them to him and my mom and my other brother gave me crap for it. Saying it was pretty thoughtless of me to forget. I told them I didn't forget I just felt ashamed that for one I didn't have money, and two the girls ate his present. Luckily my brother was more understanding and didn't really care.
I don't really lose track of what they are about. They just don't mean much to me because I don't have much of a family. All I really want for Christmas is a decent job. Too bad you can't wrap that in a box. There are a few material things that it'd be nice to have or could use but there's not much items since I bought a lot of what I wanted. These days I like it more when I can get experiences but again you can't really wrap those in a box and vacations are expensive. I guess I am hard to please but at least I don't care about owning a crap ton of stuff right? In fact I wish I could get rid of some of my junk.
When I was a kid I know I would have not wanted anything other than my favorite toys for Christmas but now looking back I can appreciate the effort a lot more than the gifts themselves, although I'm sure if I were in that state I'd still want nothing else other than my toys. However, I think I would have been more easily persuaded to let it go if I felt my family was treating me well and fair so if your kids understand that then you are probably doing something right despite the financial shortcomings.
My husband and I don't lose track of what's important either. Last year's Christmas was our first year officially out of college and into the "adult" jobs and being out on our own, so money was tighter than you'd usually expect. That year we decided to make our own presents (we made sugar scrubs and bath bombs for the ladies and snacks/food for the men), which we had a TON of fun doing (though our kitchen smelled like 20 different scents afterwards haha). Everyone enjoyed the gifts and there was no complaints! However, this year since we're doing better financially we have decided to buy things for people. We know we won't be able to do it every single year but we try to splurge during the holidays on family members when we can.
This reminds me of the year when we moved to an apartment from my husband's ancestral home. It was not planned. We were forced to move because we had an altercation with my husband's sister. That Christmas, we were financially down and all we had was each other, that's a romantic Christmas. But seriously, we couldn't afford to let Christmas pass without the gifts so what we did was to take out a loan for that purpose. Fortunately, we were able to repay the loan by March of the following year.
