Holidays changing for my family! YAY!

[Ruffian]

I have wanted to cut back on holiday gift giving for the past five years. Whenever I have broached the subject, I've always gotten blank looks and, "But we've ALWAYS done it this way!"

So what changed??? Everyone else, apparently ;). Both my niece and nephew have built new houses, my niece is due to give birth (her first) in December, my sister's income was threatened this fall.

So my Christmas list and cost has decreased a LOT!!! FINALLY!! I have always struggled this time of year, and I'm thrilled to be able to have the shopping done (we got lists this past weekend) by next week.

We still buy for 'the kids', but I put a self imposed cost limit on them a long time ago, so that is already accounted for, and will not change.

Has anyone had any success with cutting back with family?

[Jilly]

Yes, when I suggested it, it was easy, as everyone had probably been thinking along the same lines.

The only holiday problem child is me, the person who started it. Not all the time, but I still struggle with gifts for my grandsons and their mom and dad.

[Gardenarian]

Yes, dh and I each have four siblings and many nieces and nephews. We limit spending to a card (home-made) and a photo.
What a relief! We used to do the secret Santa thing, but I'm glad we stopped.

[catherine]

I've been trying to think of a themed Christmas to get people over the "have to spend money" hump--like all gifts have to be handmade, or performed, or something like that.

We have gone nuts on Christmas in the past, but now that the kids are adults, they also have financial responsibilities, and as THEY tell ME, the most important thing is us all being together. No need for ridiculous gift-giving. Time to put our money where our mouth is.

[razz]

We get together for a meal, give DGS a few gifts and some small token gifts in the stockings. Except last year when we won door prizes at every event we attended and chose items to give away to family members that we knew they could use.

[Ahh The Simple Name]

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Gifts

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[jennipurrr]

We don't do a ton of gifts anyway...but, I shared a link on FB about giving experiences instead of gifts, and we were together this weekend talking about it. We are going to try to do that instead of gifts. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited!