Today's post is in regards to Christmas Gift Giving and Receiving. As most of you know my immediate family is small- It's me and the parents and our clan of dogs (3 of 'em)- and having a small little family has always equated to having a big Christmas. I was an only (still am) growing up so my presents came in abundance- that's what I've always been used to. Whatever toy or gadget I put on my list to Santa, I usually got it. When I got older, naturally I got less because the things I wanted started to become more expensive, but I usually still got what I longed for.
This year is a little different. There won't be a bunch of wrapped gifts under the tree for us to open on Christmas Eve as a little family. I mean, we'll have gifts, just not as many or as extravagent. Why?
#1: My parents don't have the fundage to spend on silly gifts.
#2: I don't have the fundage.
#3: I don't have the fundage because, with regards to #2, I spend it all thorughout the year. Damn.
Listen- don't think I'm being stingy and selfish. I don't care about the gifts. Wanna know what I love most and will miss the most? LOL- Unwrapping shit. It's the funnest thing to sit around with my parents as we take turns opening gifts- it usually lasts a good hour or so and my Dad usually has something hilarious to say about each thing Mom and I get him...I guess we could wrap up random things around the house. (Actually, I think I'll do that as a gag!) I also feel shitty because I really want my mom to have an elliptical machine- a NICE one. She's wanted one for a few years and I always tell myself I'll save up enough money to get her one...FAIL.
I realize some people get NOTHING for Christmas. This isn't my point. My point is: you know how you get used to certain traditions and things being the same- and then it has to change? That's my point. It's just weird. I've never really been affected by "the economy" before and I wanted to share because people must feel the same way- Cutting Back. (And when I say economy I mostly mean my absurb spending throughout the year. haha. Whatever.)
I'd be a damn liar if I said getting e-mails with discounts for this and that from every single store ever in existance and reading blogs with people's Christmas loot, didn't make me pissed off.
That being said- I want to know what your Christmas gift giving/receiving is like.
If you have kids, do you set a price limit?
If you're married with no kids, how do you and your significant other give gifts?
If you're not giving gifts this year for one reason or another- what other traditions do you do for Christmas?
I'd love to hear everyone's little blurb about their Holiday tradition when it comes to gift giving and how you determine when enough's enough for your children/family/husband/Mom etc. I promise I won't be (too) pissed at you for telling me you're getting a fabulous trip to
....and remember the most important thing about the holidays is the time you get to spend with family and friend's. At least for me. Even a spoiled brat like me knows THAT. ;-)
13 Comments:
It used to just be a free-for-all when we were kids (me & my brother), and seemed to be over so quickly. When we got older I pulled everyone back & would hand out one gift to each person at a time (so it would last longer and so I could truly see everyone's reaction & what they would get). Now a lot of times I feel giving gifts is a chore, especially for the adults. It's like, I'm just buying something for them because I HAVE to, you know? I don't mind buying gifts for my niece & nephew (although I think they get too much and don't really appreciate anything) but a lot of the times I feel like I'm wasting my money on the adults in my family. I never have enough money to buy what I would really want to. As for me...well I love getting gifts but want that reciprocation, you know? So this year I had told everyone not to buy me anything, because I was seriously broke with not working & was only going to buy gifts for the niece & nephew. But now that I have a job (although I haven't started yet) I might buy some small gifts for the adults.
well, my gift-giving list is small - I just buy for my parents, my little brother (even though he's a punk and hasn't bought me a gift for anything ever, but that's another story), my boyfriend, my two best friends, and my grandma. Christmas is always very resonable at my house - we all get gifts, but it's nothing outrageous - I probably spend about $75 each on my family and about $150 on my boyfriend, and I would say my parents spend a couple hundred on me. My dad has 8 sisters though, all of whom are married and have kids, and some of them are married and have kids - so for his family we just bake everyone cookies and make candies.
Tyler and I do "fantasy presents". We set a cap (last year, $2K, this year, $5K), and we find presents that we would buy each other, if we had a random $5K floating around that had to only be spent on spoiling the other :)
We print out the pictures, and put them in our stockings, so Christmas morning is spent looking at our pictures. Its silly and sweet and lots and lots of fun!
http://mrs-in-training.blogspot.com/2010/01/presents.html
http://mrs-in-training.blogspot.com/2010/01/presents-part-2.html
I buy for my husband, mum, dad, sister and best friend. My husband buys for me, his mum, dad and sister and together we buy a little something for two of our good friends and their dog.
This year I am definitely spending less £ per person and have asked that my family rein it in a bit; they just love Christmas and get so carried away buying tonnes of presents! I didn't want to seem ungrateful but at the same time, most of it I don't want or need but have to act grateful for receiving... Does that sound bad? I don't want or need loads of "stuff" and it's that I've asked them not to go so crazy on, just one or two presents is good enough for me coupled with a family lunch on Christmas Day itself, a walk afterwards and a cheesy Christmas film in the afternoon :)
I buy for everyone and it gets way to $$...I am even sending gifts to friends and family I will not be seeing! So yes, it is very overwhelming...and I should stop but I just love giving gifts! As for gifts for me....I love opening but it is not something I need...but I LOVE giving!! So fun!
No kids in the families to shop for really. My sister and I usually just get eachother gifts for around $20. Hubby and I do things different every year; sometimes we spoil eachother, other times we don't get eachother anything and other times we set a limit. I guess it just depends on the current financial situation.
I have a small immediate family too so we usually just keep gifts to the group. This year, the nephew will get a gift, my sis and her hubby will get one gift and I haven't thought of my parents yet!
However, outside of them, I really limit my gift-giving to pretty much no one else - except my BF. And we're being practical this year, so I already bought him a pair of boots and I may drag him to Anthro to buy my something "practical."
On my side, we just give gifts to the kids and then make a donation to a charity for the whole family. We try to limit our presents to the kids because it gets too overwhelming. Of course, my husband and I exchange usually one larger gift.
Totally feel ya on the cutting back thing. After a big couple of weeks of spending at Anthropologie, I'm now on a spending freeze until Jan-Feb. My only saving grace is we are gifting each other $100 for Christmas... so I will most definitely be at Anthropologie! We set a limit for our 2 year old son-$100 on him as well.
My mom still buys for me...I'm an only child too and she tends to buy too much. I will say she is very practical - she normally gets me some cleaning gadgets and a gift basket with toiletries or a shampoo/conditioner set from Ulta. If she's brave she'll try for clothes and shoes and usually I'll get something frivilous like jewelry. I buy for her but usually it's something she's told me she wants. Other than that I buy for my best friend and the 3 children in our family.
I buy presents for my boyfriend ($100+ dollars), my mom ($100+ dollars), brother ($50), sister-in-law ($50), and then my grandma, two aunts, uncle, and three cousins. I usually don't spend more than $20-$30 on each of them.
I get presents from all of them, and we all spend Christmas together. On Christmas Eve, the "adults" fill stockings (I'm still considered a "kid," but I've started filling stockings) and then on Christmas morning our ritual is to open stockings first, then eat breakfast. Then we open presents one at a time. Someone is usually named the passer-outer.
I LOVE giving presents, and I love to receive them.
Our list has expanded in recent years what with my in-laws and my sister and I getting married. Now we're up to seven people (excluding Husband) that we exchange "real" gifts with and then another five that usually get a "group" gift from a few of us.
Typically Husband and I do joint gifts so we'll spend $50-100 on someone and it's from the two of us. That's a lot cheaper than each of us having to come up with ideas and spend money. Then we usually reserve the bigger gifts for each other because we feel bad asking anyone else to spend that much!
One thing we do that is kind of unusual is that we open presents on CHristmas Eve and then do stockings on CHristmas morning. We still go all out on stockings and they end up being more "mini gifts" from the person who is hosting Christmas (this year it's me. Yay!)
I was pretty lucky growing up...we didn't have crazy Christmas presents under the tree but there was always more than enough. I'm married now with no children (except our furry girls!). We do however have a lot of nieces and nephews...as in THIRTEEN! We shop for all the kids first (and our parents and siblings) and then get each other small gifts. We don't spend a lot on each other because we try to do as much as we can for all the kids. Our spare room looks like Toys R Us exploded every December! I could not receive a single thing and still be happy by seeing how excited our nieces and nephews get when opening our gifts. They make it 100 times more fun!