<p>Last year my siblings & their spouses & my parents all decided we would not buy each other gifts any longer! But these 3 couples still give our 4 children Christmas cash, makes it very simple! Our children are the only grandchildren on my side of the family. </p>
<p>This has made the holiday rather stress free for me & my spouse, only having to buy a few things for our 4 children. With two in college now & aging vehicles we are very cash conscious of course. Our Christmas Day we have all made different things for the meal & most everybody stays in their pajamas until around noon! It is just a chance to be together for the day & the presents are no longer the focus! </p>
<p>I gave up doing Christmas cards (always trying to get a perfect photo was stressful!)
And no more school photos to mail to relatives either (wallets & other sizes). I mailed school photos out at Christmas time for 20 consecutive years! </p>
<p>We make a point of donating to the local food pantry as well.</p>
<p>Several years ago I quit buying gifts for all non-family (except for one close friend). Now I bake for everyone. One year I sent biscotti; last year I made fleur de sel caramels. (Not exactly baking; they were so good I must have gained five pounds eating them.) I don’t know what I’ll do this year. (Ideas? Needs to be easily mailable.) </p>
<p>The first year we moved from SoCal to PA I made everyone grapevine wreathes with vines from our property. It made me so happy to be able to share a little bit of our new life with old friends that way.</p>
<p>Pajama pants, socks, gloves, hats, grooming stuff like toothbrush/paste,shower gel, etc. Candy and gum, small hand held games, playing cards, gift cards, small flashlight.</p>
<p>S shops with me. He’s 14 so he has a good idea of what to get. It also helps remind him that some kids have so little that they can use even essential things that we take for granted.</p>
<p>We’re somewhat limited by the size of the shoe boxes, but I try to cram in as much as I can.</p>
<p>Oh… I forgot about baking! My mom starts baking at about Thanksgiving and we send cookies all over the world to our friends and family. My mom’s family lives in England and Spain, my dad’s family lives in Chicago and California, and we all have friends and family stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. She loads up Christmas tins (bought cheaply at the dollar store) and sends them. It’s nice especially for cousins that are constantly changing tastes and sizes. Everyone likes cookies and russian tea cakes :).</p>
<p>With regards to sending food- please send them something from where you’re at, not where they’re at!! My aunt and uncle from Chicago send us stuff from Zingerman’s (a food place in Ann Arbor) every year… we live 20 minutes from there! Send us something from Chicago… Cheesecake Factory, anyone?</p>
<p>We host brunch and invite all friends and family. It ends mid afternoon with a board game for those who want to play. Some years we only have 5-6, other years over 20 people show. There is the cost of buying the food, but you can offset by asking folks to bring a baked good. </p>
<p>We have delivered meals to shut ins on xmas in the past before we had kids. It was gratifying to know that we had helped make it a better day for some.</p>
<p>Don’t crucify me - Just trying to lighten things up. Not a big fan of the whole Christmas extravaganza, other than everyone in the family getting together.</p>
<p>We try to emphasize experiences instead of things…like theatre tickets…this year, my gift to H will be a dinner (or two) at a really great restaurant. Because nobody needs another sweater…</p>
<p>Ahh, unfortunately mythmom, those are not the ones I remember from my childhood, those are what we called mexican wedding cakes or petticoat tails. The russian tea cookies I remember were a very rich butter cookie, rolled thick, cut into diamond shapes and then topped with cinnamon sugar and chopped pecans. Something along those lines, but there was something else in the topping and I have never found a recipe for the ones I remember. Our neighbor, an old Russian woman, used to make them.</p>
<p>Several years ago we went to the name-drawing plan for the extended family. I tried to talk them into doing what I called “The True Meaning of Christmas Christmas” where instead of buying a gift for the person, we would make a charitable donation in their name. No dice. </p>
<p>When D was little, we used to do treasure hunts for one or two of her gifts. I’d write out clues on index cards. The first card would be wrapped and put under the tree, and she always had fun chasing the rest of the clues around the house until she found the gift.</p>
<p>We used to do the “treasure hunt” with our son as well! He is the one in the family who could always tell what the gift was just by shaking or holding the package, so we’d do it to keep the suspense going, especially if it was a big gift, as he might have fewer to open. The year I remember best was when he found his electric guitar in our shower after several clues, cleverly written by big sister. </p>
<p>Christmas at our house is largely about showing our appreciation for one another and our extended family. There are many ways to do that besides gift-giving, although helping the kids come up with appropriate token gifts to give to their grandparents and others is important to us. </p>
<p>The care that our son took in finding the perfect photograph taken on a hiking trip with his dad, processing and framing it, meant a lot to DH. My daughter made a CD of interesting music one year to listen to in the car, along with written commentary so dad could be cool and learn something about what young people are listening to. One of my all-time favorite “gifts” from her to me was the year she woke up very early on Christmas morning and washed all the dishes from our large party the night before. Priceless.<br>
I love the holiday because it’s time set aside to focus primarily on sharing our love for one another.</p>
<p>Our family has always had Christmas at home, rarely traveling for the holidays except when the kids were little and we went to my parents home a couple of times (a 5 hour plane ride). </p>
<p>We make a big deal of decorating the tree (telling oft-told stories behind some of the ornaments). We open presents one by one in the morning, eat dinner at 3 and then go to the movies. A quiet family time…</p>
<p>One of my friends has a big family in the neighboring county and she and her family have always gone to one of the sibling’s house for Christmas day. On a holiday, it can be a 2 hour drive, leaving the house early with little kids in the car. Finally, her H said NO MORE–Christmas Day was such a hassle and the family wasn’t making its own Christmas traditions. Now they stay home most years and only occasionally joins in in the big family to-do. They are much happier…</p>
<p>On Christmas Eve, it is just the five of us. The kids get to request what they want for dinner, and then we watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and one other Christmas movie (White Christmas, Elf, etc). We open one gift each.</p>
<p>Christmas morning we open all the other gifts. I hate shopping so my husband buys items that he knows the kids need. In the afternoon, the kids go outside and play soccer or volleyball; in the past, we used to put on a concert at a convalescent hospital. The kids no longer play their instruments but perhaps this year my husband and I will put on a mini-concert somewhere (guitar/harp).</p>
<p>Then it’s Christmas dinner. We have my mom, sisters and their families over, plus single friends who don’t have anywhere else to go for Christmas. I give handmade gifts to everyone (usually fiber-related but last year I made photo cards). We sing Christmas carols and chat. </p>
<p>We try to do something special for someone outside our family (i.e. sponsor a child through AngelTree, buy an ox or build a well for a village in a developing country).</p>
<p>Making the leap from buying gifts to making gifts has really helped me enjoy the holidays more. I love the coupon idea, too!</p>