Cancelled Christmas!

[TheTexan]

Yes, I heard the term used a few years back and it just always stuck with me. It seems that many people are so concerned with giving the best gifts, they completely lose any true meaning in the Holidays, no matter what religion you practice, it should be a time for family gatherings and remembering things that are most important.

[PrincessPerky]

found a quote that seemed appropriate:
If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.

[Marcymox]

[QUOTE=Coleroo;138436]wow...

isn't christmas about love and sharing relationships? giving something material is just one single form of society showing love...theres thousands of other ways to celebrate the spirit of the holidays...homemade presents..time spent together..sharing a cooked meal...decorating... driving around to view the lights...

also, how does it sound to your kids when you say "oh, we have very little money - lets spend it all on ourselves and ignore others"? how is that a good learning experience for them? how about let them in on the fact that theres little money for outlandish "stuff" and encourage them to think of ways to give to family inexpensively instead of letting them be selfish and having mom and dad throw "crap" at them? QUOTE]


Oh gosh- well I was just thinking of this the other day. Last year was the first year that we "banned" present exchanges with the adults in our lives, -and chose to gift only children. This may have been bad now that I read your viewpoint

. It just seems to me that the adults in our lives have EVERYTHING- and it was getting alittle silly when we got to the point where we were exchanging gift cards. No one would agree to drawing names, doing homeade things, family gifts, so we just proposed ( and asked and begged) to just stop exchanging gifts with the adults. I don't see this as cancelling christmas, I see it as making a sensible choice.

But, I can see where it might be a bad message to send kids that we only buy for our immediate family ( and extended kids) and no we don't do any family volunteering over the holiday, and we don't do anything for anyone else either--
HOWEVER, that being said, I'm a girl scout leader, and my girls are girl scouts, and we spend a great deal of time giving to others the entire year, with monthly service and giving projects. I think that by only doing service at christmas, ( like the nursing homes) is a bit silly- people need goods and services and time all year long, not only at the holidays.

I disagree with your service and giving suggestion for the holidays, ( why not do it in June? in february) but I do agree that there might be something wrong with gifting only the kids. It was the best solution we could come up with at the time.

[thekid]

Thousands of dollars on birthday parties? Really?

Anyway, like many here said, not exchanging presents with extended familly does not mean "cancelling" christmas. Do you mean that you wont see familly during the holidays because no gifts are being exchanged?

This all seems rather odd.

[n_vizion]

My spouse and I have not purchased gifts for each other in a couple of years. Instead we have a large family dinner with relatives or something. Talk about less stress. This year we bought tickets to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Oakland Raiders!

Merry Christmas!

[cschin4]

nelson- Good idea. You have destressed and now you can get back to the real meaning of the holiday.

So, now, instead of focusing on the gifts, focus on your family. Create some new traditions for your family. Bake together. Go out and have a snowball fight. Spend an evening driving around and looking at Christmas lights. Have your kids make a shoebox of small toys for Operation Blessing. Rent some Christmas videos and play board games. It is amazing how much fun you can have and what that will really mean to your kids. When the presents are long forgotten, they will remember the warm feelings of your little traditions.

[Deelip]

I would never miss Christmas. Its not only about Gifts. Christmas can be celebrated even without gifts. We can just meet family relatives. We can simply celebrate Christs birthday.