Many of us are guilty of overloading our kids with Christmas presents. The money that goes out the window can be overwhelming once tallied up. I want to change it but I knew I couldn't do it "cold turkey" so I started small.
I didn't encourage lists to Santa. Instead I listened when they said they "wanted" something. I made notes and did research. The first step in getting Christmas "un"overloaded was to ONLY buy things they would use. As cute as those ZhuZhu pets are, and as many times as I heard "I want one", I knew it would be played with for 30 minutes and never touched again. Out also went the big shopping trip Chris and I would do that would yield 90% of the gifts in one night. Those tended to be impulse buys and many rarely got touched.
So I got myself a membership to Amazon Prime (honestly one of the best purchases I've made all year!). When the kids would go to bed I would research and shop. They love crafts so 3 got Shrinky Dinks. They love playing outside so all 4 got roller blades. We love playing games so all 5 (including Chris) each got a game. Work boots, color your own unbrellas, mp3 speakers, clothes and many more practical things made their way under our tree. Their stockings were filled with inexpensive "fun" items (like the funny head that grows grass hair...$1 at Michaels) plus stuff that I would have bought anyway (stretchy gloves, hats, toothbrushes).
As I put stuff away after the kids went back to school I realized how successful we were. Only one item hadn't been opened and that was because he needed help with the directions and we thought it would be nice to do on a snow day.
So we are partly "unloaded". Next year we want to focus on the extended family. We got sucked into the $100 grab again this year where we pull a name and spent $100 on that person. Everyone puts together a wish list and sends it out. We always struggle to put things on our wish list. We have always been fortunate enough that if we need something we just go out and buy it so our lists are usually very short and on occassion contain random items just so we have a list. And the lists we get usually aren't all that different. Many are just wish lists for gift cards. Yes, we are free to buy what we want and ignore the list but rarely does that happen.
So I have made a decision.....If I do opt to do the grab next year my wish list will contain things like "vaccines for 10 children", a "flock of chickens", a donation to XYZ charity etc. I think it might be worth the $100 I'd have to spend on a relative just to be able to send out my email that sends a different message than "I want". I may also decide not to participate but will try and find a way to show people that there are so many better options for their $100!
I think that will also be my focus next year with my kids. Moving things away from "them" and turning it to "others". A flock of chickens for one, honey bees for the next, dairy animals for the 3rd and maybe even a fishing boat for the 4th. And maybe if I'm lucky I will get the same gifts given in my name in return.
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