I feel you on the gift-giving. Ours was never over the top, but it was still just too much, IMO. We FINALLY convinced mil that only our son and niece (her two grandchildren) were the only ones who should receive gifts. There was no reason for the adults to exchange gifts. She didn’t initially like it either, but she got over it, and I think she is now glad we abandoned that practice.
2 Likes
Regarding the gift exchange, that stresses me too. I am an only child. My husband has 3 siblings. They all have kids. The youngest just went to college. I would LOVE to stop the gift exchange. (They do it by branch of the family, and rotate each year).
Last year I suggested to my husband that he suggest to the branch of the family we were responsible for that we should donate instead of giving gifts. It worked well. COVID made it an easy sell. I hope we can do the same this year.
2 Likes
@1214mom I LOVE the idea of donating rather than exchanging gifts, especially as the kids are older. I did not even suggest that to H’s family though - it would have been a hard “no” for them.
1 Like
Last year, we had the 1st Thxgvg in over a decade with just us and both our adult kids. We loved it. We missed the extended family but we’re doing what was safest due to covid. We did the same for Christmas.
This year, we will wait and see how things evolve. My kids will likely fly to be with us for the Christmas holidays but no idea beyond that.
We’ve had a couple of years where we did “Christmas” in an entirely different month, like spring. We got a tree (you cut tree farm) and did the full house decor, we even invited our neighbors for the usual Christmas Eve party. It worked well, we all felt in the spirit.
3 Likes
Everyone was all alone last year, but had planned on having everyone at our OH house for Christmas this year, but due to Covid, I think we’re splitting up. The unvaccinated are coming to stay with us in OH, while the vaccinated, including my 88 yr. old mother, are flying to our AZ home. While somewhat riskier for us, it will be safer and easier for everyone else. Plus, I’m not afraid to break out some Covid test kits upon arrival.
Our extended family is all fully vaxed except those <12 who are too young. No one has said anything about holiday plans, so I suspect we are playing everything by ear. The folks who live outside HI generally fly in to be with their family in any case. We shall see.
I have to laugh. Many years ago I decided to not take down my Christmas tree. I decorated it for every holiday. There was Valentine’s, Easter, Saint Pats day and Fourth of July.
My daughter would never have anybody over during that time.
Don’t know why. What’s wrong with a holiday tree, doesn’t have to be just Christmas.
4 Likes
My kids had a tabletop tree in their room that we used as a nightlight for a few years when they were 3 to 5 years old. We decorated it each month with little trinkets or holiday themes - snowmen in Jan, valentines, St Pat’s, back to school, etc. The tree was white so it worked well.
2 Likes
Now that our kids, and our nieces and nephews are all adults, at Christmas we do a gift-card Yankee swap. We set a dollar amount, all generations can choose to participate or not, and people try to get gift cards for places one wouldn’t think of. We do get gift cards for Target and Dunkin Donuts, as well, but a certain local bakery or restaurant will generate excitement. It’s fun, and lets the generations have fun together. Granted, sometimes people miss (my mother in her 80’s at the time couldn’t get rid of the rock climbing gym card fast enough!), but it all works out (the BIL who wanted to rock climb and bought the card got card on exchange).
Also some get really creative in how they package and wrap their card.
3 Likes
I feel the same on the gift giving. With our family we just had all the adults pick a name and then they’d buy a gift for whomever they picked. It worked out well and it really helped cut down on the long gift opening session. We’re all older, we don’t need a ton of stuff. And while none of us is wealthy, we are all at the point in our lives where we can pretty much afford to get just about everything we need/want…
1 Like