We definitely scaled back this year. We were mostly about gift cards (none exceeding $25) and stocking stuffers this year. The biggest gift I gave was actually an instant regift from a gift bag I won at the company Christmas party, which consisted of a really nice Stacy Hurricane pillar candle holder (page 2) and a set of 6 scented pillar candles to go with it, all from Bowring which I’ve never really had the money to shop at. (I also won a tin of gourmet cookies, but I kept those. :D)
Probably my biggest personal contribution to Christmas this year was The Monster Triple-Layer B-52 Cheesecake, which cost more to make than any single thing we bought.
The entire family scaled way back, too. Gifting this year was relatively thrifty – but that was fine. The bro-in-law’s stepkids got spoiled the most, which is as it should be.
It’s all good though. The gift exchange is always fun, but it’s really about the family and the food and the whole Christmas spirit and stuff, which was thick as it ever was.
My family has never been into extravagant gifts, and we really stick to immediate family. I got Hanukah/Christmas gifts for my boyfriend (for Christmas, a book and a necktie, and a Hanukah gift that I won’t post here because he may see it, and we aren’t celebrating Hanukah with the family until the weekend), Dad (a CD) stepmom (lovely handmade Peruvian scarf), half-brother (Borders gift card - 19-year-old boys are impossible to pick gifts for!), Mom (funky sheepskin purse), and boyfriend’s sister (handmade silver earrings). My sister and BIL are broke this year, so they asked everyone not to get them gifts because they aren’t in a position to reciprocate. But it feels weird not to get them anything at all, so I got my sister a cuteoverload.com calendar, and I will give my BIL either a pot of chili or a certificate for a pot of chili (he loves my chili). My 3-year-old nephew got a sled, and he is very excited to go sledding.
I also baked a couple of different kinds of cookies, and made up little gift bags of cookies and chocolates for my colleagues. These are always appreciated, and don’t cost much. All in all, I spent maybe $300, all cash. I can’t imagine going into debt for holiday gifts!
We don’t have any kids in the family so it was easy to scale back.
I can definitely afford gifts but my goal for this year was to be debt free by Christmas. I usually spend about $400 on Christmas, and then get about $400 in gifts…and the math was killing me. I didn’t want or need anything and no one in my family wanted or needed anything. Plus my bro/SIL shouldn’t be spending money right now. So I just declared it a “no gifts” Christmas.
I got tired of the “spend $10 on any old thing and we’ll do a Christmas grab bag” game we play with my dad’s family (I HATE useless junk) so I told everyone that instead of buying a $10 gift, bring $10 to the party and we’ll put it in a pool. Everyone picked a charity to play for and we played a dice game, the winner getting $100 for the charity of their choice. Everyone was totally satisfied with that and said they liked it way more than going home with some junk. We ended up giving $100 to the battered women’s shelter.
For our immediate family Christmas on Christmas day, my SIL made a lovely brunch and we hung out together with our dogs and just relaxed. My mom couldn’t bear the idea of no gifts so she was clever and raided her Christmas decorations and wrapped things up for us kids to take over. She gave me this crazy blinky snowmen I’ve always liked, my bro got some old Christmas records and a tape he made when he was 7, and my SIL got a little Christmas book my brother wrote when he was 8. Everyone got gifts for the dogs, and my mom and I made treats for them.
On Sunday we’ll go to mom’s family’s house and play games and eat another nice meal.
This year I also upped my monthly donation amount to the HSUS, gave money at church (I only go on holidays - I suck), and bought savings bonds for a coupla friends’ little kids.
All in all, Christmas has very relaxing and wonderful. I have eaten a lot of good food, spent a lot of time with family and feel very good about everything. I don’t miss gifts at all, and I haven’t heard any complaints from anyone else about missing gifts either.
I hope it continues this way
ETA: Oh, and I’ll be out of debt in 2 weeks. I’ll post about it then!
Oops, sorry. I should have said. I’m not a fan of Barbie, but I do like the AG dolls and stories; they’re always spunky girls who are dealing with various realistic friends and family issues and the current events of the day (we got the colonial girl from a revolutionary-minded family, whose best friend’s father is a royalist, and the Depression-era girl). Of course, AG is also a huge company looking for lots of profits, so there are zillions of very expensive accessories and clothes, but luckily my 8yo is of the opinion that home-made clothes are better, and the 5yo doesn’t care much. We did also get a hand-me-down horse (free! needed deodorizing and conditioning though), which is all the 5yo wanted.
Anyway, I think they’re a lot better than Barbie. And lets not even talk about Bratz! Where’s the barf smilie when you need one?
I bought gifts for my husband (2 books, a card game and a subscription to Games magazine) and my brother (a book of short stories). Everyone else got a bag of homemade goodies–caramel sauce, lemon curd, spiced pecans, and pickled onions.
It feels a little weird, because my parents, father-in-law, and brother-in-law got us really nice presents, and we didn’t reciprocate beyond the homemade stuff. I hope they don’t think it’s lame. On the other hand, my brother, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law are also watching their budgets and got us small things.
Did I mention it was cream cheese icing? And the chocolates were alternating Bailey’s and Kahlua-filled?
Would you like a bib?
(Yes, it was fully as awesome as it looked, though half a cup of liquor in each layer didnt’ really do enough to flavour them fully. I’ll have to try a full cup for each next time.)
We managed to give our kids a pretty big this year – they are 3 and 1, so we don’t spend a fortune on the latest video game system or whatever. And I did a lot of bargain shopping, bought almost everything either on sale or using a coupon. Daughter’s “big” gift was a wooden rocking chair that I bought at the craft store and painted myself, and Son’s was a crayola easel. That one wasn’t on sale but he’ll play with it for years, so it was a good investment. Everything else they got was really inexpensive. I got gifts for nieces and nephew at a going out of business sale, and made homemade candies for our parents. Hubby got pajamas and a couple of sweaters. In spite of the financial crunch (or maybe because of it!) this was one of the best Christmases we’ve had.
For the first time in my adult life, I didn’t exchange with my best friends. We’ve always exchanged, getting more and more expensive as more and more kids were born, so it feels weird to not do presents. In both cases, it was the friend putting the kibosh on exchanging and me acquiescing, but now that it’s done I’m realizing I saved a ton of money and I’m not unhappy about that.
You really need to PM me about hotels, are you freaking kidding me!?
No For the first time in my adult life, I could not afford a single present for anyone, not my parents, my boyfriend, or my baby nephew. Giving presents has always been my favorite thing about the holiday season, and this year I had nothing to give. I am the perfect example of the bad economy: laid off, broke, had to move back home with my parents at age 33, and whereas in years past I would spend $300-$600 for presents, this year I spent $0.
Same here. I managed to grab gifts for not only the immediate family, but for the grandparents and nephew, as well. Years past, I’ve maxed out at around $100 for everyone, but I think I doled out about $400 in gifts this time around. It’s been the first year in quite a few that I’ve actually felt the “season.” For weeks, everything has just put me into a really good mood, and for once, it really felt like Christmas. That definitely encouraged me to get out and do more, including shop.
For the first time in my adult life, I could not afford a single present for anyone, not my parents, my boyfriend, or my baby nephew. Giving presents has always been my favorite thing about the holiday season, and this year I had nothing to give. I am the perfect example of the bad economy: laid off, broke, had to move back home with my parents at age 33, and whereas in years past I would spend $300-$600 for presents, this year I spent $0.