![]() ![]() “We want to make sure they’re not getting too much junk,” Deckard says. They coordinate with grandparents and other relatives, so that if someone else in the family is buying one of the boys a jacket, for example, the parents will get him socks or underwear. She and her husband decided several years ago that they would buy each of their three boys only four gifts every year: Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. But buying fewer things may be better for your children, says Andrea Deckard, a mother of three boys in Cincinnati and author at Savings Lifestyle. Some families find it easy to limit gift-giving among adults but still want to make their children’s holidays magical. Her friends draw names for a Secret Santa exchange, and they have the added bonus of enjoying the get-together where they exchange the gifts. Not only did she save money, she discovered that she had more time available to spend with her family since she wasn’t out shopping. She suggested to her four siblings several years ago that they quit giving each other holiday gifts and concentrate on their parents and older relatives. “I think that the gift-giving process is a toll on all three of those things.” ![]() “It’s all about time, money and energy,” says Stefanie O’Connell, author of The Broke and Beautiful Life. Consider alternatives to buying Christmas presents, or at least setting a spending limit. Most will be relieved and consider the time saved an even more valuable gift. Talk to your friends and family about gift-giving and see if they agree it’s time for a change. Someone has to take the initiative and suggest a change in holiday traditions. Do any of your friends really want another scented candle? Do any of those people really want or need any more stuff? Yet, every year, we all rush around and struggle to find the time and money to buy useless things we can’t afford for people who don’t want them. While you’re looking at family traditions, take a closer look at the rest of the people you buy gifts for: your co-workers, your college roommate, the neighbor who invited you to a holiday open house. We also gave up exchanging birthday gifts, unless we find something that’s just perfect. Some buy gifts for children and spouses and some don’t. The truth is, no one in my family needs 37 gifts. Add in a few more holiday birthdays, children’s teachers, co-workers and friends, and we were headed for the poorhouse, not to mention spending way too much time in stores. The year my brother was seven, he wrapped up a bag of M&Ms for me.īut, as time passed, my sisters and brother married and had children, and suddenly we had 37 people coming for Christmas. Because five of us had birthdays in December or early January, we also bought five birthday gifts.īuying 11 or 12 gifts, plus another handful for friends, didn’t seem so bad. When I was growing up, each of the six siblings in my family bought each other and our parents a Christmas gift. Holiday traditions are important to many people, but you may find that your relatives are happy to stop exchanging Christmas gifts, especially as the family grows. They’ve had a good time traveling the world through food.” (See our article on Thoughtful holiday gifts on a budgetfor more ideas like this.) “We’ve been introducing them to different foods all over the city. “It was such an exotic experience for my parents, and they loved it,” she says. The first year she took the family to an authentic Chinese restaurant in New York City’s Chinatown. “We’ve enjoyed going out and hanging out and enjoying different cultures and cuisines,” she says. Her brother has since joined her in financing the outing, which the family looks forward to every year. Instead, she would take the family out to dinner at her expense. Several years ago, after realizing she had blown a substantial bonus on gifts people had long forgotten, she told her parents, brother and sister that she was no longer going to buy Christmas gifts for them, and she didn’t want them to buy her anything, either. “I just gave up altogether,” says Sandy Smith, a human resources professional in New York City who blogs at Yes, I Am Cheap. Some Americans are saving money and sanity by changing their gift-giving traditions and, in some cases, taking the surprising step of eliminating gift-giving entirely. As the holiday gift-giving season approaches, we often are filled with a sense of dread: How will we ever find the perfect gift for everyone on our list, have the time to finish our shopping and come up with the money to pay for all the stuff we need to buy? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |