quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
At one point, I was just down to sending gift cards. Now, nothing. My kid and I made an agreement to stop giving gifts for any occasion. Its actually nice to be free of the whole ordeal and damn sure cheaper too.

I just plain stopped. It never even went down the order of sending Christmas cards.
My daughter wants cash so I give her that and she's the only one that gets anything.

My sister, her husband, my wife and I do not exchange gifts. We do give cash to the high school aged kids.

My wife's family all exchanges gifts with the three siblings and siblings in law.

Guess which family has a history of being financial fuck ups.

This year my family just agreed no lists, and a $25 limit. If you see something you think they will like, go ahead, but otherwise just donate to the charity you know they will like.

No more lists or gift cards. It was getting stupid

Ugh exchanging gifts ruins Christmas for me. I love the lights, the family, the food, etc.

All month of Christmas I spend thinking about what to get a family of people that buy whatever they want throughout the year so there’s never anything useful to buy them. It’s just my mom, dad, and brother we have no kids, grandkids, etc and I’m the youngest at 32.

I enjoy doing the Christmas tree things in the malls where they have a bunch of kids on there and what they want for Christmas, but I haven’t seen those around this year thanks to covid.

Yes, it’s easier said than done, but why not just suggest to the group that you all stop exchanging gifts, and leave it at cards if desired? Perhaps there are others who would be more than happy to concur, but are hesitant to be the ones taking the first step. And although I’ve never been a fan of “white elephant” gifts either, how about “Some silly thing that costs no more than $X” if it’s necessary to give something?

My family for the longest time pulled names out of a hat and you bought something for that person. That eventually went away and now we do "Dirty Santa".

For several years I've pushed that we all just give $25 a piece and put it in an envelope and let the eldest member of the family decide what charity the money will be donated to.

No one seems to like that idea.

I’ve never done it in my life. It’s about Christ, it’s not about YOU! Put your money where your mouth is, donate something to someone truly in need. Or do what I do when we aren’t in a Pandemic, volunteer. I loathe the marketing side of Christ. It’s downright shameful. The man burned on the cross for everyone, and so many are all about what they are going to get. Was his blood and sacrifice not enough for you? Yet every year, so many people are stressed out about buying x, y, and z, going broke and in debt. Marketing has them by the balls. Then it’s the stress of having to go to multiple households for food. Many of these people don’t even believe in God.

You got a hankering to get into the spirit. Find some people in your town, that are truly hard up, and do something for them. That will bring you more joy, helping good people that need and deserve it, than any gift card, china made widget you could buy at a store.

God be with you all. Remember Christ. Electricity wasn’t around back then, so the lights, the tree, etc, don’t mean shit next to that cross.

We stopped doing gifts for siblings and their spouses on my wifes side a few years ago, just do the kids. This year we convinced my sister that we would only do gifts for the kids. Both sides aren't hurting for anything so it really was a waste for the adults.