Keeping it Simple

Every Christmas since 4 years ago, I wonder how we will handle it as a family.  Will we change our original plan of attempting to go "gift-free"?  Or will we go back to what we used to do?  Without even thinking about it, really, we have decided to keep it simple and you won't catch me anywhere near a mall at Christmas. 

It has actually been the easiest decision.  The kids don't even flinch.  One of the youngest boys, however, had just been a little tot when we first made the decision and really didn't know about it or how it came to be.  I had to walk him through the whole thing after we came back from a store a few weeks ago.  We had been in the store and he had been wandering around on his own.  He found the toy aisle and was admiring all the toys.  An employee walked by and said, "Are you going to put that on your Christmas list?"  He started thinking.  I can just imagine the thoughts swirling in his head, "You can do that?  You can make a Christmas list?!  Awesome!"  So he came to me and basically said just that, "I'm putting that toy on my Christmas list!"  "Uh....there's a bit of a problem with that....we don't actually make Christmas lists anymore....sorry!"  He wasn't too pleased.  At first.  But that led me to walk him through the whole story.  He had never heard it!  Once I explained it to him, he was immediately on board.  Once again, I was shocked.  None of the kids have given me grief at all about our decision.  They all understand.  There is no coercion.  Even I am a little surprised!  I always feel like an awful mom until I hear myself describe what a nutbar I used to be at Christmas, how I could never really enjoy the season because I was always stressed about money, budgets, overspending, what to buy, when I would go, who would watch the kids, had I bought enough, should I buy more, what about this child, what about that child, was it even steven?  I could go on and on.....I explained to him, "You need a sane, healthy mommy and this way you get to do all the fun things and your mommy stays happy, too!"

So that's what has happened this year again.  We've done so many fun things, lots of great Christmas-y field trips, art classes, skating, sledding, baking, decorating....all on a fairly low-key budget and on top of it, I'm happy!  In fact, everyone is!  I think that is why we have buy-in.  We don't ignore Christmas.  We love Christmas and fully embrace the joy that this season can bring. The younger girls have been busy making gifts for friends and family as a different activity this year.  I've been busy doing the same.  It's been really fun!

Last night, however, the kids got in the Christmas gift-giving spirit and wanted to do something for their siblings.  How could they do that without shopping?  So the younger 4 suddenly went nuts and ran all over the house looking for little treasures in their rooms that they thought their other siblings would want.  It turned into a gift-wrapping extravaganza.  They wrapped and wrapped all night.  I didn't stop them.  Was it messy?  Yes.  Did they waste meters and meters of tape and wrapping paper?  Yes.  But I have no problem with that kind of mess or that kind of gift-giving.  It was easy to clean up and it was pretty cheap paper to begin with.  To be clear, I am not against giving gifts.  I am against being forced to buy so many for one day only.  My daughter's birthday is this week.  It is easy to buy for one child!  I just can't do the shopping for 8!  So, my tree now has all sorts of little messily-wrapped gifts under it.  They were so excited though that they started opening some of them right away.  Why wait?

My other "family" that we adopted last year, that lived with us on and off, will be over this week.  The mom wanted to exchange gifts, so last year we picked names, and we did buy gifts for their family and vice versa.  I had my kids do all the shopping.  It was again too much for me to think about.  This year, I told her, I didn't want to do that again.  But she loves shopping, loves spending money, loves gifts and giving gifts!  She insisted that we strike a deal.  We settled on stockings only.  I told her there was no way I could fill stockings for 18 people.  She saw my turmoil and said that she would do the stockings if I did the meal.  It probably ended up costing the same anyway, so we agreed and settled on that.  Whew!  Deal!

Of course I've still had to go to dollar stores or drug stores or grocery stores just to pick up regular items here and there.  It is a zoo out there!  I can hardly find a parking spot sometimes.  The line ups are crazy and things I need are inevitably often out of stock.  There is so much to love about this season, but there's definitely a downside.  Thank goodness for the daily reminders in our Bible reading and our weekly reminders at church that this season is not what the world thinks it is about, but instead about how Christ came to redeem us.  We need so much redemption!  And not just at Christmas time, all year!  Every day!  I truly love Christmas and I feel it has been redeemed for me from what it used to be like.  One day our tradition may change, but for now, we are completely at peace at simply being gifts to one another.