Friday, September 26, 2008
Christmas Thoughts
Kay, Pat, and I went out for coffee last night. We were talking about the upcoming Christmas season and the challenge of our current economy, especially with the number of family members who are currently full time students. Our thoughts were along the lines of not having our usual gift exchange among the senior and young adult generations. We were still thinking gifts for the kids (Ruth on down). We would like to celebrate in a meaningful way avoiding some of the emphasis on commercialism. What are your thoughts?
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6 comments:
That does sound like a good idea. Just getting together is fun. Some ideas I found on the internet would be:
-Handmade gifts (crafts or food)
-Attend an event as as group - (choir, concert, christmas lights, etc)
-White elephant gift exchange-each person brings a single wrapped gift under a pre-defined amount ($3 to $5) (pens, chapstick, decoration,etc). First person picks, second can steal that gift or pick a new one from the pile.
Try an internet search for "ideas to celebrate Christmas without gifts" and see what else you can come up with.
PS. Another money saving idea is to send electronic Christmas cards instead of mailed cards. You can make them printable in case someone does want to print them out. Plus, they can be personalized.
I like the idea of handmade gifts. Though it may be late in the game for that.
The white elephant gift exchange is done in our department at work. It can be fun.
How about instead of gifts we make a contribution to our favorite charity in the family's name. What ever you can afford. No one else needs to know how much. No upper limit, no lower limit Your church, your school, your animal rescue/shelter. =^..^= ()''o
I don't think I will go with email Christmas cards. I think Kay would miss the Peanuts gang cards I send.
While brainstorming at mom's, these are some more ideas that we talked about:
-Making a craft project (like wreaths).
-Taking individual family pictues and inserting them into a small ornament frame or a regular frame.
This would still provide everyone with an item to take home.
Jim's right, our handmade gift is almost finished. As long as we're scrapping the Christmas plans, why not give to a charity. I would like to give to the Gospel Mission homeless shelter. I know that when I didn't have any money, before meeting Sharon, I went there to eat. I remember a lady waiting to eat, she was very small and very scared, someone said "hi" to her, and her eyes got real big and she ran acros the hall, almost jumping over things to get in the farthest corner to hide. When I was on the Allocation Committee at the Greater Kalamazoo United Way, I would do my best to see that the Gospel Mission got it's share of United Way money.
How about keeping the people previously chosen for us, and going to their house as a family and giving them a present. Only snacks can be served to be worked out between the exchanging parties.
Volunteering together sounds kind of awkward, but something like cooking in a homeles shelter together for Christams could work.
The white elephant idea seems interesting especially if they are gag gifts.
We are still planning to celebrate Christmas together on the Sunday before just as usual. There have been many good ideas shared. We'll try to get a plan in place shortly.
In summary...The point of Christmas is to get together and celebrate as a family while reducing the financial burden. Handmade gifts are a great idea but unfortuanately some can be just as costly as a store bought presents. Charities are a great idea but it seems like it either has to be charites or gifts. Otherwise, the the cost is not reduced. Since gifts may already be planned or started, this year maybe we should stick to gifts. Maybe the answer for this year would be just to reduce the costs of the gifts. The emphasis will be on gathering as a family and not on the presents.
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