It seems I am not alone in drastically cutting back my Christmas spending this year, most PF bloggers have decided to rein in the spending this year. And we seem to have mixed reasons for this. Aside from the fact that money does,nt grow on Christmas Trees.
No1) Christmas it too commercial.
No2) I could be putting the money to debt repayment.
No3) The country is in economic chaos, so we are holding on to our savings.
No4) I may lose my job next year, what,s round the corner for us.
No5) I,m flat broke ( my reason )
No6) All of the above.
What ever your reason for cutting back you may be up against some resistance from family and friends who perhaps have never seen this side of you, especially those of us who are just starting this journey. I decided to be brutally honest about who I was buying for how much I was willing to spend on my gifts and why some people will be doing without this year. If these are true friends and understanding loving family members, then they will understand, and we will have just as awesome a Christmas as we usually do.
POSITIVE THOUGHTS
I received my first Christmas Card today, from an ex-neighbour, when I lived in Scotland, she had told me in her card last year that her Son and his wife had been told they may never conceive, and how heartbroken they all were. So imagine my surprise and delight to open the card and inside was a picture of the baby who was never meant to be, or maybe I should say the baby who was always meant to be. Enjoy your First Christmas Grace xx
How wonderful about the BABY!! Doctors aren't infallible and we need to keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteWe are calling Christmas "unChristmas" this year:) and are concentrating on the things we are to "do" instead of what we want to "get". So today Michael and Kazi are starting to clean the house from top to bottom (this was one of those few Monday mornings when I was GLAD to hop out of bed at 5:45am and get to work!!) Then on Saturday I noticed Michael had written on the calendar "Christmas tree adventure" - for the first time ever we are going to go chop down our own Christmas tree. I am looking forward to a "fun" Christmas rather than a heavily FUNded Christmas. And you're right - those who truly love us will understand and who knows - others may follow our lead!
I'm in camp #1. Too commercial, and I generally DON'T spend on Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with number 6. But I have a confession, I've spent more this year but the extra dollars were for others in need, so I feel good about it. ( I'll be over by 100.00).
ReplyDeleteI am so with you!!! I am actually in all 6 ;) haha..
ReplyDeleteI am getting a bit anxious & I don't like it one bit!
I know how you feel but the truth is christmas has always been about what you make of it. take away the lights and decorations, strip away the glitz what it left is how you perceive the holiday. In the end its what you make of it that makes the holiday special. Take what you will from my night musing.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely NO. 1. I'm just not that into it...although I do like getting Christmas cards..the ones that people actually write something, though, not the ones that are stamped with the people's names.
ReplyDeleteThe news about the baby is awesome!!!
Being up against resistance isn't the half of it. When I approached my MIL about exchanging a book or a cd or a dvd (as we have done in the past 3 years), she told me that she felt we should be giving gifts "from the heart" and obviously she didn't consider those gifts as such.
ReplyDeleteEveryone else has enjoyed doing this, but it is ending because she wants it to end. The thing is this: we really went out of our way to look for a particular book that she liked and everyone in our family loved the books that we received in return and loved this type of gift exchange.
I think we are doing Christmas like we usually do, but we usually don't go all crazy. I really like focusing on time spent together at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteWhat great news about the baby!
I always have maintained that the weak need protection from these sort of dressed up respectable sharks that prey on the weak. ppi
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