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Christmas will be here in just four months. It looks as if Kat may be ready already, judging from her artwork (although I have no idea what happened to the Grinch's pants...)
I've been setting a few dollars aside from each of Shane's paychecks to cover Christmas expenses. This should make holiday shopping fairly stress-free, since we'll know exactly how much is available, and won't be tempted to put anything on a credit card.
Actually, Shane and I are considering not giving each other gifts this year. In the past, our gift giving to each other has amounted to asking each other to make a list and then buying items from them. What fun is there in that? Instead, we'll each spend a little money on ourselves buying things we wouldn't normally splurge on, or we'll get a family/household gift like a DVR. We may even wait until the after-Christmas sales kick in to do our shopping.
We will, however, still be buying Christmas gifts for a handful of other people, and of course, there will be gifts for Kat. However, both of our extended families have given up the tradition of exchanging gifts in lieu of simply sharing quality time and meals with each other, so our gift list is rather short. I plan to be done with shopping before Thanksgiving.
I've bought two gifts so far, both for Kat; I'd like to make a new fleece blanket (or perhaps a crocheted one) for her, also.
Have you started your shopping (or gift-making) yet? Are you usually finished with your shopping early in the season or do you wait until the last minute?
I've been setting a few dollars aside from each of Shane's paychecks to cover Christmas expenses. This should make holiday shopping fairly stress-free, since we'll know exactly how much is available, and won't be tempted to put anything on a credit card.
Actually, Shane and I are considering not giving each other gifts this year. In the past, our gift giving to each other has amounted to asking each other to make a list and then buying items from them. What fun is there in that? Instead, we'll each spend a little money on ourselves buying things we wouldn't normally splurge on, or we'll get a family/household gift like a DVR. We may even wait until the after-Christmas sales kick in to do our shopping.
We will, however, still be buying Christmas gifts for a handful of other people, and of course, there will be gifts for Kat. However, both of our extended families have given up the tradition of exchanging gifts in lieu of simply sharing quality time and meals with each other, so our gift list is rather short. I plan to be done with shopping before Thanksgiving.
I've bought two gifts so far, both for Kat; I'd like to make a new fleece blanket (or perhaps a crocheted one) for her, also.
Have you started your shopping (or gift-making) yet? Are you usually finished with your shopping early in the season or do you wait until the last minute?
6 comments:
Actually we are going to Disney after Christmas so that is the big gift! I will probably pick up a few stocking stuffers here and there but not too much. Of course we will buy for family members. We have put directly in a savings account for Christmas every month starting in January. It makes December much less painful!
Toni
I've started and hope to be finished by Thanksgiving also. The last two years was too stressful waiting too long to shop and make gifts.
nananananana I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!
;-)
So funny---I just finished knitting a scarf that is to be a Christmas gift about an hour ago!
SH and I do not exchange gifts, haven't for years. We also stopped sending to parents and our siblings. We only send to the cousins and that's it. We had to. It was getting out of control and my sister can buy herself whatever she wants. I think simplifying the gift-giving process is also part and parcel of effective minimization. And be more earth-friendly.
Christmas has always been a problem for me financially. I do really well in the beginning and then go bananas the last two weeks before Christmas. This year my husband will be "doing" Christmas (the kids are having a fit) but I know for sure that he will stay within budget...
I'm jealous your list is long...I don't know how to approach shortening my list...
Toni: A Christmas vacation...what a great idea!
Lisa: The crowds are one of the main reasons I like to be done early.
Tug: LOL! I think you can.
Mom of Three: I'm surprised you haven't done a gift-making tsunami!
Sharon: My list shortened itself. It was clear on my side of the family that we no longer enjoyed drawing names, buying or exchanging gifts, so we just quit doing it. Our holidays have improved since then.
Shane's parents divorced and remarried about the time their kids were leaving home, and a gift-giving tradition wasn't ever established, so there wasn't a list to shorten on that side.
I don't know how one would go about intentionally shortening the list, though.
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