This Christmas was wonderful, particularly my real Christmas, Saturday, when I spent the day with Chris’s family.
I did have one problem, though… not a big problem, but one I though I would bring up. Was anyone else a little bummed out by just shopping for one? Or was it better for you to be able to concentrate your efforts on one?
I would like to try buying for all, just getting smaller gifts. We don’t have to decide now, of course. I just wanted to bring the topic up for discussion while this Christmas is fresh in our minds. I am still happy either way. There are always birthdays if one wants to get a gift for all.
I did have the thought that I, or we, as parents could take ourselves out of the drawing and buy for all our kids, but that would leave the rest with such a limited number to draw and…  it just doesn’t feel right. Maybe if i had 10 kids…  but then i might want to be in the drawing. 🙂
I also thought that we could give as couples to individuals…Â cutting each family’s gift giving down to 4.
As for how much we spend….  I was thinking. If one’s budget is $10 -$20 and another’s is $50 – $60, as long as the gift is selected with thought, what difference does it make? If it does make a difference to most (equality) I am willing to stipulate a price range, of course.
Your thoughts?
I would like to try something different next year.
It felt … well, limiting or anti-social or something, not getting gifts for everyone. I thought, maybe I’ll get gifts for Mom and Dad, since they’re my parents and all. And of course Aleah and Donavan. And Kevin. And I had Christina. So that plan was rapidly turning into “gifts for everyone except Chris.” Which would have been very wrong.
But it was hard to feel Christmas-y … I discovered that it really isn’t the gift itself that I enjoy (I certainly didn’t miss the shopping), but the connection that comes from thinking about everyone – thinking about what everyone on my list would like makes me feel closer to those everyones.
On the other hand, I did like the ability to give the one person a bigger gift than I would have been able to afford, if that budget had been spread out among everyone.
So …
> I could do couple-to-individual gifts. I like that idea.
> I like the general equality of having an understood price range, but I don’t know how hard & fast we need to make it.
> Another thought I had (when asking other folks what it was that they did) was gift pools … draw names, but everyone is welcome to discuss and contribute. So Chris may draw Luke, but then anyone who wants to be part of a gift to Luke talks to Chris and decides to either pool resources. So there is a drawing of names, but that person is the gift coordinator, not really the sole gift giver. And it really only works if everyone contributes. Silly idea.
Well, I would cast my vote for couples to give gifts to individuals. And I agree we should try something different for 2010.