No Christmas Presents

Perhaps, like me, you have heard over the years about the many families who won’t “have Christmas” because finances won’t permit the purchasing of gifts.  My heart fills up with compassion and a deep desire to help out motivates me to buy a toy, wrap it up and make it pretty….so that a child can “have Christmas”.

Really?  We can’t “have Christmas” without gifts?  Yes!  Really!!  Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?  (Read with a bit of sarcasm in my tone)  After all, even as Believers we know the kings brought gifts to Jesus….so, it is Biblical to give the people we love and people who are in need—gifts.   So…..every year there were piles of gifts under our tree!  Lots of them!  Not expensive ones—lots of items on sale—we never would go in debt for Christmas--but there were gifts under the tree.  I remember the first Christmases our son-in-law and a few years later, our daughter-in-law had with us—they were amazed at the gifts.  I love giving gifts!!  (By the way, and this may be a major shocker, we did not "do" Santa!!  We can talk about that another time....I am getting off track!)

Our family has grown so much over the past few years and I started noticing that the joy of shopping was slowly turning into a burden.  Even though we did not purchase expensive gifts, the number of people made it more expensive….so there were less and less gifts per person.  It was exhausting trying to be sure to be fair—did we spend the same amount (or close to the same amount) for each family?  Does everyone have the same amount of gifts to open?  Will they even like it?  Will it end up in the bottom of a closet or stuffed in a drawer somewhere?  Would it end up at Goodwill?  The hustle and bustle of finding the time and just the right thing had begun to overshadow the joy of giving.

Not too long after Christmas 2011 I was reflecting on all of this….Christmas was over.  Everyone had gone home.  I was second guessing what I had bought….did they like it….blah, blah, blah.  I was visiting my dad in Carlsbad, CA at the time—a place our children would visit every year to see their grandparents and two of my brothers also live in CA.  They LOVED going….so much to do….beautiful weather.  Fun times spent with family we rarely got to see.

After they married and began to have families of their own, their trips to CA had diminished.  Ernie and I still went but our kids and grandkids could not.  My dad has never met two of his great-grandchildren!!  None of my three brothers have met any of them!!  This is not right and we are doing something about it!!

Thus back to Christmas gifts.  Last February I asked the kids what they thought about not getting any gifts in 2012—no birthday gifts, no Christmas gifts, no anniversary gifts and, instead, Ernie and I would save that money to purchase airline tickets for a trip to California instead!!  They were super excited and all on board!!  So….that is what we are doing!!  In a month or so we are flying all 11 of us to CA for a time with my family.  All three of my brothers will be there with most of their families too.  My dad is soooo excited and my mom would be elated if she were still alive.

You might wonder if the kids (big and little) have been sad about not getting to open gifts—and I can honestly say—NO!  We will be making memories that will last a lot longer than any toy or new jeans would.  Maybe you might want to rethink how you “do” gifts….I can honestly say it has been so freeing and am wondering how I can pull it off again this year!!  Making memories instead of clutter!

Now….I must confess!!  I lied when I said we gave no gifts!!  Christmas Eve, Eve I could not stand it any longer!!!  I ran out and bought a California tee shirt for each adult and a book for each child!!  After all….it wouldn’t be Christmas without gifts under the tree, Right??!