About Gifts & The Upcoming Christmas Season.

I’m a fan of enjoying the holiday that is nearest.

I’m also a fan of planning ahead.

Sometimes the balance of the two of those can be a tad bit tricky this time of year.

I know some of you are planners too.

And I know some of you have already practically finished your Christmas shopping and some are just beginning.

I guess this post would be more for those of you who are just beginning.

I wrote this post two Christmases ago.

We continued to embrace the same philosophy last Christmas as well.

And we will be keeping the same spirit of this idea this Christmas too.

And so I just wanted to share our family’s thoughts on gift-giving and splurging and shopping before all the holiday madness begins.

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(from Christmas 2011)

Celebrating the Christmas season with these guys is always a good time.

But this year has been especially pleasant and low-key.

I think it’s because we have jumped off the traditional Christmas train entirely.

And by “traditional” I am primarily talking about the exchanging and purchasing of gifts.

Our tree’s base is not overflowing with presents large and small wrapped in cheerful Christmas attire.

Not that there’s a problem with that if the floor surrounding your tree doesn’t look like ours.

This isn’t anyone else’s story – it’s our story.

We are not giving and receiving regular gifts this year.

What we are doing is this:

Filling the stockings with stocking-sized treats.

Encouraging the kids to make one another presents or to give up one of their own favorite toys to their siblings.

Planning to spend the day enjoying one another and creating a special craft that the kids have been longing to make.

We’ve been on the road to this kind of Christmas for several years now I think.

Which makes this transition to No Gifts neither a very shocking nor a very difficult decision at our house.

Honestly, no child has even complained once.

(At least not in our presence.)

We’ve been discouraging store-bought gifts among the siblings for several years now.

A few years ago we took a family adventure instead of buying presents.

And since London was born we have embraced the three-gift only rule of present-purchasing.

This year our decision to go gift-less was primarily driven by finances.

But now that we are three days away from the actual day itself, it has been amazing to see how calm and restful this holiday season has become by simply removing that shopping element from the picture.

There’s been no mad rush at our house.

No last minute frenzy.

No overwhelming list of last-minute chores and gifts and the endless desire to make sure every kid gets treated equally and all piles look the same.

We are still giving the kids their new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve.

(Although I could argue that’s a tradition of necessity more than Christmas spirit.  And if you’ve seen what our kids have been sleeping in lately, I am certain you would agree.)

These school-free days have been filled with long hours of hanging out in our new rooms making projects together and swinging on the rope swing outside in this incredibly mild start to winter.

Mosely and I have been learning to make buckeyes and calzones together.

The girls have taken to playing board games and Bergen has been reading Magic Tree House books non-stop, three and four at a time.  (Suddenly he’s a storehouse of knowledge about the Titanic and Queen Elizabeth.)

And, it is the truth, I promise, I don’t miss the shopping part of Christmas at all.

At all, I tell you.

I don’t feel as if we are robbing our children of the Christmas experience and I don’t think we are ruining their memories.

I think our children are receiving an incredibly beautiful gift this year.

It’s called . . .

contentment.