As the patriarch of my family I floated a trial balloon with several of my children to see what they thought of our cutting back on the amount of money we spend on each other for Christmas gifts.

They all agreed that it was a good idea.  Everyone is facing a certain amount of insecurity about the future and it just seemed prudent to scale back.

I was wondering if anyone else will be reducing what they spend on gifts.

Sign me:

FoxriverScrooge

I totally agree. When we started fulltiming over 4 yrs ago we withdrew from the yearly 'pick a name' for Christmas gifts since we aren't there for Christmas. I still give to my nephew and niece but since they are now in their 20's that may come to an end shortly. We give the grandchildren one gift during the year when we see them. Kids these days have everything. I agree with Roz, give to someone who needs it!

I agree with everyone. The holiday's have become very "commercialized" over the years and benefit only the retailers. Kids (and many adults) these days don't appreciate what they have and are too materialistic. We do a Polyanna on both sides of our family. This has worked well since money is tight, even in better economic times and keeps everyone from feeling obligated to buy a gift for eacj person. 

Hi Foxriverscrooge,  sometimes it hurts for someone else to tell us what we already know.  It was hard for my family to give up gift giving.  Even though all the kids were over 21 years of age at the time.  About 15 years ago, an aunt said she wouldn't be taking part in gift giving anymore.  She said she would be writing a check to the Salvation Army from then on.  (We thought she was a scrooge too.) This is what she did until she passed on.  A few years later, we walked into my parents home for Christmas  and noticed you could hardly walk thru the living room because of all the presents around the Christmas tree.  Mind you, there was not a child left in the group, just a bunch of spoiled adults who could buy for themselves, almost anything, they would receive as a gift.  I looked around and said something really profound,  "this is obscene,  we should be embarrased!"  Most of us already were but didn't want to admit that we were spoiled.  To make a long story shorter, we now enjoy our Christmas by having a beautiful dinner,  attending church and remembering what Christmas is all about.  The old folks are all gone now but their memory lives on.  Oh, yes, there is one other thing we do.  We write a check to the Salvation Army.     Merry Christmas to all!          Dave and Linda                                P.S.  One little change, there's a new grandson this year, there might be one or two presents for him.  Sorry

-- Edited by no hurry at 15:04, 2008-11-15

We also gave up the Christmas gift giving between adults. We do buy for our son, but as he has gotten older we have cut back to just one or two gifts. I used to really pile up the toys for him under the tree when he was little and I'll never forget those joyous Christmas mornings!

Our family stopped trading gifts between the adults almost 10 years ago. We all have too much already and no one needs another tie or scarf. We only give presents to the small kids and even taper off them as they get older. Everyone has too much "stuff". We find it much more enjoyable to fly a kid out for a vacation with us to some place they've never been. Fred

Well I guess I should throw in with the rest of you on gift giving to the kids...the big ones. We still help our kids with Santa for the small ones 7 and under. Gosh I am sure most of you are like us...we give all year long!!! Well there is one hitch to giving at Christmas and that is Sherri....the 25th of December is her birthday and....well you know I can't stop that gift?? I am giving her my retirement check this next year which really is about half what I gave her last year....my paycheck...so life goes on and it wont be too long my grandkids will have to be taking care of me. You know they say you go full circle in life...Do you think Santa will start leaving me presents like he use to when I was 7???

-- Edited by Speedhitch at 13:28, 2008-11-20

This is just like most RV Lifestyle issues just a bit more personal. Don't cut back unless you want to or you have to. Why diminish your joy in giving unless you need too? Yes it is commercial, and yes we spend too much but we really enjoy this time of year and treasure it. We would rather forgo a fishing trip, cruise, or even another 300 miles if necesary. Merry Christmas already? Larry and Jacki