By George!

Capital idea, pun intended.  Last Thanksgiving around the table, it became quickly apparent from the conversations that the families are abundantly blessed and lack appreciation for gifts. (Read no thank you notes and "is that all?")

Driving home, Ethel and I decided to send a Christmas card to the families explaining the realization of how abundantly blessed we all were, and that we would be donating the funds we normally spent on gifts to an organization where literally 100% would go to those who do not have even the bare necessities of life.

This did not go over well.  However, we shall see how this second year goes.  To us Christmas is magical in our spiritual lives and the underappreciated gifts evidently are simply expected.

Scrooge?  No way!  We know we made a difference for some who truly needed it.

Wear the hat!

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

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