How much do you like Christmas?

[Spookymufu]

You may be on the same wave-length as my husband. He is a Christian believer, but he dislikes disruptions to his routine, and he generally gets out-of-sorts around Christmas. So much expense and hoopla and overly-crowded schedules. He does like the holiday meals I cook, though!

yes, exactly, the disruption and dealing with people.......phooie!

[Pumpkin_Man]

That's a good point. the Christmas Holiday often does get in the way, and disrupt routines, and it's a hassel finding parking places at any of the stores. I do love it in it's own way. I do love the Catholic traditions associated with Christmas, and I love having my Tree Trimming Party with my little grand nieces and nephews. I work at a community college, so I get over a week off, to boot. I love that too, but I have to agree that the over comercialization of the day often does get me down, and when the tv comercials start pushing Christmas as early as September, it's actualy a 'pet peve' of mine. About 2 or 3 days ago, there was an add for Pillsberry Croisants, and there was a mention of the Holidays, with the theme leaning towards Christmas. SHEESH!! I confess that I will be playing Christmas music when I start my Christmas cleaning in mid November, but COME ON! Let's celebrate Halloween first. And let's not forget about Thanksgiving.

Mike

[shanda]

I love Christmas. I go all out decorating for that too.

But so does everyone else. ( I am the only Halloween nut in my neighborhood)

I love the music, the food, the funny movies ("Elf" and "Christmas Vacation" are my faves), but I do think it over commercialized. I refuse to go broke! I have my kids choose the 1 thing that they can't live without. Then, if it is reasonable, they get that and anything else is just icing.

Halloween is just for fun!! I love that! No reason, no requirememts, no obligations, Just FUN! Sure I spend $$$, but that is my choice. Not because of a "have to".

I leave my Halloween stuff up inside until Thanksgiving weekend. I love it so much.

[Andybev01]

I can have a perfect Christmas without spending a dime. I've collected a ton of great decorations and quite frankly, knocking myself out looking for a 'perfect' gift makes me feel kind of...shallow

[Murfreesboro]

Lots of families have a way to limit the crazy spending on Christmas gifts. I have friends whose kids have always gotten three gifts and three only, because that's what baby Jesus got.

I also read once of a family who further refined that scheme. They would designate a gift of "gold," which was something they could all do together, like tickets to a concert or something. Making a memory. The gifts of "frankincense" and "myrrh" were something each one of them needed, and something each one of them wanted, but didn't need.

[Andybev01]

That second one is a great idea!

[Spookymufu]

usually, we buy something we know the kids really want, one good gift, then we pad the tree out with smaller gifts like toy cars or my little ponies or something small. My wife goes to the dollar store and buys a bunch of stocking-stuffers. The problem is, my son is now 13 so he requires more expensive gifts like $60 video games or $100 something or others, and of course I have to get my wife something and I never know what she wants because she never tells me and I am of course not cheap so thats most of the gift money, then the littler ones, they get $50ish gifts and some small things to go along with it and so on and so on.....

[Pumpkin_Man]

That's how it was in our house when I was a kid. We were only allowed to ask Santa for 3 presents. We got more then three, but we were only allowed to ask for that many. When my younger sister and I were teenagers, and my father retired from his job and was on a fixed income, we both got one gift that we had to share. When I was a senior in high school, we were given one of the very first Atari video games. black & white gamg board, and it had 3 build in games. Hockey, Tennis and Squaxh. The "ball" was a little white square, and there were 3 levels of play. It was a great toy in 1979, but would seem pretty hokey by today's standards. This was also in the CRT "Cathode Ray Tube" days. Those old video games had a nasty habbit of "burning" the gaming images into the screen, so you could see the goal lines and what ever even after you turned the tv off. I had an old 19 inch black & whte tv that I hooked the game up to. It was fun for about a year, but then it got old.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

usually, we buy something we know the kids really want, one good gift, then we pad the tree out with smaller gifts like toy cars or my little ponies or something small. My wife goes to the dollar store and buys a bunch of stocking-stuffers. The problem is, my son is now 13 so he requires more expensive gifts like $60 video games or $100 something or others, and of course I have to get my wife something and I never know what she wants because she never tells me and I am of course not cheap so thats most of the gift money, then the littler ones, they get $50ish gifts and some small things to go along with it and so on and so on.....

Spooky, you should pity my husband. My birthday is Dec. 22, and then there's Christmas, three days later. He has to figure out what to give me for each of them.

[iHaunt]

F.... I do love Halloween as much as I do than XMAS!!!!

Easter spring -N- Summer season are the Best!

[Spookymufu]

Spooky, you should pity my husband. My birthday is Dec. 22, and then there's Christmas, three days later. He has to figure out what to give me for each of them.

if it were me, you'd get one gift for both days

[Murfreesboro]

He's actually been quite clever about it over the years. It has come down to this--he gives me something personal for my birthday, like a piece of jewelry, then gives me a family gift, like a DVD player or something, for Christmas. I get to open the family gift, but it is obviously for everyone to enjoy.

Honestly, though, there have been years when neither of us got anything for Christmas. During lean times, it's all we can do to make Christmas for the kids. At my age, the gifty part of it is not that big a deal, anyway.

[southerngirl698]

I love Christmas, mostly because the family gets together, and then Halloween comes next.

[Spookymufu]

Honestly, though, there have been years when neither of us got anything for Christmas. During lean times, it's all we can do to make Christmas for the kids. At my age, the gifty part of it is not that big a deal, anyway.

it's been like that for us a few christmas's, just do for the kids...it's most important that they have good christmas, we already had ours when we were kids.

[shanda]

I asked my kids what they got for Christmas last year. They could only think of one or two things. That includes from aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc...

They are 11 and (by Christmas) 14. Their wants are costly, but they understand that. My youngest wants an i pod touch and my oldest wants a drum set (he is in the middle school band).

They would much rather "go and do" than "get" so gifts like movie or park tickets are the best.