Comments on: Retro Reading~ Christmas Manifesto, Part 2

By: Stacey

Stacey — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:15:34 +0000

We have moved our gift-giving to Thanksgiving. We’ve talked about it with our kids and decided we’d show our appreciation and thankfulness for them on Thanksgiving and leave Christmas to focus on Jesus. Why hasn’t America done this all along?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:27:04 +0000

I would love to reduce the materialism of the holidays in our family, but its just not going to fly on my husband’s side. I think I could convince him of the rationale..and work towards simplicity in our home… but we have his sister’s 3 kids and their 5 kids to buy for too. There are certain dollar amount expectations and there will be bad mouthing by his sister if we don’t meet those and of course, make sure each kid gets the exact same value and quantity of presents. It doesn’t matter if one kid wants something that is $30 and another wants two things at $15, everything has to be equal. It drives me nuts, but I’m not sure what to do.

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:31:02 +0000

This year we are also trying to simplify gift giving/receiving. For me, the focus on the gifts has recently become stressful and taken the focus off Jesus. I don’t know why, maybe because I’ve been trying to talk more about the reason for Christmas with the 2-year old, but I’ve been even more sensitive/bothered by how Christmas is represented in the stores, in books, on tv, etc. It makes me want to make sure we are putting the emphasis on Jesus’ birth as we celebrate in our home and to celebrate it in a way that expresses that we’re thankful for Him.

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:28:30 +0000

I’m like you- my first love language is gifts. I know we could never cut out gifts, and honestly, I wouldn’t want to. Each year I try to make handmade gifts as much as possible, and this year won’t be any different. Hubby and I have also set a strict spending limit. Along with our gift-giving we try to do a service project for someone in need, and we always buy gifts for toys for tots or another organization. And this year, we are beyond thrilled to be able to buy gifts for and continue family traditions with our little Hazel!

By: Sarah L.

Sarah L. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:07:58 +0000

Somewhere along the way, I came across this statistic & it really hit me.
“78% of Americans wish that the holidays were less materialistic and a similar percentage believe that gift giving is awarded too much importance.”
This year, for the first time, we are not exchanging ANY gifts. Yesterday we sent out our letter to the family, sharing our reasons and asking them to please check us off their list, and so far the response has been all positive and in agreement.