Christmas and buying gifts

SPEEDY MCCREADY

The last few years have been stress free for me. The nieces and nephews have all grown up, and I don't have to buy for them. The wife and I don't exchange. My parents are both gone. Kathy buys her mom a gift, and I don't buy anyone a gift.

I love Christmas, as everyone here knows.
I love the big meal, the tree, the decorations, the cookies, I love it all. But its nice not having to stress out on gifts.

How about you?
Who do you have to buy for?

Loujoe

Will likely get some gifts for the wildlife. Bird food, maybe a bat house. A couple things for my family. Learned my lesson on giving certain things. Would usually give what I'd like to get. So I'm skipping that step and buying a few for myself! Holidays are a lot quieter as i get older. Do love them though.

I find that all the focus for one day can be depressing. So trying to harness that holiday vibe to carry it through my life. Who knows? BS. Whatever!

Merry Christmas 

SPEEDY MCCREADY

Loujoe said:

Will likely get some gifts for the wildlife. Bird food, maybe a bat house. A couple things for my family. Learned my lesson on giving certain things. Would usually give what I'd like to get. So I'm skipping that step and buying a few for myself! Holidays are a lot quieter as i get older. Do love them though.

I find that all the focus for one day can be depressing. So trying to harness that holiday vibe to carry it through my life. Who knows? BS. Whatever!

Merry Christmas 

Yeah, my cats get treats and toys. Haha
But other than that, nobody gets a damned thing from me. Haha

josevolution

We just get gifts for our two adult kids nothing crazy I like to give something to my dad every year this yr I’m giving him an electric shaver 😀 he’s 86 me and Kate get married stuff 😂 she says you got me a pair of sneakers and I got you a pair too 😂

BrainofBGA

I don’t buy for a huge range of people. My 7yr old daughter of course, 2 nephews and a niece. My wife and I purchase a few bits and pieces for ourselves and wrap them to go under the tree ie vinyl record, new t shirt, PJ Melbourne show poster….this adds a little bit more excitement for our daughter, so she’s not the only one unwrapping gifts on Xmas morning. I buy a gift or two for work colleagues that I’ve worked with for the year (I’m a teacher, so you work closely with a few people across the year in your class). I also buy for the students, but every student receives a book, they’re ordered online in a bulk order). My family and extended family don’t buy for each other anymore. It’s about the kids these days. 

markymark550

My wife and I usually buy each other 1 nicer/big gift and a few smaller/cheaper gifts. This is the first Christmas my son will be able to open gifts by himself. He's still a bit too young to fully grasp the idea of Santa Claus, but he knows a day is coming where he will get presents. I'm looking forward to seeing him open his presents then playing with the box they came in My family used to buy for everyone, but we've cut back the last few years and only buy for the kids now. So, we've got to get presents for our 15 year old twin nieces. If anybody has ideas for them it would greatly be appreciated. My wife's family still goes crazy with the gifts though, and that's the biggest stressor for us. I think we should scale back with them too as our son is the only kid, but her mom would get her feelings hurt too much if we did that.

Loujoe

Enjoy it while you can. We used to do a secret santa kind of thing with the family as they grew up. Just buy for 1. That might be an option down the road. 

GlowGirl

For me it’s Hanukkah. At this point I just get my 5 nieces and nephews gifts. My cousin just had a baby so I will probably send the baby something as well this year. My older nieces and nephews are now easy to send gifts to. They are between the ages of 15-22. All they want me to do is Venmo them money so they can buy what they want 😂. But I still send actual tangible gifts to my 7 year old twin nephews.  

JOEJOEJOE

I buy several gifts for my wife, and we send out holiday cards.

I am Jewish, so before I got married to a non-Jew, I never really did much for Christmas.

Purple Fairy Tree

Sounds cool @GlowGirl. 
Good thread topic @SPEEDY MCCREADY

This year I've got loads of cute presents for my cousin's children (5  year old girl and 8 year old boy), I can't wait to see them unwrap them.  

At home this year we will be having a quiet one. I've got myself a few gifts, so I have presents to open. I've got one present for him indoors but we agreed not to get each other anything, so I'll say it's from the dog.  I think Xmas will be low key and we will just enjoy the simple things like a nice meal. 

I'm pleased we are not making much of an effort, this is way less stressful. Looks like we've all got to that age. 

Spunkie

My favorite isn't the checklist of items.requested.

My favorite is the books we make of pictures and written words full of love.

Loujoe

Sounds nice^. Is that a tradition you do every year?

Spunkie

My daughter does when every year for a friend or me or both. She loves it when I make them for her. I like how it focuses her spirit to think of others, gratitude and good times.

This year's album wouldn't be complete without adding the anemones, the amazing waves in Coolangatta, and swimming with the turtles (thx 2PJ - sincerely)!

 I am amalgamating books we've made for each other into one big one. 

Loujoe

Great idea. Very thoughtful.

Get_Right

We do not really celebrate anymore. I was raised Jewish but had a tree every year. I have boxes and boxes of gorgeous ornaments but we just do not do it anymore. I used to go get a big tree every year. My kids are 16 and 19 so I usually say let's go shopping. There is usually an Apple or Nike product involved.

SPEEDY MCCREADY

Get_Right said:

We do not really celebrate anymore. I was raised Jewish but had a tree every year. I have boxes and boxes of gorgeous ornaments but we just do not do it anymore. I used to go get a big tree every year. My kids are 16 and 19 so I usually say let's go shopping. There is usually an Apple or Nike product involved.

I still manage to put up a tree. Its a small one, but that's OK. We have ornaments that have special meaning so we enjoy putting them out. I'm guessing in a couple years when my cats no longer can climb a tree, I will start putting a larger tree up. 

pearldavidson

Currently staying with my parents for the holidays. When they blare their Christmas playlist Let Me Sleep always comes on at some point. 

pearldavidson

Currently staying with my parents for the holidays. When they blare their Christmas playlist Let Me Sleep always comes on at some point. 

josevolution

The Juggler

No kids, just a dog and a bunch of nephews. Wife buys the nephews TONS of shit. We buy the dog a few things. And depending on if we have a trip coming up or are doing some project around the house, we'll agree to get each other a few small things....stocking stuffers.

For my family and hers (other than the nephews) we use this Elfster app. Anyone hear of it? Basically each person is randomly assigned someone else. We each go in and pick out a wish list of gifts that our chosen elfster can see and then that person gets our gifts. There's a spending limit, usually $100 or so. 

Makes it easier as far as buying a bunch of stuff. I DESPISE stressing about gifts as I am always the last minute guy. 

I'm with Speedy...I am more about the time spent with family. We always host Christmas Eve with my family so I will be making the eggplant parm this weekend. Looking forward to putting that together. 

Get_Right

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

Get_Right said:

We do not really celebrate anymore. I was raised Jewish but had a tree every year. I have boxes and boxes of gorgeous ornaments but we just do not do it anymore. I used to go get a big tree every year. My kids are 16 and 19 so I usually say let's go shopping. There is usually an Apple or Nike product involved.

I still manage to put up a tree. Its a small one, but that's OK. We have ornaments that have special meaning so we enjoy putting them out. I'm guessing in a couple years when my cats no longer can climb a tree, I will start putting a larger tree up. 

We have special ornaments as well. Kind of a shame they are just sitting in boxes. We have a couple of small fake trees that look nice when lit up. I may make something, but we get really lazy the week between Christmas and new years. May you all have a blessed holiday season with loved ones (and maybe a few annoying relatives ).

Loujoe

friend made these for me a few years ago. Pretty special.