As part of Barry family, we always look forward to, and yet, at the same time, dreaded Christmas season.
We love to see our families and we treasure the get-togethers, but the thought of Christmas presents for our kids and the extended Barry family can be intimidating and always put a damper on our cheerful spirit.
We drea
d the thought of piles of presents every Christmas - we used to fly to see grandparents every Christmas and you should see the luggage we had to haul on the Christmas trips (a lot more after Christmas) - luckily, airlines were not charging arms and legs to ship them at the time.
The house will be littered with toys afterward. We are not even talking about the huge budget for presents and we really hate to just receive and not give!
To be fair, not that we are not grateful that our in-laws just LOVE to give Christmas presents to everybody and would have been totally lost if we don't 'let' him. However, we cringe on the thoughts of the kids becoming too materialistic and expect presents rather appreciate the spirit of giving.
As it must be for a lot of families. this Christmas Giving has become a big problem with the family; and I believe we are not the only ones who feel that way.
After many years of agony, I finally announced to my Barry side of family (yes, the American side) that we will adopt the Chinese (my side) way of giving presents.
Our parents, relatives and/or friends will give us RED ENVELOPS for New Year's present. They will put brand new, crisp cash in the Red Envelop with some Lucky words (good luck, Long Life, Happiness, Wealth) on the envelop and that will be our present. We loved those.
Since we adopted this new concept, the kids still receive a couple small presents while we give them the red envelop with cash/check for the year.
Luckily, our kids are not big on shopping nor are they big on brand name items; they save their money for important things which they actually use a lot, such as music instruments, iPOD, upgrade 
of cell phones; and save the rest in their account for future.
With the way the economy is, I have a feeling that most of us will be a lot more cautions while shopping for Christmas presents. The best thing to teach our kids now is how to be mindful while spending money, and at the same time, only buy essentials and save the rest.
And the RED ENVELOP is a great, festive way to do just so - Celebrating true Christmas spirit of sharing, love, apprecication, learning how to be grateful for what we have while at the same time, save for the future!
It makes it easy on the gift giver and you can use it the way you wish. Good idea. Happy Holidays.
Sylvia,
I have heard about this before. I have the same family situation and I always think that the chidren can't appreciate the gifts because there are too many. I think I will try this (although I have already probably purchased more than they need). Is teher any certain dollar figure that you give based on age or anything else?
That is sounds great! People can get out of control, buying too much around the holidays.
We all celebrate in our own way! I am glad that you have yours!!!
Merry Christmas!
your friend in Charlottesville!
Hi Sylvia, I really like the Chinese way of giving presents. We started doing that a couple of years ago and we give the grandchildren half the amount of what we used to spend on gifts.
Hi Gita: It works great for us. We also asked the in-laws to cut down on the presents for the kids. We feel that they pretty much have everything they need and a few presents are enough for them - eve the kids think so.
Hi Keisha - Thanks. We love how we do it now and the kids appreciate it also - they really do save the money for big item, important things. When we started out, we went back to our budget from prior years and go from there. Since the kids are very careful of where they spend their money, we feel good about giving them a bit extra for savings. The budget, of course, depends on the household budget. So, that differs from household to household.
Carol - you are right, with the way the economy is, we have to be even more careful. Not bad to instill that in a young person's mind at early stage, in my mind.
I love the red envelope idea. One tradition in our home (when our children were little) was for them to give away all of their toys before Christmas...to make room for more. We also focused heavily on the giving aspect of Christmas...volunteering at homeless shelters and doing church-related events. That really helped to give them a balanced perspective. GREAT STUFF! GBU~
This is a wonderful custom! I started giving my own kids cash for the Holidays years ago. It was an easy choice since they were returning what they got anyway for something else. I gave up purchasing clothing for them on my own and opted giving them cash and letting them purchase what they wanted. It works out great! And there is MUCH LESS stress! Great post! Thanks!
Excellent philosophy and lesson for the children. I grow weary of buying presents year after year that are soon forgotten and placed away.
Dear Charles, my friend in friend in Charlottesville - I agree, maybe you will share how you celebrate your Christmas one day....
Hi Shirley - the kids probably get more out of it.... This works especially well for out of town families when we don't even really know what they have and/or what they like. All presents come with kindness and love, but Red Envelop bears the same thought!
Elizabeth - love the Giving and Volunteering spirit in your family - giving away old toys before receiving new ones and helping, volunteering at homeless shelters are such great way to teach value.... I read you other posts, you have great kids and now I know why - you teach them the right value! GBU!
I have to tell you I talked to my wife about this idea and she really likes it!
Also I just wanted to say Thank you for your support in my efforts!
Merry Christmas!
your friend in Charlottesville
Barbara-Jo - You hit it on the clothing department - Although I am very good at buying cloths for my boys and they don't care that much about it, but being teenagers now, they do think a few things I bought are not as cool as it can be :-) Totally with you there!