We are all very much aware how much time and energy Christmas preparations can consume and how easily we can loose focus on the true meaning of it all. Every year I have to sit down and prayerfully evaluate what we should and should not do this season. We want to keep our hearts in tune and limit the clutter. Here are a few ways we are simplifying this year…
1. Photo cards – get them shipped for you!
For the last several years we have been intentional about sending out Christmas photo cards to our extended family and friends as a means of letting others know that they are loved and thought of during the holiday season. It is a simple way of staying connected and communicate Christ’s love across the miles. We don’t do any fancy letter but love to send out a simple greeting with our annual family photo. But I admit, it is certainly taxing to address and stamp all the cards and get them shipped in a timely fashion. This year, I am simplifying it further and paying a company to address and ship them for me! I found that Card Store will address and ship your cards for free with any purchase. They have some great sales running right now too – 50% off today! One less thing to fill my plate!
2. Limiting the Gifts – stockings only!
While our children young I wanted to establish the proper understanding of the reason and purpose of Christmas. I want our hearts to focus on the blessing of giving with the majority of our Christmas budget resources. We want to cultivate hearts of generosity in our children from a young age, thus we participate in Operation Christmas Child and we chose a family that we can adopt and bless with a Jesus Gift. So this year we are establishing a new tradition of only giving gifts that fit in our stockings with a specific gift budget of $25 per child and $50 for my husband and I. So I’ve purchased an assortment of fun learning things: Classical Kids CDs, art supplies, Brain Quest, garden gloves & kids garden tools. This has really helped simplify the gift giving process, as my size and cost are limited, thus my choices are limited.
3. Name Drawing – one gift per side of the family
For gift giving for extended family, we draw names. So we just have one person on each side of the family to buy for. This makes holiday celebrations simple and kept within a reasonable budget. Since we are a married couple, we put our name down together in the hat so if one of our unmarried siblings pick our name they buy a gift that would be appropriate for both of us. I am sure it would be easier to stop gifting to extended family all together, but there is certainly something special in sharing with one another even in a small way.
Beyond our own family, we like to choose just one other baked goodie that we can bless our neighbors and any one else we are trying to reach out to. This year, I am making small mini loaves of pumpkin bread.
4. Pre-plan and limit family outings
In early November, we plan out our outings for the Christmas season. We make a list of all the different activities, concerts, plays, etc. that we could participate in, and then we choose our top 3 activities that we would like to attend for the year, and then we often rotate in the coming years. This year, Aaron is taking Karis on a special Daddy/daughter date to a local adapted production of the Nutcracker, and we will attend our local Macy’s Day Parade, and a children’s version of Handel’s Messiah. We always prefer things that can be fun family outings rather than adults only events.
What steps are you taking to keep Christmas simple this year?
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Thanks for your post. So good to think through the season and be intentional about all that we invest in. Lindsey could you tell me the name of the child’s version of Handel’s Messiah and where it is? Do they have a web site? Thanks. I appreciate your blog. Blessings to you and your fam.
It’s called Young People’s Concert of Handels Messiah by the Portland Baroque orchestra. They are having just one performance on Dec 19th, but it costs only $20 for your whole family!
Thanks for the suggestions. I have a quick question. Two years ago we asked my hubby’s family what they would think about drawing names and they FLIPPED!!! It was a huge dramatic ordeal. We just thought it would be a good idea. (His older bro even picked up a job to “survive” Christmas) Hubby’s fam adds 7 gifts to our shopping list. Luckily, my side of the fam does draw names and we do a very simplified Christmas for our children and ourselves. Do you think this is something we should bring up for discussion again. Their reasoning for saying no and getting upset, if I am being honest was very selfish. Or would it just be better to be the only people at “their Christmas” giving food and homemade gifts every year?
Sarah, that sounds like a tough situation. We had to do the same thing for budget reasons and like your experience our extended family didn’t agree. So we just removed ourselves from the gifting and asked that they not purchase fo us since we aren’t going to reciprocate. We still attend the family event, but socialize instead of doing the gifts. It hasn’t really been a problem. While we would love for them to change to a drawing of names, they won’t and we can’t change that. All I can change is what my family does. Good luck! ps. Dave Ramsey has some stuff on his website on avoiding budget breakdowns over Christmas gifting.
I had a relative ”flip out” this year as well. Perhaps give a gift that each family can enjoy, if you can come up with a group gift.
hi lindsay…..love all of your ideas. like you, we choose only a few family outings and rotate them each year. that way we can get a variety of things in without being overwhelmed to get them all done in one season.
gifts (at least from my husband and me – can’t say the same for grandparents!) are limited to educational items and books (meaning things we want them to have for homeschooling anyway!) and usually one toy. this year, we are starting our collection of r.m.ballantyne books for the boys. they look wonderful and i’m so excited for my older son (6th grade) to start reading them. by the way, we own many of the classical kid’s cd’s, and my boys listen to them over and over. our local symphony orchestra even had a few concerts for kids based on these! i know your children will enjoy them for years to come.
we also like to purge at this time. our boys realize they have more than they need and it gives them the opportunity to pass things on to others. that, along with doing operation christmas child and sending things to our sponsored girl in peru, hopefully takes the “me, me, me” out of christmas and instead helps us focus on giving to others.
Thanks for the heads up about the card store website. Just placed my order!! Now I can check that off my list. Just curious about the “local adapted production of the Nutcracker”. We live in the same area as you and curious to know location & cost for the Nutcracker you are attending!!
It’s at the NW Dance Theater in Tualatin area called the Nutcracker Tea.
From the beginning we have chosen not to participate in Santa, but as soon as the kiddos are old enough to understand we do plan on explaining Saint Nicholas. For gifts we have always kept it at 3, but this year I heard a wonderful idea at Bible study–the 3 gifts divided into a want (something the child has requested), a need (article of clothing, needed piece of furniture, etc), and a spiritual gift (i.e. new Bible, Christian music, Christian storybook, etc). Too late for this year as my shopping is finished for this year, but definitely for next year!
I love the idea about the three gifts! I’ll have to keep that in mind… but since we do stockings, I just try to find a few small items to fit in there. This year I made my daughter dancing ribbons, found a small playsilk and she picked out a wand, so there’s already three small items that aren’t needs or spiritual in nature.
What do you guys do about Santa?
I was torn as to whether or not to perpetuate the myth of Santa… but it just sort of happened. We don’t go crazy taking pictures with dressed-up Santas and tell the kiddos they have to be good girls and boys or else Santa won’t give them presents, but we do feel that it imbues a sort of magic that keeps kids young. One of these holidays we’ll tell them about the story behind Santa Claus, but for now they get excited thinking about Santa coming on Christmas Eve, and last year he left a small present for them to share. My sister- and brother-in-law make bootprints in soot to prove Santa came, and after the kids leave carrots for the reindeer their mother chops them up and strews them all over the floor (she says they’re dry by morning and easy to clean up). I think it’s cute!
We like to visit Santa at the mall and we often read the true story of St Nicholas (VOM has a great storybook on his life), but we haven’t really talked about him beyond that. They just see him as a big friendly man at Christmas time, otherwise our focus for everything else is Jesus’ birth.
Great stuff here! Since our little girl is so young, I’m wanting to start setting the expectation now that Christmas is simple in terms of gifts and extravagant things. When I look back and think about what I remember the most about Christmas’s past, it’s always things that have to do with intentionality and family….and some sweet baking memories are usually involved
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This is a wonderful post. I often think “doing Christmas cards” is a waste of time, but you’ve given me a new perspective to consider.
We are trying to keep Christmas simple this year too. I love buying presents for my children, but after reading Simplicity Parenting and doing a major toy purge (getting rid of 5 bags of toys) a few weeks ago- I am really trying to keep Christmas simple for my children. They are young, but I am focusing on one main gift, which for my older daughter is a book set she really wants and for my younger daughter a Baby Stella Moses basket for her dolly. Then I have a few smaller presents, so that they both have around 4 presents to open. Not too many things, but enough for them to be excited about.
And we started a new tradition last year, that my children love. The 12 Gifts Before Christmas. I wrap 12 small gifts and for the 12 days before Christmas- they get to open one thing. This extends the excitement of Christmas for 1/2 the month!!! And for gifts- last year I just got a packet of stickers at the dollar store and cut them up for gifts, and I also wrapped up mini larabars. This year I am doing 1/2 mini larabars and 1/2 presents from the craft store. At our local craft store, they had an awesome dollar section (and with coupons I got the things for much less than a dollar) and I picked up lots of Christmas craft items. So my daughters will have fun little craft projects to do all month. Like making Christmas necklaces, etc.
We also like to have a Happy Birthday Jesus party, which is another (hopefully yearly) tradition that we started last year. We have food and the children get to play and we usually read a short Christmas story. The children bring gifts of money and we buy presents from the Gospel for Asia catalog for the poor- our Christmas presents for Jesus =) I also like to make little goodie bags for the children to take home.
I am really trying to make the activities of Christmas enjoyable and exciting for my children (not just getting gifts). We like to make Gingerbread cookies and decorate them. We like to watch some Christmas movies. We like to go to some free local Christmas events, which have been alot of fun.
Thanks for the post! I love reading ideas to make Christmas simple and also like reading ideas about for making Christmas special!
Awesome suggestions! Many of the same things we do, too! Thanks for the The Card Store suggestion, I will definitely check it out!
We have also been trying to simplify Christmas to keep the focus where it really should be – Jesus. We already started doing just stockings for the kids and we do OCC and other charity drives with our church; this year we also put some money towards the Samaritan’s Purse gift catalog (it was fun picking things out). I love traditions, and last year we started an advent calendar for my daughter; I hope to fill the pockets not only with fun activities for December but also nice things we can do for others (a gift for the mailman, for instance). Instead of coming up with original ideas I’ve been scouring Pinterest.
For a few years some of the extended family has agreed doing gifts for just the kids – but I wouldn’t mind doing away with that! My sister-in-law has six boys; it gets harder to be creative and frugal.
My side of the family did a Secret Santa for the past few years but some of the family members are inconsistent with their involvement so I feel like the Bad Guy trying to organize it; this year I said we didn’t have to do a gift exchange – just preparing food for holiday dinners and getting together will suffice!
I could really stand to simplify my Christmas correspondence. For years now I’ve written a holiday letter, and now that a number of people say they look forward to it every year, I feel pressured to keep it up. It takes up so much of my time AND I try to put it with a card and pictures – which means extra stationery. And a lot of postage. *sigh* I DO love getting Christmas cards and letters, though, so I’m not sure what to do about this. I do try and hand-deliver the ones for whom I know I’ll be seeing during the holiday season.
Looking forward to read some of the other comments!
One thing I do to keep it more frugal is to hand some of the cards out. I will see a number of relatives in person and save several dollars on stamps. Although photo cards cost a bit more, they are so simple (ordered online and they arrived at my door; no cards to sign; a fun way to share the true meaning of Christmas).
We are doing much the same! We sat down last night and simplifed our card list.
We have a son with Asperger’s who struggles at Christmas, especially with presents. So I am keeping Christmas Day to a limited number presents. However I have ordered and wrapped some Christmas crafts and will put these under the tree when the holidays start and the children can choose and complete a craft each day on the run up to Christmas. We will build this into our daily routine.
I asked the children this year what was important to them and was thrilled to discover that it was the simplest family things which we do together are the most important things for them, one of them being crafting together.
wow! The Card Store looks too good to be true…. so with free shipping (including stamps) and 49 cent cards, that’s like 5 cents a card?? Can’t beat that!
Thanks for sharing!!!
well… it looks like they hiked up their cards a little bit now that they have a 50% sitewide discount code. Oh well… still a good deal
Very wise choices! We are keeping it simple this year too, which started with financial reasons, but has really turned into more of a choice that we’re enjoying! Gifting is SO much more enjoyable and easy when you keep it limited. We have little children that we hope will learn that Christmas is about so much more than lots of presents! Good post!