More and more people are writing about de-stressing Christmas. Strollerderby points out that your holiday stress affects your kids. It makes total sense- kids are smarter than we often give them credit for, they pick up that we’re stressed out and they make you even more crazy.
Additionally, it’s not what we spend that makes the holidays so special- Rhonda Jean at Down to Earth says:
Don’t keep up with the Joneses. They’re probably in debt up to their
ears. Be glad that the sum total of your life adds up to more than
shopping. You may well become the new leader in your family; the one
who starts the frugal revolution. My feeling is that many people want
to stop spending so much at Christmas but they don’t know how to stop.
Show them. Show them, by example, that a gift hand made with love, or
picked with care at the fair trade store, is the best expression of the
season that is not about expensive gifts but about love, peace and
goodwill to all.
It’s like the lendingtree commercial, "I’m in debt up to my eyeballs". Sure, you can try to keep up, but people will always do better and you will always feel inadequate as long as you are trying to keep up. Forget about that. Like Rhonda Jean says- pave the way to start the frugal revolution. How much money you spent on someone does not equal how much you love them. If you start now, you may be able to stop your kids from becoming slaves to consumerism.
This year we’re cutting down the number of gifts we are giving our kids by half. But we’re going to spend twice as much time with the kids doing fun (free) holiday stuff. When I look back at my favorite holiday memories, it wasn’t the Barbie Dream house that made me the happiest. It was the time I spent with my family.
Technorati Tags: christmas, cutting down on christmas stress, Family, simple livingAdd to:
I too am in no hurry to get into debt! I've cut down on my spending and am putting more quality investments into gift giving this year. For instance, I just recieved a copy of the Limited Edition Christmas Classics DVD set, which includes movies like "Little Drummer Boy","Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and 3 others.It came with a hoilday music cd as well. I work with them, so I consider it to be my early christmas present. I soon realized that this was the perfect gift for families. It will inspire the family to spend time together watching the best of the holiday movies. So I decided that a simple token of togetherness was what I would be handing out to my relatives and friends this year. You can get the set anywhere they sell DVDs or at http://www.christmasclassics.tv. Family and togetherness is what the holidays are meant to remind us of.
Posted by: Kendra Messing | December 4th, 2007 5:43 pm |