While reading Liz's blog, Wonder Woman I'm Not, the first sentence of her post Cutting Back on Christmas Spending struck a chord. She writes, "the approaching Christmas season is enough to strike fear in the hearts of anyone struggling with money." Even when our pay checks our fatter, we have a large amount of people we buy gifts for (my husband is one of six plus partners/spouses, parents and a niece and nephew. Then there's my side with 3 grandparents, my parents, a brother. Teachers, bus driver, extra-curricular teachers/instructors. Daycare charges). Although I set a tight budget for each person, we easily end up spending.
Liz also writes, "as an adult, it strikes fear in my heart. Fear of the money it takes to buy the presents, fear of the time it takes to shop and wrap all those presents as well as fear of what to do with all the stuff once it's opened." Amen, sister, to all the points. I do like to watch others open our gifts but I get anxious about how to organize it when it gets home. Also like her, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but the hustle and bustle and work to make it a wonderful memory for the children (and others) is very stressful no matter how you slice it.
Liz has some great ideas for reducing Christmas gift giving stress. I really like her suggestion of a family gift (especially for families that have one or two members that are really hard to buy for!).
How do you reduce gift giving stress?Labels: Christmas