Yes, Christmas. Ah, Christmas, tied for first for my favorite of all Holidays. I LOVE that it's not just a holiday but an entire season. I LOVE that it's a time to celebrate the most important and most special birthday of all time. I LOVE that it really is a time for giving and the simple fact that it's an entire season means many different wonderful gatherings with loved ones. Oh the music! Oh the decorations! Oh the snow. (I really like snow)
I know, Halloween isn't even here yet. Why am I writing about Christmas? Well I'm pretty sure that my strongest love language is gift giving. But gift giving at Christmas drives me batty, can get me a little depressed, overwhelms me beyond belief and as much as I love to give gifts I walk away from the wonderful Christmas season each year feeling that I did not hit the mark. Still, after all these years, after the frugal hurdles I've scaled, after the penny pinching tests I've passed I am never satisfied with my own Christmas time gift giving. No one else that I know is really frugal like me. I do not think they truly get me. It's a serious area of pressure for me. I have a big family and there just isn't money in the budget to give extravagant gifts to everyone, or anyone for that matter.
Last year I bought dollar store gifts for my nieces and nephews. The game that we played with them was really fun, there were a lot of smiles and laughter and they seemed to enjoy themselves a lot but I felt like a cheapskate. I did not buy gifts for my dad or his two kids (we don't see them very often but they ended up being at the family Christmas party and it was awkward not having gifts for them). My sister is one of the greatest people on the planet and I never feel she gets a sufficient gift from me. The year before last I tried to make neat crafty gifts involving cash and candy for my nieces and nephews. I think they were too young. Only one of them even seemed the least bit interested in the presents. Because my family is on the larger side I never even get gifts for any of my friends or co-workers. Seriously, gifting at Christmas is a huge area of let down for me. I have one living grand-parent. I send him a card but I don't think I've ever given any of my grand-parents a Christmas gift. That seems a very odd thing to even type. Nope, never have. That's weird. How did my mom and dad never encourage us to give presents to our grandparents? Okay, this is a strange later in life revelation I'm suddenly having.
I'm thinking about Christmas right now because I want to be mentally and giftedly prepared this year. I'm attempting at this very moment to scrap all the expectations I put on myself. Yes, I love gifting but perfection is NOT attainable. Repeat that 10 times. "Perfection is NOT attainable." I can't buy any of my nieces a pony. I can't buy my nephews those big kid cars that they can actually sit in and drive around. I'm not going to spend $80 or $50 or $30 on some awesome doll or toy or the latest hottest craze. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. (I haven't see the movie so the song is not stuck in my head now)
After having just read Money Secrets of the Amish I'm opting to go the Amish route this Christmas. I'm going to put a tremendous amount of thought into my gift giving, probably a tremendous amount of energy and effort and very little money. I'm going to try and gift homemade things that I love. And I'm not going to beat myself up about it not being enough, not being good enough, not being... perfect. Okay, this last part is probably the main reason I'm writing this post IN SEPTEMBER. I don't want to beat myself up about Christmas gifts this year. Why do I feel so much pressure about this?
Spending rundown today: $0, NO SPEND day 73 for the year.
My budget for the month is $450.79 which leaves $67.55
Average daily spending for 2015: $17.87
Ummmm....I've been working on gifts for Christmas since LAST December 26th!!! I put a TON of thought into gifts I give to people and I try to make as much myself as possible, not because I am cheap (or even frugal...even though I am frugal), but because I think it means so much more to someone to get something that was handmade - at least it does for me. If someone knits me a scarf for example, I KNOW how much work went into that and I appreciate it more than they will ever know. I would LOVE to do a Christmas where we gave nothing but handmade gifts - but I don't think everyone agrees with me. So I say - MAKE IT!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo what you're saying is that I'm WAY behind on my Christmas present crafting? NOOO!!!!!
DeleteHave you ever thought of taking up knitting? My sister always knits us mittens and slippers and we love them. It's a Christmas tradition that we get new mittens from her. If you find the yarn on sale, they can be inexpensive. Also, they are still in use after the fancy toys have been put aside.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I did take up knitting SEVERAL years back and then I quickly put it back down again. I was horrible at it! I should look into it again now that many years have gone by. Maybe I wouldn't be so awful now...
DeleteI'm looking forward to seeing what you make/do, but maybe like me you won't be able to post too much until after Christmas. There's a present under construction to my left and one to my right but I can't reveal either. So frustrating.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, only two of my family members oh and an awesome cousin, that makes three family members read this blog. I have very few readers of people who actually know me, well except people who follow and I've gotten to know, haha! All that to say I will almost certainly be posting updates, although probably none of the things I spent around three hours on last night because they turned out horrendous. This is going to be a long process... I fear I've started too late. Although my husband said yesterday, "you're starting on Christmas gifts already? Don't you usually wait until the week before?" Oh, he's supportive and kind (and right).
DeleteI super duper look forward to see what you can post to your blog even if you're limited in what you can share before the wonderful holiday :)
I understand totally the stress you feel. When we were just startin out, there was an extravagance theme in my husbands family. Everyone bought for everyone, and the brand names were the rage. Little by little, reality started kicking in and we went to drawing names, and only gifting to our own Godkids, or as the kids got more, drew names between the kids. Now, we actually have a budget limit and it is more about "creativity" than the expense. I used to dread the gift giving with his family, now it has become fun again. My side has always been laid back, and I have tried to instill in my kids their gifts to each other should be thoughtful, but not cost much. They have gotten pretty good at it, and give wonderful gifts to each other and us.
ReplyDeleteIt honestly gave me a sigh of relief and very pleasant feeling to read that first sentence from you. Thank-you. My husband's family is not very big but they do all buy for each other and it's so overwhelming for me! Then my family is large and we only buy for the kids but, well I've typed out all of my sentiments above already, no use repeating. I really do get stressed out and the worst is that feeling of having not made the most I could have of Christmas. I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of that feeling.
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