I started my holiday shopping really early this year. I ordered my first gift back in June and that’s really early for me, though I know a lot of people shop year-round to take advantage of bargains. That doesn’t jive with my quest for a minimalist, clutter-free home for the most part and I usually don’t start my shopping till after Halloween. {That and I tend to lose or forget about things I hide or store around the house!} In this case, I wanted a particular Lego Friends set for Katie and by watching it on Amazon and Ebay I knew it was fluctuating in price, free shipping sometimes available. I snapped it up one day when it dropped down to the lowest price I’d seen, with free shipping as well. And I’ve been hiding it in my closet since. I think it’s worth the space it’s taking up, knowing that I got a good price and I don’t have to worry that I’ll have trouble finding it closer to the holidays. I also managed to pick up another Katie gift–a pink karaoke machine for half off on clearance at Target. We already have a collection of CD-Gs so she’ll have a lot of fun hooking this up to any TV and singing at the top of her lungs. 🙂
In our home, we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah. My husband’s family is Catholic and my mother was Protestant. My father is Jewish and I have always identified Jewish, perhaps because he taught me a lot about Judaism and the Jewish people as I was growing up. I started celebrating Chanukah in my mid-20’s, after I found myself strangely called to learn more about that part of my background. Since my father is Reform (though mostly non-practicing) I do consider myself Jewish. I’m raising my children with a Jewish identity but I also don’t want to exclude the Christian parts of my upbringing, or my husband’s. Thus, we celebrate both. And we have fun doing it!
To keep things simple for Christmas, we give each child 4 wrapped gifts and then “Santa” fills their stockings, mostly with candy and little trinkets I think they’ll like (cute pens, pencils, notepads, make-up, tiny toys, etc.). This is a lot more simple than the days we used to have 20+ gifts under the tree–per family member. Reducing the sheer number of rolls of wrapping paper and bows needed and the number of gifts needing to be wrapped really helps reduce stress and expense.
We also give each child a gift on the first night of Chanukah. The rest of the nights they receive gelt (chocolate coins) and small treats. Traditionally each of the eight nights of Chanukah is for gift giving, but it’s nearly impossible to come up with eight unique gift ideas (times four kids) so close to Christmas, plus it makes it really difficult to stay on budget AND not bring too much clutter in.
We do a lot of handmade gifts for extended family and friends. This works out great because we can get the kids involved. We’ve been known to make spa baskets with handmade soap, bath salts and bath bombs. food items like pumpkin bread, candy and cookies and also gift mixes in jars, which are always fun to make!