A Simple Christmas

Like most area's of my families' life, Christmas needs to be simplified as well. Every year I try to make it more simple so that we can draw closer to Christ. This is just my own opinion, but I think less is more for the holidays. It makes more fun and enjoyable for all.

This year to simplify gift giving I gave all the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles the same present, which was a photo album from Shutterfly. The grandparents will receive a large album and the Aunts and Uncle ( our brother and sisters ) a small 8 X 8 album. The project only took me a few nights thanks to Shutterfly's storyboard feature. It also helped that I regularly upload my photos during the year. All the albums are identical, so I only had to make one. This makes a good present because it is not something they can buy themselves, and there is not too much else for me to get them because they buy what they want for themselves.

One thing we are doing again this year that has worked very well in the past is that each child only gets 3 presents from us and there is 1 large family present. Their relatives give them their presents at different times, so this is pretty much all they open on Christmas morning. For the three presents, my husband and I give one large ($30 tops), one medium and one small. This allows us to take a slow pace and open one present at a time, watching another family member open their gift. Limiting the gifts really helps to make Christmas morning more enjoyable.

How do you simplify Chritmas?