muirhejs
11-23-2007, 08:05 AM
Hi everyone,
We are sure that you have come across the Family Christmas Gift Crisis in your families. For us this is becoming quite a dilemma. As you become married you get TWO families to buy gifts for. We feel that "gifts" is becoming so overdone and we are all forgetting what Christmas is really truly about, Jesus and family. So on one side (the wife's side) this family has decided to do a gift exchange where we will each draw someone's name and spend $50 per person. Great, problem solved. Less stress on us with shopping and more time to spend enjoying the holidays with our loved ones. We will still buy gifts for the children as we feel that gifts at Christmas are more for the children. And we will have our own Christmas with each other. Problem, not completely solved! On the other side (the husband's side) we have a sister who is 25 years old and she is not ready to give up receiving gifts. In the past she has complained when she does not receive what she wants. This side of the family does not like the gift exchange idea and so we are stuck spending more money on this side of the family. This is a real challenge for us as we want to be fair to both sides of our family. On the husband's side, we also have grandparents that we will spend more on (because it seems customary with this family) and a gift exchange with the extended family. We aren't sure how to please everyone because we want to be fair but we don't want to upset the family that wants to do all the gift giving. This side seems to have a difficult time understanding the sacrifice we have to make for juggling two sides. Our sister and sister-in-law is not married yet and does not understand this concept yet. So we are left in question. Do we do the gift exchange with one side and lower our price limit with the other family to make it even? Or do we spend more on one family when in our hearts it doesn't feel right? Do we spend more money on our sister and sister-in-law because we don't want her to throw a fit about what she gets at Christmas. Yes, we realize she is 25. Our mother and mother-in-law told us she was still a kid. We love both of our families and we want to treat them equally. What would you do in our situation?
We are sure that you have come across the Family Christmas Gift Crisis in your families. For us this is becoming quite a dilemma. As you become married you get TWO families to buy gifts for. We feel that "gifts" is becoming so overdone and we are all forgetting what Christmas is really truly about, Jesus and family. So on one side (the wife's side) this family has decided to do a gift exchange where we will each draw someone's name and spend $50 per person. Great, problem solved. Less stress on us with shopping and more time to spend enjoying the holidays with our loved ones. We will still buy gifts for the children as we feel that gifts at Christmas are more for the children. And we will have our own Christmas with each other. Problem, not completely solved! On the other side (the husband's side) we have a sister who is 25 years old and she is not ready to give up receiving gifts. In the past she has complained when she does not receive what she wants. This side of the family does not like the gift exchange idea and so we are stuck spending more money on this side of the family. This is a real challenge for us as we want to be fair to both sides of our family. On the husband's side, we also have grandparents that we will spend more on (because it seems customary with this family) and a gift exchange with the extended family. We aren't sure how to please everyone because we want to be fair but we don't want to upset the family that wants to do all the gift giving. This side seems to have a difficult time understanding the sacrifice we have to make for juggling two sides. Our sister and sister-in-law is not married yet and does not understand this concept yet. So we are left in question. Do we do the gift exchange with one side and lower our price limit with the other family to make it even? Or do we spend more on one family when in our hearts it doesn't feel right? Do we spend more money on our sister and sister-in-law because we don't want her to throw a fit about what she gets at Christmas. Yes, we realize she is 25. Our mother and mother-in-law told us she was still a kid. We love both of our families and we want to treat them equally. What would you do in our situation?