June & Theo
We are a strongly Christian family and we are not at all interested in the commercial side of the season. We just want Christmas to be a church service and a quiet celebration within our own family,. Where any gift giving is done it is in a mindful manner, such as gifts to charities on behalf of others.
We go to the local homeless welfare group to serve Christmas lunch for the homeless. On boxing day we do have a get together with our extended family without gifts. There isn't the big roast dinner or usual feast, just a regular Aussie bbq with family.
We also came up with a neat idea - to have a Family Day, which usually occurs in the school holidays between 1st and 2nd term. We buy a significant item each year that would benefit the whole family, such as a new TV, or bikes for the kids, or fitting out the games room.
Some times it is individual presents for each member, which is a negotiable concept. There is a set budget for this and the money is set aside each month to save up for this one special day, of their choosing, having nothing to do with the commercialism of the Santa Season,.
We don't want our kids to grow up connecting expense and overindulgence with our religious celebration. As a key element of our religious ethics, we support the needy in the community and live a financially responsible life, where the emphasis in life is in doing good things, not having lots of stuff.
We want to eliminate personal gift giving at Christmas time and the sense of avarice and grasping for more and more each year. We wanted to prevent the 'I Want' mentality from occurring in our children by giving gifts at Christmas time. We wanted to create a different gift giving tradition, not connected with Santa or Christmas. This has worked very well for us over the years and the children never feel like wanting to go out and do the Christmas present shopping like all their friends at school.
We have instigated the tradition of non-monetary gifting. If the children want to give a friend or school teacher a Christmas gift then it will be something the children have made themselves, like home baking, a useful craft item or a thoughtful gesture or offer of help. A deliberate part of this is to stimulate their creativity into making and doing something of value, not just buying some thing using mum and dad's money.