The Gift Of Not Giving

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Most regular readers know that this year we are doing a Toy Free Christmas. Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, we do want to teach our children that giving is better than receiving and that less is more. Of course the fact that we’re flat broke helps to encourage this.

Not stressing out over buying a bunch of toys really has been a gift this year. Dearest and I are free from feeling like we’ve got to shop, shop, shop. We’ve explained to Evan that there won’t be much this year and I think he’s almost relieved. The building excitement is less, it feels calmer around the house when we talk about the upcoming holidays. There is so much more freedom to enjoy everything else without the shadow of presents looming over our head. And I suspect present opening day will be much saner as well.

Though, oddly to me, not everyone is thrilled with our idea. Some family members seem almost terrified by our choice to keep it simple and are throwing themselves into a frenzy to make up for some perceived loss. One set of family members have announced that they are buying the boys brand new bikes. Bikes. Evan already has 2 bikes, one that needs new training wheels and another he’s not yet tall enough to ride. And Trey, he’s only 2. He can’t even peddle the trike he has yet let alone try to ride a real, big kid bike.

Still, I am hoping that our ideas of simplicity outweigh the push of consumerism. Living on less and