I converted my mom on Christmas

[CindyBS]

It took about a decade, but my mom is finally willing to not do X-mas presents for her children - we are all in our 40's.  My siblings and I stopped exchanging gift years ago.  My mom actually brought it up at Thanksgiving! 

There are 4 grandkids under 20, 2 are my kids.

My Christmas shopping has been whittled down to my kids, my niece and nephew - one gets a magazine renewal, and then I will give my parents 1 8x10 of a family photo we get taken each fall.  One of my sons has a special teacher in his life that goes above and beyond helping him with his disabilities so she will get a small gift.  My oldest is a teen and I think he would be fine if we just gave him money. 

Then my parents, siblings and I will make a donation to a charity in the each other's names. 

My kids will buy their grandparents a small gift each.

Sweet! 

[FireLane]

Well done! Cheers to a holiday season with less wasteful materialism.

[eliza]

Great job!   I have got verbal agreement from my mom and sister to not do Christmas gifts for the family (all adults) this year.   

Now, I'm just worried that there will be secret gifts that they will buy and I will look ridiculous not bringing anything.

[EfficientEngineer]

That's awesome! Good work.  I've been pushing this for several years now but the grandparents always insist on having some sort of gift exchange.

[o2bfree]

We stopped exchanging Christmas gifts some years ago, but this year I splurged on a house gift: a Charlie Brown Holiday Classics DVD (Great Pumpkin, Thanksgiving, and Christmas specials on Blu-ray for $14). I know, I know, I can borrow it from the library or get it on Netflix DVD, but there's always a wait for it during the holidays, and I like to watch holiday movies when the mood strikes.

[soccerluvof4]

All the adults chip in to buy a gift for Grandma and Grandpa (Mom, Dad or both) and the Adults all swap names, the kids all swap names and the Godparents buy 1 gift for the God Children. Seems to work well since huge family.