Following in the vain hope this will be the year MiL agrees to a small, thoughtful Christmas rather than just throwing money at it.
For years I allowed my MIL to set the just throw money at it Christmas theme. After about 8 years of that I flat out refused to keep doing it. Her rebuttal was to tell me something to the effect that it you don't buy gifts then you don't really love your family. Utter rubbish. I come from a much larger family than DH and my family simply can't afford a consumer Christmas. Marrying into DH's fam was a huge shock compared with our traditions. I simply told my MIL that "my fam doesn't really give much in the way of Christmas gifts and I love my fam very much. The one has nothing to do with the other." I held my ground and Christmas has been much less spendy ever since.
I also refused to give her a Christmas list. That seems so strange to me. I don't spend my time wishing for things I don't have. To me that just leads me to be dissatisfied with what I have. For a while I would give her a list with things like socks and my favorite charities. Now I don't even do that.
MiL is more the type who will spend carelessly at Christmas, then spend January fearing the arrival of the credit card statement.
She and FiL are teachers and receive gifts from almost every student, half the faculty, and from the school itself. Every year this means dozens of boxes of chocolate, calendars, other stationery, wine, coffee mugs, just piles of generic gifts.
MiL takes everything out of its packaging, piles it under the Christmas tree for a month, then stashes it in the linen cupboard, then after five years will talk about having a garage sale. (The chocolates she unwraps, places in bowls all over the house, then complains about Christmas weight gain.) Then she goes shopping to buy chocolates and generic gifts for her hairdresser, mailman, neighbours, etc...
I don't spend my time wishing for things I don't have. To me that just leads me to be dissatisfied with what I have.
You have articulated that beautifully.
So that I actually contribute something useful to the thread, these are super easy Christmas sweets that I make for parties, gifts for colleagues, etc.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14879/mini+christmas+puddings