Charlatan

So the time is upon us to get our shit together for Christmas. Some of you have probably already done all your shopping and will sit there all smug-like knowing that you don't have to battle crowds and all that entails with last-minute shopping (there is a special place in hell for you).

So what are your plans for Christmas presents this year? Are you tightening your fiscal belts? Is it spend as usual?


For me, I am making every effort to downsize Christmas. Luckily, living abroad, most of our relatives are on the other side of the planet. Our Christmas cheer will come via a Skype chat on Christmas day. As for my immediate friends and family, I am trying to keep the spending down.

I am going to make Christmas cookies for friends and for those that are actually staying in town for Christmas, I am going to see about having a big meal for all of us.

For my kids, I am thinking of donating the gift of a goat to a family in need in each of their names and then giving them each a gift of two. This is, of course subject to change as my wife is notorious for buying too many Christmas presents.

What are you planning?

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

snowy

Cookie plates, including (but not limited to) homemade truffles, toffee bars, Mexican (Russian?) wedding (tea?) cakes, cream wafers, and brownies made with Christmas M&Ms.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

ngdawg

I am planning to go deep in debt again....

Son wants a violin to go with the guitar and piano (guitar's mine, he took it). Daughter wants a new Ipod and a ton of clothes.

I have 7 nephews and one niece and three parents(we don't do siblings). Three are married, two with kids, so not sure where the line will be drawn.

Spouse is getting a list from me this year-he didn't get me anything last year and I was disappointed. His excuse was he didn't know what I wanted-no imagination at all there-but I'd gotten him new boots and a nice winter jacket.

People that shop early make me crazy. I shop mostly last minute; feels more like Christmas coming home loaded with packages and thoroughly exhausted.

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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

mandy

Well, i dont know yet really...it could either be one of two things...seeing as it's my first xmas as a Mrs. i would like to have the two families over for xmas lunch at our house...my mom and dad and two sisters and healer's mom and two sisters. i think however that she's a bit reluctant because it's also her first xmas without her husband but hopefully she feels better as the time gets closer because i think she really should be around family and not at home...

My dad bought a "turduckin" its a turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken and my moms making the usual Glazed gammon with pineapple, salt meat, toungue, roast leg of lamb, roast taters, veggies, salads...YAY for xmas food

Or we might just have lunch alone, just the two of us

For my first colour scheme as my first xmas as a married woman, i plan to go red, green and gold or maybe the browns and oranges and auburny colours will drive my xmas spirit this year

we've also decided to cut down on gifts this year...seeing as we now are married and cannot afford anything anymore but parents, sisters and grans will get gifts and others will get this...

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its a beaded bracelet that tells the story of the xmas nativity...but because they so expensive to buy, healer and i have decided to make them and put them in little boxes with ribbon, the card and our xmas message.

thats all i got so far

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The Imagination equips us to see a reality we have yet to create

little_tippler

I am not big on Christmas but this year I feel the Christmas cheer is affecting me even less than normal. I haven't given one thought to Christmas gifts and it's already the 9th of December.

There are some people I will get gifts for, close family and friends, but the list is small. Most years I make something to give, and only buy a few small things.

I have made necklaces, cookies, drawings in the past. Not sure what will happen this year but I can't bring myself to worry somehow. I heard on the news here the other day that business is not going up at this time of year as usual, and the shops aren't that full despite it being Christmas time. This is going to be a generally quiet Christmas for most people, spent doing more of what Christmas is really about - spending time with family and loved ones.

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

genuinegirly

This year I've decided to do something a little different for my niece and nephews. They have plenty of toys, but they don't get out much beyond school and music lessons. So this year I'm going to gift them with an "experience." Still working out with my sister where we'll go, but these are some of the ideas we're bumping around: zoo, musical, symphony, natural history museum, planetary science museum, art museum. I'd like to take each child out individually someplace special that matches their interests.

Everyone else's gifts? I have no idea. I'll figure that out next week -after finals.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

alicat

I vow every year to do my shopping throughout the whole year and without fail I don't buy a thing until Nov. For an artistic person, I absolutely suck at creativity when it comes to ideas for gifts, even for those closest to me so shopping is frustrating every year.

This year we set a monetary limit per person but I still spent more than I should have. I am doing homemade food gifts too and thought that would help keeps costs down but the price of chocolate and nuts (and butter, sugar, oils, etc) has brought it almost even with just buying gifts. Hell, it's probably more with the tins and packaging added in. Still, I like to think that people appreciate the love, caring (and effort) that goes into homemade food gifts.

This is my goodie line up this year:

Irish cream fudge
Chocolate fudge w/ cranberries and walnuts
Peanut butter fudge w/ heath bits
Sugared spiced almonds
Peppermint bark
Ginger cookies
Peanut brittle
Spiced hard candies (cinnamon, anise, clove and peppermint)

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'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun, The frumious Bandersnatch!'--Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll

"You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

snowy

That's a great idea, genuinegirly. I'm sure whatever you choose, it will be memorable for them!

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Bear Cub

I'm actually spending more this year than ever before, but I'm also making more money than I ever have in the past. Its E and I's first Christmas "together" (still 1700 miles apart), so I've been trying to get her meaningful gifts. So far I bought her a hard to find movie poster for a movie she absolutely loves, a small Swarovsky frog (symbol of something that happened on her trip to TX), a charm bracelet which I still have to put together, since I bought all the charms commemorating specific events i.e first date, trips, etc, and I bought her a moonstone necklace off Etsy, because apparently, she's a moonstone fan (who knew?)

I'm giving cash to my father (he's putting it towards a mega-buck Blu Ray player), no clue what I'm getting for my mother, sisters, or nephew yet.

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Living in the United Socialist States of America.

anti fishstick

i try not to celebrate christmas.

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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin

Lasereth

My family (and some of my extended family) are not buying presents for each other this year but instead shopping for low-income children in a bad part of NC. We have 2 kids that we are shopping for. Our whole family is buying for these 2 kids so their Christmas is gonna be the best ever. I came up with this idea and I like it a lot more than buying our family presents when all of us are already financially stable enough to have whatever we want.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

savmesom11

This year all of the adults put their name in one hat and all the kids put their name in another....we drew a name and only buy for that person. It's pretty nice when you have a zillion nieces and nephews and all.....

Each year I also participate in some "adopt a needy family" program because I remember when I was that family. This year it's a 23 year old single mom with twin girls age 3 and a newborn son, so I am pretty stoked about buying baby stuff!

As for my kids, they get spoiled every year and I don't feel bad about it. I realize kids don't need everything they see on tv and all that good advice, but my kids don't receive much outside of their birthday and X-mas so I always do my best to make it memorable. This year I was able to save around $400 on a gift I no longer have to buy so I divided that between the two of the kids and made their X-mas that much more AWESOME!!! Their bonus gifts: 2 Incredible tickets to a hockey game for my son and 2 hours of make-up and modeling with pictures (one of those glamour shots-type places) for the daughter.

I can't wait to see the looks on their faces!

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* I do not believe that struggles are a sign of life falling apart, but rather a step of life falling into place. *

Xerxys

You and me both. They will all get a card, at least a dollar or less, I gotta finance that new HTC Fuze phone I really wanted.