Having said that, I totally agree with the core idea here–to simplify and enjoy the spirit of the season. I think what your family does is awesome, Justine.

Emily, we don’t do Santa gifts. My kids have three sets of grandparents and two great-grandmas who want presents from them under the tree, so we skipped Santa from the beginning (he fills stockings, but even this is very casual in nature–we don’t hype Santa.) When we read Christmas stories that show Santa hauling big piles of stuff into the house and my little kids ask why that doesn’t happen here, I tell them it’s because they already have a big family to provide gifts.

This year, instead of doing 4-5 small-to-medium gifts for each kid (30 new items to add to the chaos of our house??? no thank you) we’re doing one relatively “big” gift each, that’s from all their relatives.

It will be different–no pile under the tree. But the other night I turned to Reed and said, “do you realize we’ll only have 7 gifts to wrap this Christmas Eve?” And let me tell you, that sounded good. Ditto for only 7 boxes to clean up Christmas morning.

anon, my heart goes out to you.

I am opposed to trying for sibling equity, in present value or most other things. I give my kids what they individually need, and what their siblings need and therefore may has nothing to do with it in my eyes. I often hear myself saying in response to them, “life is often not fair. Don’t expect it to be” But what I really mean is that Heavenly Father has a more perfect way, and in order to be prepared to see and understand His blessings they need learn faith and gratitude and goodwill toward their siblings, not be looking up reciepts and matching dollar amounts.

We downplay Santa–usually one Santa gift per kid and one gift from parents. My kids don’t even write Santa letters. However, like Justine’s, my parents are big gift givers. My husband refers to their house as the North Pole.