Re: Holidays… I hate holidays. Does anyone out there like them?

[Anonymous]

I hate the obligation to see everyone in the family at Christmas. I enjoy catching up with family, but I dislike having to choose who to spend Christmas day with – Mum and her side of the family, Dad and his wife, or my in-laws. I work shift work on top of it all, so it’s rare that we can fit two “get-togethers” into the one day either (and I dislike the rush/stress of doing so as well). I also don’t like the fact that everyone feel obliged to cook traditional Xmas food. I do not like plum pudding and brandy sauce!! Or turkey. What is wrong with something quick and easy (or cheap) for the poor family who ends up hosting Xmas meals and supplies more food than the rest of us do and gets stuck with the clean up!! At least our house is usually too messy, so nobody suggests having Xmas at our house lol!!

Our Christmas tree only went up today, and the kids were the ones to put it up. I like having a tree, but hate having to organise it.

We decided, as a family (Mum, brothers, aunt, uncles, grandparents, and cousins), to put all put money into a money box at Cristmas time and then donate it to a charity that we agree on, instead of buying everyone in the family gifts. Only kids get gifts, and my two are the only ones young enough to still get any from the family. But the kids are the ones who go with my mum to donate the money (if possible), so they have seen how much it’s appreciated. They have both donated their own money at times, which is great. And we can put in whatever we can spare, as it’s anonymously done, so our money situation can be taken into account each year.

As for Christmas presents for our own kids, I read a great piece of advice that actually works. Tell the kids to write their Xmas list. Then you go and price each item and write the price on their list. Then tell them how much they can spend (our kids were young when we first tried it, so we told them how much money we were giving Santa to “buy” their presents, or how much Santa was able to spend on them, or something similar – I don’t remember exactly what), and ask them to select how they want to “spend” their allocated money. They will generally come in under budget, and will learn the value of money over the years, and how far it doesn’t stretch!!

We have done this with other things too. Like when we go out to a special event – we allocate a budget for the day, and then work out how much we each get, and how much goes towards entry costs, bus fares, parking, etc. Then we give the kids each their part of the money (in cash) and tell them that that is their allocated money for souvenirs, food, rides, and whatever, and they get to keep what they don’t spend. They always both come home with money unspent, but if we do not do it that way, then we would get pestered to buy food, drinks, and everything else, and usually end up going over what we had budgeted to spend.

Also buying a gift to give charity (our local shopping centre has a Xmas tree to put presents under) gives the kids an idea about how quickly costs can add up without it looking like you have bought much.

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