When we had kids, we decided not to do Santa Claus. Everyone gets one to two small gifts from each other. They are now 25 and 20, and we still do it this way.

When we had Christmas trees, we would add an ornament every year. Sometimes from a vacation, sometimes a craft. I really went wild in the 70s on those sequin and bead on styrofoam balls! The ones with satin or ribbon under the pins.

I stopped doing trees around 2010. Too much work. I kept a few ornaments...the gold icicles that my mother gave us the first year in our new house, the ironstone "gingerbread" ornaments I made in pottery class when we were first married, a quilt ornament we got in Amish country on our trip to get our first car, Mexican painted tin ornaments I bought on a lunch break with a coworker on a snowy day in Cambridge when I parked my Beetle perfectly with 2 inches to spare front and back. The most recent deco we have are 2 United Polaris Bears we got on trip to London.

I've lived in other countries. They are no less materialistic than Americans. Especially at Christmas. I love the European Christmas markets but I also see why people (in Europe) complain they're expensive snd most of the stuff is made in China. And now they can be so crowded due to mass tourism.

The main advantage you might be able to argue in favor of continental European Christmases is that they do still make it more of a season with many events leading up to Christmas and then onwards to Ephiphany, whereas in the US it has long been a mad consumer rush to one day, the 25th and then boom, it's over with people tossing trees to the curb starting on the 26th.

The people around me who seem to genuinely enjoy and get a lot out of Christmas are those who recognize it's a proper season and interweave traditions, concerts, parties, advent at church along with special baking and proactively spending time with family and friends. The churchgoing really do have the best Christmases compared to the secular, as it's a reminder the core of Christmas is distinctly religious and joyous.

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else concerned that we are training our kids to practice unfettered consumerism aka 'Christmas shopping'. Other countries manage to have a meaningful Christmas season without buying tons of gifts that no one really needs or even worse going into credit card debt. How do you have a low gift Christmas without your children feeling deprived? How do you break the cycle of consumerism?

A question as old as time OP.

Not 'training" my kid. He could have anything, yet typically has a 1-item list. He got there on his own.

This is just dumb. People who overspend and get themselves in trouble do it year round. Some of us have self control.

It's fleeting. I personally did not grow up in a gift culture: only one modest item for me from parents and grandparents. Often the item was something like a dictionary. Sometimes it was something fun, but nothing like most people get because I kept budget in mind when asking. So I did not mind giving my kids exciting presents when they were little, though we probably spent/bought less than most. Once they got to the teen years, not sure about all kids but with mine they would ask for ONE large present: A phone, a nice pair of shoes. Now that they are young adults they have a list and I get several items because they are useful items for fully grown people they could not buy for themselves and will last.