I call troll on this.

Anonymous wrote:Bigger is not always better. We have ALWAYS done small, low key Christmases. We go around dropping off cookies to neighbors and friends (my kids knew ding dong ditch before they were 3) on Christmas morning and they've always gotten 3-6 gifts. We spend the day with each other and family members in town, baking, playing games, going for walks, sledding, snowball fights, ice skating, etc.

My two oldest kids are in their early 20's and they think all their Christmases have been wonderful and warm and they're not at all upset they've never had a big, over-the-top Christmas.

Jesus Christ people!!!

How hard is it to read the original post and at least attempt to decipher what it means.

I didn't read all the posts here, so I apologize if this has already been said, but OP, why don't you do the Xmas as you have it while your folks are still well enough to host, then do it your way after they pass on?

OP, if I were you, I'd sit down and make a really honest list of priorities for the holidays. No one else has to see it, so if "give the kids a huge mountain of presents" is at the top and "volunteer" is at the bottom, no one else needs to know. Then start making a plan to satisfy as many of those priorities as possible, working from the top down. If "Go to Colorado is first" and "give the kids traditional decorations/presents" is second, call your parents and have the conversation the pp suggested, laying out what holiday things you plan to do with your kids. If your parents refuse to have you do them in their house, then you go to Colorado and don't do them. If, on the other hand, the order of those first two is reversed, you have the same conversation with your parents, but if they vehemently refuse you say, "Sorry mom and dad, it's really important to us to give the kids a traditional Christmas, so we're going to stay home this year." It would be a bummer to have to choose between the two, but ultimately you can't force your parents to do the kind of Christmas you want. And no matter what you plan for your kids, it's probably not going to involve new cars and horse-drawn sleighs on your parents' dime

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good lord! You are unbelievable, selfish and greedy. You parents are alive and know the true meaning of Christmas. You make me vomit.

So you are also skipping having a tree and exchanging Christmas presents with your kids on CHristmas morning? (Not OP, but I think it is totally reasonable that she wants this as part of her holiday tradition. And I think it is really selfish of the rest of the family not to get that her kids are younger than theirs and still are into the whole CHristmas morning things!)

The point is OP is capable of doing this herself if thats what she wants for her kids. Her parents and siblings and nieces and nephews are under no obligation to do it for them.

Anonymous wrote:Good lord! You are unbelievable, selfish and greedy. You parents are alive and know the true meaning of Christmas. You make me vomit.

So you are also skipping having a tree and exchanging Christmas presents with your kids on CHristmas morning? (Not OP, but I think it is totally reasonable that she wants this as part of her holiday tradition. And I think it is really selfish of the rest of the family not to get that her kids are younger than theirs and still are into the whole CHristmas morning things!)

Bigger is not always better. We have ALWAYS done small, low key Christmases. We go around dropping off cookies to neighbors and friends (my kids knew ding dong ditch before they were 3) on Christmas morning and they've always gotten 3-6 gifts. We spend the day with each other and family members in town, baking, playing games, going for walks, sledding, snowball fights, ice skating, etc.

My two oldest kids are in their early 20's and they think all their Christmases have been wonderful and warm and they're not at all upset they've never had a big, over-the-top Christmas.

Op, you and the OP whose in laws eat everything before they get there would likely get along. Both spineless idiots who don't want to do the easiest and most sensible solution to the issue.

Good lord! You are unbelievable, selfish and greedy. You parents are alive and know the true meaning of Christmas. You make me vomit.

I say go to CO with your family but either have Christmas with your family and skip the soup kitchen shindig, or do Christmas with your LOs on Christmas Eve. I know a few families who do the latter just b/c it's their tradition.

What is your family doing on Christmas morning? Do they go to the soup kitchen at the crack of dawn?