Simplifying Christmas

Today at church we had a lesson on Christmas. They asked the question of whether as a child you remember the presents or the traditions or what? In my thoughts, I remember lots of things.

One big thing was how every year we picked a family and did the 12 days of Christmas for them. If you're not familiar with this, you drop off a gift anonymously every day starting 12 days before Christmas usually with a theme of the day number equaling the amount of whatever you give. For example on the 12th day you drop off 12 eggs or whatever. I remember the memories of the strategies of not getting caught and the families whom we served.

Another tradition I remember is cutting our tree down every year. Each year we would drive up the canyon, take our hacksaw wood saw and tromp through the snow to cut our tree. We'd want to climb up a tree 6 feet and cut the top off a bigger tree but my parents wouldn't let us. So we'd walk miles and miles so we could find a Charlie Brown Tree the Perfect tree. Then we'd drag it back and tie it to the top of our van for the hour drive home. It was quite an experience. As a married adult, I helped my mom cut a tree for her. Of course it was a total disaster trip but we enjoyed the journey.

Anyway, the lesson encouraged us to focus less on the material part of Christmas and enjoy the traditions and memory making experiences instead. Basically encouraging us to simplify our Christmas. It's not about who gets what or really even what you get. It's about how you feel and the memories you collect.

One tradition the hubby and I have started which we're excited about is we each fill a stocking for each other. It's more of a game. We have rules. You're allowed to spend $10 (no more!). And the fun part is you're supposed to try to buy 10 things to put into the stocking. This one started one year when we were poor (please note we still are poor but we were poorer) and I wanted to do stockings for the hubby and I. So I went and bought $10 in stuff for each of us and ended up with 10 things each. And no we don't go to the dollar store to do this, we go to a very large, popular, somewhat controversial retailer.

So I just might say I'm done Christmas shopping for my kids and just wrap up what I have so I can focus on the experiences. Then I'd go bake.