Hi Diane- yay for you commenting for the first time! (Diane is my dear in-real-life friend who has a wonderful, generous spirit that I admire)

Beatrice, it's ok to do "busy" things (like making ornaments) or having lots of bought ornaments if they're things that make Christmas more meaningful and special for you and your family. Every family will look different, and it sounds like yours is working hard to choose the best things, without giving up special traditions at the same time!

Each year we paint plaster decorations for the Christmas tree. It's fun to read the dates on the back and try to remember what we were doing that year. It's also nice to see how the children's painting skills have changed over the years. This year we also painted some plaster houses for on top of our new fireplace. I think next year we'll try baking them instead to save on some of the expense of purchasing the decorations.

Every year we also receive unique (purchased, sorry!) Christmas decorations, the idea being that when the children begin families of their own, they can take these decorations and the memories they contain for their own tree. When my daughter was quite small we bought a beautiful Christmas angel and have used it for several years now. This year we bought a Father Christmas in honour of our son who is three. We intend to rotate these tree toppers every year - again, when the children move out, they can take these 'family treasures' for their own trees.

We bake a lot and give the surplus to friends as gifts and we also make our own wine to give away as well.

We are involved in our church and each year 10 local families are sponsored for Christmas. There is "angel tree" where you can pick a paper angel that outlines a gift suggestion. Each of us picks one angel -usually someone who mirrors ourselves. We make sure our children are present when the gift is purchased so they are part of the process. This year, my son picked a boy close in age who wants a toy car and I picked a mom who wants bakeware. (As an added bonus, when we give the church the receipts for these gift purchases , we get a tax receipt). Since joining the church 2 years ago, the Christ has certainly been put back into Christmas as they say.

We probably still buy a little too much. But we rarely buy clothing or treats 'just because' throughout the year. These things come almost exclusively at Christmas, birthdays and back to school time.

Merry Christmas one and all.

The thought that came to me is holding it all loosely. Two years ago I had a baby and a 2 year old at Christmas. We got the stomach flu and my daughter got a crazy rash. Out the window went all of "my" plans like making lots of cookies and doing more. Instead I felt God was telling me to focus on being a mom and a wife instead of a homemaker. I took care of everyone, we didn't rush around anywhere and I saved energy to celebrate my husband's birthday (Dec. 22nd). It was a wake up call and a good one.

The reason I write this is because here we are again in December and guess what? I have a baby, 2 year old and 4 year old...and the whole family has colds. Another year of "plans" changed. We stayed home and tried a few new pumpkin recipes and we let the kids decorate the tree and we put up our mangers.

I am very thankful to the Lord for the "interruptions" he gives us. My advice this year and probably every year is hold it all loosely.

What to buy for that special someone who has everything? You can purchase a gift for the poor in your friend's name and then you will receive a card describing the gift to pass on to your friend. Canadian Food for the Hungry has options such as medical insurance for a family, seeds, a cow, a well, sewing courses, and lots more to help poor families become self-supporting and healthy. Check out their Gift Guide online at http://www.cfhi.ca

We do a simple Christmas tree, which my husband bought after Christmas extremely reduced with lights for like $5 (LOL!) I thankfully have the decorations my family collected for me- each year we got one decoration with the idea we would take them when we left home. I would like to do that with my daughter but since money is tight we made simple dough ornaments using flour, salt and water and then baked and painted them- amazing and we all loved it. I would like to do the tradition of making decorations each year.

We get one gift for our daughter, which our limit is $25, and one each for each other, also the same limit. Its hard to do sometimes...but we don't mind getting second hand things as gifts so it works out.

We draw names for DH's family which is large but since my family is very small we don't. We have $10 limits for everyone, which is also very hard, but thankfully it keeps it simple that way too, by necessity.

We don't do Christmas cards at all. I know many people have different opinions on this...but I would rather do personal ones than just signing my name...so I don't do it as at this point I don't have the time or energy to do personalized ones.

We read and talk about the Christmas story on Christmas day. I like the idea of a Jesse tree- maybe for the future.

That's really as far as we have gotten so far with figuring out our own traditions and ways of doing things while keeping things simple. I would like to expand a bit eventually to include some more things (while remaining simple!) as I don't feel we totally have a handle on things yet. I think the top thing that I like that we came up with is making or own decorations each year. I am also going to use several for gifts.

I recently started reading about the Jesse Tree. It sounds like a fun idea!
Blessings,
Michele