Our Four Gift Christmas

Before I get started, if you haven't already go check out of Youtube video "What I got my kids for Christmas 2017" to see their entire lot of Christmas gifts this year. If you follow me on any social media site, you already know every year I have an overflowing Christmas tree that flows from our dining room into our living room. After buying all those toys last year and then buying storage for those toys, I decided we were done. I no longer wanted to spend days upon days getting upset about where we would put everything when Christmas day was done. This year we decided to adopt the four gift Christmas method, I'm not sure if that's what it's called but we're going with it. We did one want, one need, one thing to wear, and one thing to read. The want is their Santa gift, this gift could be just about any price and it is the big sought after gift they've mostly wanted all year. This varies depending on the child, but for the most part their gifts ranged around $20. Their need gift was kept the same across the board because they all needed the same thing-a tooth brush-I know it sounds lame, but when you're on a budget as tight as we are week to week you need to cut costs where you can. We tried to make their need gift as exciting as possible, but with tooth brushes it is a little hard. Hopefully we somewhat succeed in this. As for the one thing to wear, we barely need clothes. When our kids need clothes we buy them, so there wasn't a huge need for us to purchase all new clothes for them. If they didn't need clothes we got them something else instead that they did need. The one thing to read was the most exciting part for me, my kids-with the exception of Tyson-LOVE reading. We were able to find a lot of good deals on books and I bought up as many as I could. This was the least stressful our Christmas shopping has ever been and I'm so happy about that. Instead of trying to get the best deals on various things my time has been spent at home with my kids, playing, crafting, eating, watching movies-whatever they want. I have been told by a few people that my kids will be disappointed on Christmas day from only getting four gifts, but I don't think that's true. We have talked to our kids about spending less and they looked under the tree today which doesn't even include Santa gifts. When they looked under there I heard Estella say "Wow! We are getting a lot on a budget! There's already a lot under here!" I am so glad they feel that way it just goes to show it's all about expectations and how you raise them. I have a feeling, our four gift Christmas is going to be the best one yet.