This year, Christmas has raced at me with such speed that I have not given much concern to materialism. Buying gifts felt like items on my to-do list. Sending cards was an impossibility (I tried...). So as my to-do list is finished I had a few thoughts about gifts and gifting - mostly in the middle of the night during my nightly "thinking time" (i.e. 2:30am when I wake up almost every night).
More than half of Christmas gifts is anticipation. It seems impossible for the contents of a wrapped box to meet its expectations. I could give my children a piece of candy unwrapped and they'll be happy, or give them a beautifully wrapped box with an expensive toy inside and they'll be let down.
With multiple children, I see that one child will be happier with a less expensive gift (and that's ok) while another child won't really be happy with any one particular thing (because I know that child and that they don't enjoy "things" as much as experiences, but we can't not give that child a material gift - they are just too young to understand that part of their personality.)
I know some things we paid hard earned money for will not be used. This is always true and not just at Christmas time. I just have to let that go.
Sometimes cheap toys (or paper dolls or pet rocks) get played with more than expensive ones.
Despite the cost and frustration, I want to give my children gifts. There is a satisfaction in giving them something they really really wanted - or at least what they thought they wanted, because the anticipation of Christmas goes both ways - I am almost as eager to watch them open their gifts tomorrow as they are to open them.
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