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How I’m Simplifying Christmas 2020

The holiday season is upon us again, like I always say, Christmas is never over, it’s always coming.

I love Christmas! I love to be around family. I love all the baking and homemade decorations I do with both my children and my grandchildren.

I do have a tendency to go overboard when it comes to gift giving though.

Although, I have never spent very much money on Christmas, I have always given each one of my 12 children 25 presents each.

Yes, you heard me right – 25 presents each!!!

Now, in my defense, I have barely spent any money on all of these gifts. I always pay rock-bottom prices since I implement Strategic Shopping and shop all year long. Most families I know spend more on one child than I ever did on all 12 of my mine.

Christmas Past

Growing up in a family of 12 children meant that my kids didn’t get everything that came along. One way that I ensured they felt special and had good memories throughout their childhood was by going overboard on their birthdays and Christmas.

Christmas 2020 is going to look quite different from that though. It’s time to simplify.

Like many of you, I have spent much of 2020 at home decluttering and organizing. I have not spent a lot of time shopping or hauling things home, so the gift closet is looking mighty low.

I figured, hey, why not take advantage of this and learn to simplify my gift giving this year.

Of course, having 18 grandchildren has also encouraged me to tone things down a little.

Now, I have never given extravagant gifts. I have always kept things simple and given them with a lot of excitement and joy. I raised my children to enjoy the little things in life and I let that overflow into the types of gifts that I gave.

So, although, 25 gifts each may sound like a lot at first, they were what most people would call stocking stuffers, or even necessities. The difference is they were the actual gifts and not just stocking stuffers.

Every year, my children knew that they would get a new cup, slipper socks, a book, crayons, markers, colored pencils, notebooks, their own game, their own movie, a new outfit, pajamas, slippers, hats, gloves, a sled, personal care items, like shampoos, bubble baths, and toothbrushes, plus two or three toys and/or crafts.

They would also look forward to getting their own bottle of chocolate syrup and a container of milk, and cheese in a can with chips or crackers. They loved to get a large candy bar, which was wrapped in white paper with a snowman hand-drawn on it.

I always jokingly told them I was going to give them toilet paper and light bulbs since our mega family went through so much of this stuff!

To this day they still ask for chocolate milk, cheese in a can and now, since most of them are adults, they want that toilet paper and light bulbs!

I am still sticking to some of my favorite homemade gifts this year, like just add water pancake mix made with my dehydrated milk and eggs, dehydrated marshmallows, homemade hot cocoa, and crocheted dishcloths.

Giving Gifts to the Grandchildren

From June 2019 to April 2020 I got five new grandchildren. That’s five new grandchildren in just 10 months! I am now expecting number 19. This year, I am buying for grandchildren ages 12 all the way down to just a few months old. This is where my biggest change is coming in.

For some reason, as each of the grandchildren started appearing, I kept the tradition of 25 gifts per person. Not only was it getting difficult for me to store all of those gifts in my house since I’m a year-round shopper it was also overwhelming my adult children and their families.

This year I am definitely simplifying the grandchildren gift giving.

First, I picked a dollar amount that I wanted to give. I seriously considered just giving each of them $5.00, then I thought I could actually create nice gifts for $5.00, which would be way more fun.

Simplify Christmas by Giving Every Grandson the Same Thing

I decided right away that I could easily work on simplifying Christmas by giving all of my grandsons the same thing.

I went to the Dollar Tree and bought each one of my grandsons a little toolbox. Next, I pulled up my Harbor Freight digital coupons and searched for some tools. I found 25 foot tape measures for 98 cents each. I got some 4-in-1 screwdrivers for $0.74 each. I grabbed each of the grandsons a little flashlight for 59 cents each. I searched the Dollar Tree until I found little hammers and that finished out their gift.

Instead of trying to figure out gifts for each one separately this year, I decided to just give all of the boys toolboxes with tools.

Cost

Toolbox – $1.00

Tape measure – 98 cents

4-in-1 screwdriver – 74 cents

Flashlight – 59 cents

Hammer – $1.00

$4.31 plus tax

(As a side note, I find the online coupons I want to use in Harbor Freight before I head out to the store. I simply screenshot each coupon, then show each one to the clerk during checkout.)

Simplify Christmas by Giving Every Granddaughters the Same Thing

Each one of my granddaughters are getting an apron, a bowl, a cake mix and frosting, a cookie mix, and a muffin mix.

Cost

Apron – $1.00

Cake mix – $1.00

Frosting – $1.00

Cookie mix – $1.00

Muffin mix – $1.00

$5.00 plus tax

I could have saved quite a bit of money on the granddaughters’ gifts if I would have held out for all of the upcoming November baking goods sales, but with the uncertainty of the times, I decided just to pick most of the stuff up right at the Dollar Tree.

(I would also like to mention that Aldi sells super cheap baking supplies! It just so happens that our local Aldi is undergoing renovations right now.)

Simplify Christmas by Giving Every Baby the Same Thing

All of the babies are getting a praying teddy bear from Family Dollar, which also cost $5.00 each.

Purposeful Giving

I enjoyed giving real gifts rather than just plastic toys to my own children like teacups, baking supplies, and tools, so I figured my grandchildren would enjoy these types of gifts just as much.

I will also be putting together a basketful of goodies for each family.

We never drew names for gift giving at Christmas time when my kids were little. I did this with the purpose of wanting to train my children to think of others more than they were thinking of themselves.

Simplify Christmas Always Includes Strategic Giving

Do you want to know how the Foote family will simplify Christmas? Well, our family will always include Strategic Giving during our holidays.

Starting in September, I would give each person a new red or green notebook and tell them to write out a list of all the people they planned on getting gifts for that year.

I would then hire them to do jobs around the house so they could earn their own money in order to buy gifts to give to others.

We would also start writing out Christmas cards in September to hand out to the nursing homes. Eventually, we switched over to buying stuffed animals .

The craziness of 2020 is forcing us back into writing Christmas cards since we won’t be able to spend Christmas Eve at the nursing home this year due to the pandemic .

We also enjoy buying slipper socks to hand out at the nursing home this time of year . We are still going to be able to do this, but we won’t be delivering them personally.

I don’t know how many years we have done Operation Christmas Child. It has been many, many years. It’s a lot easier now that it can be done digitally. Does your family fill shoeboxes to send to needy children for Christmas? Samaritan’s Purse makes it easy to just go into their website, click on the items you want to have in your shoebox, pay online, and they do the rest for you.

Last year, my daughter Jaimie started the tradition of taking the children around the neighborhood to do Christmas caroling. That is still on the list of things to do this year.

We will also be sticking to the tradition of all gathering together to cut down our Christmas trees, drinking hot cocoa, singing Christmas carols, and making homemade decorations, including popcorn balls to hang on the tree.

Above all, our family will be taking the time to remember the real reason for the season, which is the birth of Christ.

How will You Simplify Christmas 2020

How about you? Are you preparing for Christmas? Are will you simplify Christmas 2020? What will your Christmas look like?

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