Giving Christmas/holiday gifts: do you?

[shootingstar]

I do. Though I admit with family far away 4,000 kms. away, it's a stretch to send alot of presents with the cost and ....possibility of loss in mail service. Which has happened several times. So I save up combined birthday and Christmas gifts when I visit in person. I do try to send real Christmas cards to family. They do display cards..it's real. I'm not there in person to celebrate Christmas.

I do understand the philososphy of not giving any gifts to reduce materialism and teach children a valuable lesson. But I will admit as a child I did want some gifts..just for me. I do have clear memory of several years as a kid where there were several of us and my parents were poor. So poor, that there was just 1-2 boxes under the artificial tree (no way, we could not afford a real tree) with cookies, chocolates or socks /pjs.

I personally don't ever recall getting toys just for me at all as a child. Now maybe my parents were still new to concept of Christmas.

So later getting more presents personally was fun. Materialistic. I dunno. But I REALLY did understand the value between no presents and parents who fed us, we had a fake tree in a warm house with lovely snow falling outside in evening. I knew I was loved but it did feel hollow not get a present for myself instead of sharing it with other siblings. I did not need to be taught about the value of family love vs. materialism. I just was tired of sharing possessions with siblings or they vice versa.....as a child/teenager. Yea, teenagehood was that too.

Maybe that's why family doesn't get over bent out of shape if we don't receive presents on the exact special days of the year. As long the little present came...soon.