Would it bother you if you didn't get gifts from someone???

DH and I exchange gifts, but, I told him I want to get a joint gift this year, and then he can get me one small thing, and I will get him a "small" thing. He has warmed up to the idea, but, he just loves going overboard when it comes to the gifts. I told him, I know how you feel about me even if you don't get me ANY gift.

So, I guess my question is, do you care more about the gift or just knowing how that person feels about you, more???

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I wish that I could say the gifts don't matter, but they do. I love getting presents. DH and I haven't received a Christmas gift from his mom and step dad for about 8 yrs. DH's family is quite large and until this year our two children received a gift from them. DH received a call from his mom yesterday and they're not buying for anyone this year. My sister-in-law decided to not draw names this year for DH and I, my parents and my brother. So, it looks like DH and I won't be getting any gifts this year from anyone. DH's uncle used to get us something but that stopped when he got married 3 yrs ago but he does buy for our children.
Did I already say that I love getting gifts?

I don't like getting gifts. I love buying myself gifts ! If I want it, I buy it. I don't wait for someone to get the hint that I want it. I also enjoy giving well thought gifts to others. I enjoy traveling home to visit my family more instead of receiving gifts.

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All we are and all we see is but a dream in a dream, All that you see or seem, is but a dream within a dream--Edgar Allan Poe

I agree. We don't buy each other gifts. We buy what we want thru the year. I would rather spend the money on my kids.

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Freedom Stands...Because HEROS Serve

Mary

We spend the money on travelling to visit and we buy what we personally want through the year and then spend a big chunk on our kids ($150 or so each?).

DH keeps on asking me what I want and I can only think of a few silly things... silly because they are actually are sort of for other people (kids! my own, and other peoples) that I'll share them with.

I think that Christmas is really for the kids so dh and I do not exchange gifts. We also just buy for the nieces and nephews. A couple of them are adults but I still buy for them.

Not to me . . . A few years ago we bought a new car on December 22nd for me . . . that really was my present but hubby got me a 10-pack of deluxe $20 car wash certificates ( He paid $200 for them) . . . Well I told a friend a week after Xmas what hubby got me and she actually said "NO, HE DIDN'T" . . . well he did and I thought it was nice but she thought it was awful . . I guess she wants jewerly and stuff . . . I guess I'm easy-going . . . I liked the car washes and I thought they were very thoughtful but a little expensive . . .

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Mommy to three wonderful boys, Justin (11), Nicholas (9) and Scottie (8)

I did not think it mattered but when we started to open gifts I only had 1. We get together with DH's family and the youngest opens first and so on, so gifts do get mixed up so I did not think anything of it. I think I was more embarrassed than anything when everyone was watching and I only had the one gift from DH's family and nothing else. Everyone thought everyone else had picked up presents for me. This year DH's family has decided that "due to kids getting older and Christmas in the middle of the week and work schedules etc, etc, etc, we decided to start from here on out not getting together at all and not exchanging gifts. My kids are devasted, they said "it is really not about gifts but getting together." I am proud of my kids for saying that but what a disappointment. We play games, joke with each and watch movies etc.. It is usually a blast. This is the first year my kids are really not looking forward to Christmas. Can't say I blame them. I really will have to make it up to them somehow.

Honestly, I think the gifting part of Christmas is for the kids, and maybe newlyweds or couples without children. THe family get-togethers and Christmas mean much more to me than any store-bought gift I could get. Now, make me something with your own hands and that would be excellent!

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

I could care less about the gifts. I like being with family and friends and having a good time more. I remember alot more of the good times then what I got as a gift!

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~*~Live life to the fullest*~*

I like the gift if it is practical. I am not into jewelry. I would love a gift card so I can do my own shopping. I don't like it when people buy me clothes. They never fit and then I feel horrible because I have to take it back and you can tell that the giver is disappointed. On my wish list I would like a Panini maker... a good one since the one I got last year broke. (don't buy a hamilton Beach Panini maker). More than anything. I wish the hubby would tease the kids so much. They are sick of it, I'm sick of it. that would be the greatest gift of all.

Christmas for me is all about the kids.

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Mary

The gifts only matter to me in so much as they are a reflection of the consideration and thoughtfulness of the gift giver. I may sound like a whiner, but I have had a few Christmases where there wasn't much of anything for me and it does feel a little disappointing and sad. It's not the quantity or the cost of the gift though...its the thought that matters to me.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I love the gifts. LOL. I like giving and receiving them and creating and receiving all the pretty package decorations on them. My family goes all out on wrapping each gift and making each one beautiful. The packages are so beautiful that I almost hate to open them. Of course, I always do but I like the package displays almost as much as the gifts themselves because it means that they took the time to create a work of art just for me. I love creating one for them, too.

I celebrate Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ and I would do that if I were alone in the woods with no one and nothing but I like celebrating with lots of good food, family, friends, and presents even better.

Yes, that is the point I was trying to make. I don't think it came across as I intended. I know where I stand with a person, no matter what type of gift I get, and the thought (or lack of) that goes into it. This goes for gifts that my kids get, too.

Last year, MIL and SFIL got DH and I a joint gift.... it was a small, very small, I'm talking maybe 3x5 fleece throw. If she paid 5 bucks for it, she got ripped off. The sad thing is, I know she gets her other children and grandchildren much more thought involved gifts, and money is NOT that tight for her. I know she doesn't like me, bottom line. So, even if she spent $1,000 on our gift, there would be very little thought involved. I know when she buys me a gift, it is just to check off my name on her list. I accept that. I do, however, take into consideration her likes/dislikes when buying her a gift, as well as not wanting to look catty or tacky.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I can relate. My IL's are the worst at gift giving. One year, they got my 12 year old son 2 maps you get free at the gas station and a pack of gum...wrapped ! The same year, they gave my 7 year old son ( blood GS's btw, as if it matters )..a pack of 3 squirt guns ! Yes, we lived in VA at the time and the snow was a foot deep..but he got CHEAP plastic, find in the check out line squirt guns. To me they put NO THOUGHT into presents for my kids.

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Live, Love, Laugh

Heck yes, gifts matter to me! Gifts are part of the Chrsitmas celebration.

Now the COST of the gifts doesn't matter, but the thought that goes into them does. One year my sis and bil got me an inflatable footstool that looked like a cow from a THRIFT STORE and I LOVED it. It couldn't have cost more than $5 but it was my favorite gift that year.

My family is rather odd in the way that we do gifts. There are only 5 adults so we take our sweet old time opening the stuff. One person opens a gift and if there is a funny story about its purchase or if it was a really good deal, etc the gift giver tells the story after they open it. Then if it's something that can be used right at the time, it's opened and we play with it a bit before moving on to the next thing.

I can't wait to open presents this year. My parents are getting a Wii(they know they are)and I'm excited for the whole family to play with it.

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

The only year they mattered was a year we couldn't afford to buy any. I don't remember the circumstance, but that year we were SO broke I cried at Christmas because we honestly had nothing to open, nothing.

My mom gives us money and a few corny gifts just so we have stuff to open from her, the rest of my family is gone now and DH's family gives us a candle and a gift card, so nothing thoughtful or exciting there. So if we don't get each other presents, there aren't any.

So the gifts do matter, and I would say not so much for what's in them, just that there are some there.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Gifts do not matter to me at all. I wish that my family would stop giving us gifts. I think Christmas should be about the kids when it comes to gifts. DH and I haven't bought each other a gift in over 6 years. We just buy thing throughout the year. This year we got a cover over our back deck and bought tickets to Phantom. I finally convinced my in-laws to not exchange gifts this year...just buy for the kids (but to scale it down...they don't need for anything). My family just won't go to no gifts. They all LOVE to buy. It doesn't matter that I don't want it or need it, they love to shop and buy. The only gifts we get from each other are stockings with socks and underwear LOL

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

No the gifts that I get do not matter. I love giving them but really hate getting them. But I am excited about a gift my 20yr old daughter got me this year. She got me a mothers ring. I have always wanted one, but have not said anything about it for a couple years, this was the first year she could really afford to spend that much on me. I am so touched by her thought.
Dh and I are not exchanging this year. We bought a combo gift of a Wii. And that is it.

I would not care if I didn't get any gifts at all. There is nothing I want.
My kids would never stand for not getting us anything but I have told them not to buy for us.

we do give them all gifts.

I don't like getting something thoughtless that some one gives just to have a gift for me.:rolleyes