Gift giving at Christmastime—or any other time—is meant to be a joyous occasion, but often ends up with a lot of chaos and stress. We hold on to traditions that no longer work and often spend more money than we should. In today's podcast episode, I share some ideas and stories with you from our own creative gift giving—both for simplicity and frugality's sake—that will hopefully inspire you to do something different this year as a Christmas gift giving challenge.

(Listen to today’s podcast by clicking on the play button on the black player bar above, or find the Farmish Kind of Life podcast on your favorite podcast player!)

Summary of today's episode:

Weird traditions that we hold on to/things we do:

Staying involved in big gift exchanges after the family gets too big

Feeling like we have to purchase a gift for someone "because it's Christmas"

Buying gifts for people who need nothing

Buying gifts that people do not need and will not use

Forgetting why you're giving a gift

Realities to think about:

Christmas changes as we get older. There is a huge difference between gifts as a kid and gifts as an adult 

One click shopping has changed what "it's the thought that counts" means.

Ideas for how to change your Christmas:

cut down your gift list

exchange names

put an age limit on extended family gift exchanges

cut yourself out of extended family gift exchanges completely—seriously, you can do this

“something you want, need, wear, read”

give experiences instead of things

Secret Santa

"White Elephant"

things that only fit in a stocking

Our favorite ideas for exchanging (stories in the podcast!):

Only exchange second hand gifts

Only exchange homemade gifts

Refill the stuff the receiver uses all the time (groceries, lumber, feed, etc.)

 

Links referenced in today's show:

Episode 064: Homestead Decluttering – The Why and How

Farmish homesteading group on MeWe

A Farmish Kind of Life on Facebook

A Farmish Kind of Life on Instagram

A Farmish Kind of Life on Pinterest

Subscribe to my Farmish Kind of Life podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, PlayerFM, or other popular podcast players. All episodes of the podcast will also be linked under the podcast tab that you can find way at the top of this post in my menu bar.