Avoidance , Avoidance, Avoidance!

That's my way of coping with Christmas stress; I deny the fact that it's coming for as long as I can. I avoid shopping in stores I know are Christmas targets. If I have to go to the mall, I go in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week (I can do this because I'm spoiled by the fact that I'm a SAH mom). If I can help it I try to avoid rush hour traffic (which in this area seems to last about three hours on each end of the day). I used to try to deny my child his Santa Clause, "Sure Santa exists, but he's really just a person whose job is to spread holiday joy. Mommy and Daddy are the ones who get your presents." But damn those kids and their insistence on believing in the most unrealistic myths. And most importantly, I wait until the absolute last second to buy presents. I can often be found putting the finishing touches on wrapped gifts on the way to our destination, having to witness them being torn apart by greedy kids 10 minutes later.

I don't think this is really useful information for anyone. It's probably more depressing, but that's my method. I don't know where my hatred of Christmas comes from, but I'm sure working at the mall four Christmases in a row while I was in college had something to do with it. Basically, I have an extreme aversion to all the gift giving and greediness. In our culture Christmas seems to have become a holiday of over-consumption. Unfortunately I can avoid it for only so long. Eventually it comes to my house.

Like many other people, we long ago stopped exchanging gifts with the adults in the family. Currently it's only the kids. And when Jacob was born I create the one gift rule. There are three sets of grandparents, a set of great aunt and uncle, five aunts and uncles (along with cousins) who buy presents for Jacob. One present per family unit is more than enough for our son, but for some reason, a few of the aforementioned choose to flat out ignore our wishes. I just got word that a certain family member (unrelated to me) is bringing five gifts for Jacob this year. That kind of disrespect for our values fills me with something more akin to rage than holiday cheer. They think we have no right to tell them how many gifts they can get for our son.

Ouch, sorry to be such a grump. Like I said, I don't have any answers. If anyone has any idea how to get the 'people' to stop over-gifting I would love to hear some ideas!