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Old 09-28-2010, 04:42 AM
 
Location: maryland
3,966 posts, read 6,841,925 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryleeII View Post
At what age do you start scaling down Christmas?

My kids are now 14 & 14, obviously way too old for Santa. We've always had big celebrations for Christmas, the whole 9 yards, tree, decorations, food, presents, the whole bit.

We just moved into a much smaller home. while I would like to keep our traditions alive, I do want to gear them to their ages now.

In the process of moving we got rid of a lot of ornaments, our huge tree, etc. I still plan to decorate, but not on as large a scale. Also, I'm planning to buy most of our food this year, as opposed to cooking my "traditional" dishes. They weren't so special, just stuff I did over the years. I'm planning this year to buy some, make some, mainly because I have a much smaller kitchen.

This year I really want to try a turduken. Its a duck stuffed into a chicken stuffed into a goose stuffed into a turkey, or, maybe the order varies, depending. There's places around here that do it, you can also get a half order, with stuffing, sauces, side dishes, etc. New place, new traditions!

Also, scaling way back on the gifts. Both kids want to go skiing in CO this coming spring break, I thought to give them ski clothes, and the main gift, the tickets for the trip (its with a youth group), perhaps in their stockings. Ok, essentially, I'm getting off cheap, passing off the trip as a "Christmas", but whatever..........

We will probably go to a Christmas Eve service, spend the day eating turduken, maybe go to grandmas...........keep it low key.........

Why do you feel the need to scale back on gifts and traditions? I can understand gifts when they get older and on their own 2 feet....but at 14 i think unless you are having problems finacally it is a bit much no? While they might technically be young adults they still are into that stuff. And scaling back on traditions....well that doesn't make any sense.
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Old 09-28-2010, 04:43 AM
 
Location: maryland
3,966 posts, read 6,841,925 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by txtqueen View Post
OMG I live in CO!
*lurks away*

Oh goodie! So i know when i vist there next year to find you and force you too watch my kids :-P.
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Old 09-28-2010, 05:04 AM
 
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I agree w/paganmama80. I understand scaling back the gifts, although as other mentioned a ski trip and clothes is a pretty sweet package. The stuff I remember most from my childhood is decorating the tree, great food my mom only cooked around Christmas, going to church together for midnight Mass. I'd scale back gifts before I started dropping traditions.
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Old 09-28-2010, 07:19 AM
 
208 posts, read 270,094 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryleeII View Post
This year I really want to try a turduken. Its a duck stuffed into a chicken stuffed into a goose stuffed into a turkey, or, maybe the order varies, depending.
Ahh that's an epic meal.

I don't see anything wrong with passing the trip off as Christmas. Teenagers can cope without immediacy. And they'll have the ski clothes on the day anyway.

I remember Christmas scaling down with my parents as older teens/young adults, not so extravagant with the decorations/tree/presents. The food has always stayed traditional though.
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Old 09-28-2010, 07:22 AM
 
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We scaled down sometime between my high school and college days. My mom stopped putting up mass amounts of decorations. We stopped putting up all three trees. We scaled down the lights, tho my dad was never a bit lights enthusiast to begin with. Now usually it's just us 4 on Christmas day. It's fun we eat a nice meal (my mom still makes the same meal, but much much less) and we usually go see a movie in the evening. We like to do movies on all our holidays, like thanksgiving and easter!
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Old 09-28-2010, 07:27 AM
 
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Mine are 15 and 18- I feel like we've scaled down a bit but that's b/c the presents seem more expensive-they just get fewer of them-I love christmas-I believe if you can't afford it like you used to just buy less and fewer gifts- or better yet start buying now so that you are swamped with a huge bill in January!!
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Old 09-28-2010, 07:33 AM
 
Location: In a house
13,250 posts, read 42,636,153 times
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There was a family in our town last year written up in the local newsweekly. Instead of the parents buying gifts for the kids and having a traditional family dinner, they all went to a homeless shelter in the city and gave homeless people presents, and served them dinner. The family made turkey and turkey soup at home in big vats, did canned sweet potatoes, and brought it all over to the shelter. So instead of another day of "what am I gonna get?" they did "what are we gonna give?"

It was an incredibly touching story and just reading it made me feel proud for the kids for understanding the true meaning of Christmas.
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Old 09-28-2010, 08:09 AM
 
Location: maryland
3,966 posts, read 6,841,925 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick View Post
There was a family in our town last year written up in the local newsweekly. Instead of the parents buying gifts for the kids and having a traditional family dinner, they all went to a homeless shelter in the city and gave homeless people presents, and served them dinner. The family made turkey and turkey soup at home in big vats, did canned sweet potatoes, and brought it all over to the shelter. So instead of another day of "what am I gonna get?" they did "what are we gonna give?"

It was an incredibly touching story and just reading it made me feel proud for the kids for understanding the true meaning of Christmas.

To be honest i would have been pretty pissed if my parents pulled that on me.
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Old 09-28-2010, 08:10 AM
 
Location: Denver
4,564 posts, read 10,926,437 times
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I don't know when your spring break is - but you may not need to really buy them "ski clothes". Spring skiing here can be warm depending on when you would be coming. Buying them all the traditional ski clothes that people think are needed for skiing might be a waste, especially if they won't be using them again.

Just something to think about.
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Old 09-28-2010, 08:14 AM
 
556 posts, read 795,804 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paganmama80 View Post
To be honest i would have been pretty pissed if my parents pulled that on me.

Really?

The family is probably blessed in their everyday, don't really want/need for much and were happy to do it.

We aren't anywhere near rich, or even middle class, but we don't want or need for much. The kids are still so young that they "want" everything they see, but they have some version of most toys for their age groups. When they are a little older I plan on doing something to help out on Thanksgiving, but probably nor Christmas. I love doing the family thing too much to give it up, probably because i never had it as a kid so I want to do it for mine.
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