One of my favourite Christmas gifts

During the Christmas season, the stores are packed.   People flock to the malls looking to purchase everything from their Christmas lists, and many go broke doing it.  
According to a BMO poll last year, Canadians had planned to spend seven per cent more for Christmas in 2011, as compared to 2010.....In Ontario and the Atlantic region, spending was expected to be around $1,420 per person...Wow.....It seems like so much money for an occasion that's over in a flash.  
It shouldn't be about how much you spend.  It's should be the thought that counts.
Whatever happened to the opinion that Christmas is for spending time with family?  It reminds me of the story "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."  The Grinch had just stolen all of the presents, stockings and Christmas trees from the homes in Whoville.....Yet when the residents woke up on Christmas Day, they still gathered round the tree to sing.  No presents required....Just as long as they were together.

I did receive something for Christmas that I will cherish.  It is probably one of the best gifts a that a Mom can receive.  No money required...Just thought, and a little bit of creativity.

My 4 year old son made this for me at Preschool.   They painted paper to wrap it up in, and he brought it home with a tag on it, so it went under the tree with all the rest until Christmas Day.  This is what it is all about........It brought a smile to my face, and he was so proud of making it.  

I've hopefully passed this thinking onto my kids..For my daughter's birthday, she got a couple of gifts...One of the was a t-shirt we had purchased, and we also bought an iron on of her name with a couple of Pooh characters on it.   That was her favourite of all, not because it was a t-shirt with her name on it, but she said it was because it was homemade and those are her favourite types of gifts.

Now that it's 2012, there are a couple of things I'm going to do differently as I prepare for Christmas this year.    I will not be leaving the purchase of gift cards until December...For some reason I always leave those until the last minute, when I could be buying them throughout the year when we have a bit of extra money.... And I'm going to think a little more about homemade gifts, because I'm sure that others will appreciate them just as much as I do.