There’s nothing wrong with this scenario, but it’s not particularly interesting. And we realized last year that we don’t need anything. Neither of us! We are fortunate to be able to say that we have everything we require and then some! I don’t know about you, but our house is crammed full of stuff!! We’ve recently realized that much of what we have isn’t needed, used, or even wanted.
When considering changing our Christmas morning traditions, we asked ourselves, “What can we use instead of exchanging Christmas gifts?” What will happen on Christmas morning if we don’t exchange gifts?! We didn’t know what to do! Then the idea of unusual unique gifting experiences rather than gifts occurred to me.
1. Family Christmas Ideas Rather Than Gifts
So, this is what we did. We proceeded to exchange names. It included me, my husband, and our two children, as well as my brother, younger sister, and older sister, as well as her two sons and husband. My mother and aunt were also present.
2. Experiential Christmas Gifts
Instead of exchanging gifts on Christmas morning, we ended up sharing our experiences. We went around the room and said our names and what our experience would be like. And, while we didn’t have the traditional mound of gifts and wrapping paper, we did have the fun of planning who we would spend time with and what we would do.
3. The Outcomes of Our Experiment
One of the unexpected outcomes of our experiment of giving experiences rather than gifts was that a Washington Post reporter interviewed me based on this article! It was fascinating and enjoyable to discuss why we chose to give experiences rather than gifts.
4. Establishing New Traditions
We decided that since we were shaking things up, we might as well look at our traditions and what we were passionate about. And to think long and hard about whether we wanted to add anything. We exchange names and then go out and buy a book for that person, wrap it up, and place it under the tree. On Christmas Eve, we all open our books and read for the rest of the night! Who wouldn’t enjoy this custom?