Breaking out of the Habit of Christmas
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to additional ways to save money and work on my Personal Finance Management (PFM) lately. One of the topics that keeps rolling around in my skull is the topic of Christmas/Yule/etc.
2007 was the first year I created a Christmas Fund. It was a lifesaver when the holiday season rolled around and I needed to think about the gifts I was going to get. I had $660 to do with as I pleased, $200 of which I gave to my father to buy gifts with since he’s on disability and has no extra money. We didn’t buy each other tons of gifts, and most of the gifts we did buy were practical (rubber no-slip step covers for outside for my dad, new crockpot that we needed etc).
In my mind I know that spending $600 just for a holiday every year is stupid. It really is. But for some reason I still struggle with the thought of disregarding the gift giving and just celebrate the actual holiday. Maybe I don’t want my dad to feel poor, or maybe I enjoy the way his face lights up when I give him something he loves. Personal I could care less if I receive gifts, I just want to spend time with people I care about.
So in theory my financial mindset wants to drop the gift giving each year and save that money, but my sentimental mindset is fighting back hard.
We could just limit the amount of money and gifts to a smaller amount. I could talk openly with my dad about it and see what he thinks.
It really doesn’t make any sense to me why people (including myself) spend all of this money and put ourselves through so much struggle for something so completely unnecessary.
Will I be able to break the bonds with the holiday season? We shall see.
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