Trying to simplify the season

After much thought, deliberation and prayer, we have decided from this Christmas forward we will no longer be doing sibling and friend gift exchange at Christmas. We have decided to simplify and just get gifts for our parents and our children. Don't worry, we love you and want to spend time with you at Christmas. The best part of Christmas is spending time with those we love. We love spending time with you but we feel gift giving is not necessary to show our love for you. We are giving you the gift of a stress free Christmas; now you no longer have to worry about what to get us or what we will give you.

Part of this was born from the fact that not everyone has a lot of money to spend on Christmas and when there are five-thousand family members and friends that we would like to get gifts for, we can't afford it. And if we can afford it, it is because we got everyone a two dollar gift that will either have to be eaten (thus screwing up the diet everyone is trying to stick to) or it will clutter the house until the guilt of throwing away a "gift" is overcome by the desire to have a clean living space. This sounds like a big waste of time, money and stuff.

After we thought about it some more, it just didn't make sense to give everyone we know or are related to a Christmas present. This is the Savior's birth we are celebrating and we give each other gifts in similitude of the gift He gave all of us. But all the people we would give gifts to already have a place to live, clothes to wear and food to eat.

The Savior has told us to clothe the naked and feed the hungry, so we are going to take our opportunity to give gifts on Christmas to someone who really needs it. This will be our Christmas tradition and an opportunity to teach our children (and ourselves) how to become more Christ-like.

We hope we don't offend you by not giving you a present. It's not because we don't love you, we do, but we want to make some traditions in our family which will benefit those who need help. And to teach our kids that we don't have to make Christmas so stressful and get everyone we know a gift. We love you and the best part of the holiday season is spending time with our family and friends and enjoying your company.

We love you,
Jon, Chrissy, Calvin, Lily and Ava