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Our Holiday Traditions Making Memories #ChosenByKids Event

This is a sponsored post. However all opinions expressed are my own. 

The holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is right around the corner. Lil Man is beyond excited! He is old enough this year to really get into the festivities. And as I started putting out the decorations he wanted everything in his room. ha

With our family being in the South, and us living in PA, our holiday traditions each year are sort of evolving into our own.

Our first year that Hubby and I celebrated our first Christmas, it was just the two of us. Money was tight, but I still wanted a tree. And although gifts were not important, I at least wanted us to be able to have something under the tree and to open on Christmas day.  Our solution? We each took $5 and bought five $1 gifts. Oh yes, I'm for real. It was so much fun. We shopped at the same time - not letting the other person see what we were buying. And part of the deal was that it had to include wrapping. So, we decided to use newspaper to wrap our gifts. I used the comics section.

I couldn't help but giggle when I saw what my husband had wrapped my five $1 gifts in...


You would have to know him personally to get his sense of humor. So no I didn't take offense (as I wasn't working at the time and had just relocated from MS to PA). I got his humor. Cause, well, I get him :) And to this day, many years later, I still have my $1 tiara that he bought me. 

As years passed we sort of evolved into our own traditions. And with the addition of Lil Man to our family, those family traditions are still evolving. Typically after Thanksgiving (either Friday or Saturday) we go and pick out our tree. I love walking through all of the trees trying to decide which one is the one that we want. I think picking out the tree is one of my most favorite parts of the holidays. I love the excitement of it all, and that we are spending time together as a family. This year we got the addition of snow which also made it fun. 



Then we all help decorate with ornaments that we've collected over the years. I also add a new ornament every year. And I love seeing the wrapped presents under the tree. 

Lil Man is also old enough now to understand the importance of 'giving'. So this year, we will be focusing on giving (instead of receiving). I plan to attend Walmart's Holiday Toyland event #ChosenByKids for some inspiration. I encourage you to join me to check out the latest holiday toys. Follow this link to find participating stores and dates. Stay tuned to see what I come home with. :) 


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Comments

  1. Aww how super sweet that your husband and you exchanged 5 $1 gifts. It really doesn't matter what you receive, I think it's the thought and fun of opening them that counts. I hope you and yours have a very happy Christmas this year. It's great that you focus on giving rather than receiving.

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    1. I hope you have a very happy Christmas this year also!

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  2. What great first Christmas memories! :) We were in a similar situation our first married Christmas (we'd both just graduated and had VERY entry level jobs), and, in some ways, it was my favorite Christmas that we've shared: the emphasis was on each other, not the gifts we were giving one another!

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    1. I agree. I remember that Christmas more than the others (before we had our son)

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  3. What a great Christmas memory. I love the story of your first Christmas together.

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  4. What a fun tradition. We are teaching the girls about giving this year, too.

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    1. At 3, it was becoming all about what he could get.. so I definitely needed to shift the focus! :)

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  5. OK...I love the $1 tiara gift idea. I still have the $1 tiara that my Mom got me from the Dollar Store many years ago for my birthday. Also, I think that is completely hilarious how he wrapped the Christmas gifts...I would have been cracking up if I saw that. I regret that I never started a holiday tradition of adding a new ornament to the tree every year.

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    1. I regret that I didn't write the dates on the ornaments :)

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  6. I was just telling my friend about this post because I loved the story and she was like she would love to wake up to that under the Christmas tree on Christmas. She just thought it was such a sweet story. I just had to drop back by and tell you.

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  7. That's such a fun way to do gifts without paying a fortune on them. :) We decided to opt out of doing gifts altogether.. and maybe we might do the $5 limit thing in the future. I do miss the magic of waking up and being excited for what's under the tree.

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    1. And I wanted several presents under the tree. So by buying 5 $1 gifts, we had 10 presents under there ha

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  8. I think that is such a good way to give each other presents,they dont have to be massively expensive just meaningful and useful. The wrapping paper from your hubby is epic lol. I also agree that it is important to focus on giving than receiving glad you teaching that to your son.

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    1. Yes, really trying to instill that in him.. and not that it's gimme gimme gimme :)

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  9. The very first Christmas I had with my husband I cried because I made a big deal of a turkey dinner and all he wanted to do was watch the hockey game. That has never happened since! We also give our kids their own ornament each year.

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    1. :) I like our son pick our the ornament this year.. it was Mickey on a motorcycle (he's 3) ;)

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  10. I like your Christmas Traditions. How funny about the Jobs wrapping paper. That is totally something my husband would have done :-)

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    1. Yes, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it.

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  11. I love your 1st Christmas experience! I know it sounds odd, but some of those "money is tight" moments give you the most life-long wonderful memories that you can get.

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  12. I loved reading this, and to see what a long way you've come since those beginnings with the 1$ presents wrapped in newspaper - although to hear you tell it it almost makes me wish I have more Christmas memories like that, when money is tight and you have no choice but to be creative to show your love for somebody. It just goes to show that money isn't everything, and Christmas memories are created by spending time with loved ones who can always make you smile, no matter the hardships (love your hubby's sense of humor by the way!)...

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  13. With three kids my husband and I should go back to getting each other a cheapie gift just to have something to each other now! Love your traditions... thanks for sharing them with us.

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  14. I'm a single mom of four kids, dollar gifts is where it's at.. I use all the money I have to get them what they need, I got myself a few things, but I don't have to buy it for anyone else, so it saved me the money, lol.

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