Mom-Of-Eight, Who Stopped Buying Christmas Presents For Her Kids, Stands By Her Decision In The Face Of Online Criticism
A mother of eight revealed that she doesn’t buy her children Christmas presents – but they’re much happier as a result.
At one point, 35-year-old Angie Wipf from Alberta, Canada was buying around 40 presents for her family for Christmas but then she made the choice to limit her children to one present each that they actually have to get for one another.
Angie shared her new family tradition on social media, which got her a mixed bag of responses, with some people accusing her of being “cold”.
She said that thanks to her decision she now manages to save around $700 annually.
She decided to go for the change in December 2019 when it struck her that the children would only remember one or two of the multiple presents they received.
“I just noticed that when they would open a lot of presents they only noticed the one they really wanted and forget about the rest.
I think it’s taken stress away from kids, they’d be so overwhelmed with stuff they wouldn’t know what to do,” Angie said.
Angie now spends the savings on family trips including museums and zoo visits.
She added:
“We spend more time having experiences rather than stuff.”
The holiday season also comes packed with several birthdays every year.
Cedar, who is 4-years-old, has a birthday on December 23rd, Cruze, 5, and Finley’s, 10, are in October, and Macklin’s, 8, in January.
Angie went on to say:
“We work hard to make sure birthdays are separate from Christmas so we can focus on their birthday.”
She made all of her children pull the name of one of their siblings out of a hat, and they would be in charge of picking out their one Christmas present.
And when the mother announced the new plan to her group of eight-under-10s, she was surprised at how positively they all reacted.
Angie said:
“They like it, they remind me it’s time to draw the names.
I found they enjoy what they get more because they’ll talk to their siblings throughout the year about what they like.”
Now, all her children look forward to the celebrations and they spend the day doing things together, like making cookies, going to see Christmas light displays, or watching holiday season movies.
Angie also shared a clip on social media talking about her special ideas, with one person commenting…
“That’s just cold let them be kids and have some joy.”
In response, Angie wrote:
“Apparently lots of people have seen it and not everyone agrees!
“We usually, instead of us spending more money, we might put the money to good use throughout the year on like museums or the zoo.”
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