This year the Umstattd Family has changed the way we do Christmas. It is changing everything.

The Old Way

With seven people in the Umstattd Family Christmas got a bit out of hand. We would spend all December shopping to fill up the whole living room floor with heaps of gifts.

With the notable exception of my father, we had become materialistic. The gifts not the Giver had become the focus of our Christmas day.

The Advent Conspiracy

Geno Hildebrandt, the pastor of our church, started talking about the advent conspiracy and that got us thinking.  Could we do Christmas differently this year?

If you are unaware of The Advent Conspiracy you need to read this post right now.

In short, with the money Americans spend on Christmas we could solve the clean water epidemic and probably world hunger as well.

The Umstattd Family Meeting

So, we held a meeting. In typical Umstattd fashion this meeting was done according to Roberts Rules of Order.  We submitted and voted on bills, seconded amendments and tried to keep the talking to no more than three people at a time.

I was surprised that the younger members of our family were fine with getting fewer gifts this year. We all agreed that Christmas for our family had become too much about stuff and not enough about people.

Random Christmas photo from 1999

My dad felt it important for the children to buy into the changes. So, we voted on and passed the following “Family Bills.”

• Family Bill 1 Each child is to give a gift to only one other child. (We drew names out of a hat) This passed unanimously 7/0
• Family Bill 2 Mom & Dad will only give one gift per child. Gift is defined by one wrapped gift. This does not apply to candy and other very small stocking stuffers. This passed 7/0
• Family Bill 3 Gift decisions are to be made through subversive investigation and not direct interrogation whenever possible. This passed 5/2
• Family Bill 4 Family members are encouraged to thoughtfully reduce materialism by making gifts and giving perviously owned gifts in many cases. (My mom is doing most of her shopping on Craig’s List this year)  This passed 7/0
• Family Bill 5 Each family member is encouraged to go on a fun December outing with each other family member. These outings are in addition to group outings. This passed  7/0

Believe it or not these changes were the hardest on my mom. Gifts are one of her love languages and while shopping is a stress she enjoys it as a labor of love.  One thing we did not address in the family meeting was what to do with the money we were saving on gifts. One idea is to donate it to the Austin Coalition for Life but we have not yet decided.

The Results

Christmas hasn’t happened yet but here are the results so far.

• Less stress. Many of us are already done with our shopping because we have less to do.
• More time. We’ve made more Christmas cookies this year and my mom was able to clean out the ornaments which she has wanted to do for years. Also we are in the process of making a music video and finishing an audiobook (more on this later).
• More outings. David is still out of town but we are already doing more fun activities as a family that we wouldn’t have had time to do if we had been shopping.

Perhaps I will update this post and let you know how Christmas day went.

We Like Gifts

I don’t want to sound like a grinch who hates gifts. We just think it has gotten out of hand. Christmas is not about gifts. That is the lesson the Grinch learned, come to think about it.

The Ninja does not like holiday greed.

I had to share this video. Its about Ninjas and black Friday.

What do you think? How are you doing Christmas this year? Are you changing anything?

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As a child when I heard the stories of Narnia I always wondered: what world lay beyond the other pools in the wood between the worlds. What adventures do they hold? Well, my brother has found one of those worlds.

David’s world is called Caltaria. It is a land of adventure. Think Count de Monte Christo meets the Lord of the Rings with a Pirates of the Caribbean twist. I can’t wait for David to finish his first book in this world. But, he does I am reading his new blog CaltarianChronicles.com . If you want to visit Caltaria and say you saw it first Check it out and let me know what you think.

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