With a lot of retailers advising us all to shop early to avoid supply chain interruptions or shipping delays as COVID continues to explode all over the country, I’m looking to wrap up the majority of our Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. An added bonus of finishing our shopping early is then Aaron and I can wrap together at night a little at a time over a Christmas movie and hot toddy after we put the kids to bed and even better still we’ll avoid the wrap-til-you-drop reckoning. Staggering wrapping because when you end up with a mountain of presents.

With 5 members in our household and another 6 that we hope to be Christmas-ing with (COVID permitting) the present proliferation quickly becomes a problem. If every person just got one present a piece for the each of the other people, we are easily over 100 presents. And that’s before Santa, or the multiples that are often gifted. The present pile is an embarrassment of riches that is honestly a little embarrassing, especially considering we almost never buy our kids or each other just one thing each, and sometimes 5 or 10 (depending on size/cost/etc)

For our little Allard family, in a small effort to curb the present chaos and the consumerism, we have adopted the 4 things approach for gifting from Aaron and I to each other and our kids. For those unfamiliar the 4 things are:

1. Something You Want (examples: weight lifting gear, big toy, decor)

2. Something You Need (usually something functional or consumable like something for business travel, new shoes, replacement markers, learning toy)

3. Something to Wear (anything from a piece of jewelry to jeans to socks)

4. Something to Read (usually a book, occasionally a magazine subscription, a ticket if we’re kind of cheating)

   And because I’m extra… I also include a bonus Item: An ornament for each person

We are considering “talking to Santa” about the possibility of one big gift for the whole family or all the kids as opposed to a pile of Santa presents for each kid, not sure about that. Does anyone do this? Of course Santa will also fill stockings.

Is present proliferation a (first-world) problem in your household? How do you manage it?