by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

Back in September, I had it all figured out: I was going to gift my children a family experience instead of a big ol' pile of presents they would forget about in two days. We would make memories together without adding to the clutter of our home. My family would go against the grain, I declared. We would rise above the commercialism this year. It was going to be awesome.
Sigh. It started out so promising.
In October, I booked two nights at an indoor water park/hotel (and saved money through Groupon, to boot!). Unfortunately, there was a conflict with my husband's work schedule -- so I ended up canceling the reservation.
Before I knew it, Black Friday had rolled around and I still hadn't re-scheduled our water park getaway. The lure of deeply discounted merchandise, coupled with the "XX days until Christmas" countdown, in the meantime, led to a rapid accumulation of gifts. Oops. Holiday commercialism for the win!
See, it's one thing to look ahead three months before the holiday season with a practical mindset -- away from the mania of creating the "perfect" Christmas and the pressure of society's expectations and go, "Hmmm, yeah. I think we'll pass this year." It's another thing entirely to actually follow through with said plan, especially when it's not the norm for you. At least for me, it's too easy to get caught up in the excitement of gift-giving and imagining the looks on your kids' faces when t...