I am a 44 year old female and the views my husband and I share regarding giving and receiving Christmas gifts are definitely outside the norm.

At our age, we feel that we have everything we need; we have our health, we have a roof over our heads, we have reliable transportation, enough clothes to wear, good food to eat, and a large group of loving family and friends. As we approach retirement, we’re actually trying to downsize and give away a lot of the clutter we already own.

The rampant consumerism that begins every year by the end of October makes me feel that many people have lost the true meaning of Christmas and that people don’t realize that an overload of gifts and spending thousands of dollars isn’t what the true spirit of the holiday is supposed to be.

Several of our friends and family members are having financial difficulties as well, and we don’t want to see them incur more debt by purchasing tons of presents, things we don’t really need even though the thought is nice. Since some people are determined to give gifts no matter what our wishes are, I’ve developed a few ground rules for our little circle of friends and family.

At first I didn’t get a very good response, in fact, some people thought I was flat out weird, but over the years it’s become our tradition and it makes me feel good to see other people adopting my ideas.

First, there must be no store bought expensive gifts. In order to fit our philosophy, gifts must be made by hand, something from around the house that the giver no longer needs, a useful item picked up from a garage sale, or something recycled from the trash.

Over the years, we’ve given and received homemade cookie mix or soup mix in a jar, said jars either being recycled or picked up at the thrift store for under a dollar. This is good for the environment as those jars aren’t ending up in a landfill and our friends appreciate the time we’ve put into their gift.

Also, they taste good! I have a large garden and many varieties of ornamental plants so I’ve picked up pretty coffee mugs at the flea market for a quarter and given my friends plants I’ve grown myself. Again, this costs under a dollar and the plants last for many years.

I’ve also put different herbs I’ve started from seed into the containers. I made my brother a plant I called spaghetti sauce in a pot by creating a container garden in an empty five gallon bucket. In the center of the bucket, I placed a Roma tomato plant. On one side I placed a basil plant, and on the other side I placed an oregano plant. He was thrilled with his container garden that contained everything he’d need to make his own spaghetti sauce.

I’ve also made salsa in a pot garden using a tomato plant, a jalapeno pepper plant, and some cilantro. Someone in our neighborhood had put a pair of wrought iron garden chairs out at the street for the trash man to pick up and there was nothing wrong with them except they had gotten a little rusty in the weather. With a little bit of steel wool and a $2.00 can of spray paint, the chairs looked brand new and our oldest son and his wife appreciated their new porch chairs.

I wanted a thermos so I could bring my coffee to work with me. Since we are trying to save as much as possible for retirement I couldn’t justify the cost of a new one, so I made it known that a thermos was something I’d really like to receive. One of my friends gave me one she was no longer using, and two years later I still use it daily. I appreciate this gift because it helps me save money, my friend cleared clutter out of her house, and it’s one less item to go into a landfill.

One of my son’s mother-in-law knits beautiful items, so she gave everyone matching gloves and hats one year. She also sews and made my daughter a matching quilt and pillow sham.

My other daughter in law expressed a wish for a crock pot, so we did splurge on a new one for her. I don’t always trust electrical appliances from the thrift store and am afraid of house fires. What made this gift special is the cookbook I put together in a binder to go along with the crock pot. I made sure to include all our favorite family recipes so she could recreate them for my son and she loved this gift.

My daughter and I have made catnip pillows and home baked dog biscuits for our friends with pets and have spent many quality hours together working on these.

One of my sons found a wrought iron plant stand, the kind that’s designed to fit in a corner, out at the street for the trash man, and he brought it home, cleaned it up, and surprised me by placing it on my deck. It was in perfect condition, and not something I’d ever buy for myself, so I loved this gift.

This being said, we do have three granddaughters, and we splurge a little on them because they’re still young and love to have new toys, though their mothers have requested used Disney movies and used game boy games for Christmas gifts.