SamSarah Design Studio Inc.

With all our children grown, we decided to no longer exchange gifts, but instead to combine whatever money we would have spent and donate it to families in need in our area. We select a charity—the Salvation Army in 2015 and Big Brothers Big Sisters in 2016. They kindly supply us with lists of things a local family wants and/or needs. We go shopping while our kids are home for Thanksgiving, wrap everything and drop it off at the office of the charity before Christmas. We don’t actually get to see the family receive our gifts as we choose to remain anonymous, but this is such a satisfying way to share. We also love that we are giving locally.

We do still stuff stockings for Christmas morning, plus the grandchildren continue to receive gifts. We love that we no longer have that mountain of gifts that eight adults exchange each year. We have our oldest daughter to thank for this idea, and it’s one we will continue!