Why I Don't Buy My Husband Christmas Gifts

Before you start worrying about my poor, dear husband, let me tell you this: he gets plenty of great Christmas gifts. I just don't buy any of them myself. We've been married for 10 years. I know other couples who have been married longer who don't buy each other gifts. This is not an article about that. Not at all.

All those years ago when we were newly married, we bought each other thoughtful gifts. But since we had our kids within the 1st, 3rd, and 5th years of our marriage, we spent a lot of time enjoying centering our Christmases around them. I still had a business I was running from home, so - newly married, young children and running a business was a tall order for me. But I really loved making things magical for the kids. That was the fun part.

So I'd go out and buy the things I really thought each of them would enjoy and play with the most.  Just kidding. That's what I do now.  But when they're babies they don't care anything about Christmas presents or even know who Santa is. You know we totally bought stuff we wanted to see them play with. Or lay on. Or drool on. So there I was on Christmas Eve wrapping gifts for every child and my husband too. Filling all of the stockings, making sure we had gifts for all of the family members we'd see over the holidays. Check, check, check. It was hectic, but I enjoyed it.

Then one Christmas morning about half way into our 10 years, I was handing out the stockings and discovered mine was completely empty. Empty y'all. The little girl in me made a pouty face. She felt like Santa had neglected her. I wasn't really even mad at my husband. I decided that the next year we'd only hang stockings for the kids. One less thing for me to do. Really I was just hoping the kids didn't notice that Mama got nada. 

But a couple of years later I decided my Christmas wish list was too complex for someone to just go tick things off of it.  I needed to try things on. I needed to pick colors. I needed to shop. So while my in-laws were up to visit with the kids one weekend, I got this idea. What if we had a date night and after dinner we went shopping and bought our own Christmas gifts?! Like set a dollar amount and bought what we really wanted. Since I can't stand the thought of wrapping my own gifts, we traded piles and I wrapped the things he picked out for himself (I would never have thought of a meat drying apparatus as a gift), and he would wrap the boots I loved (that I tried on in order to make sure they fit). Perfect!

Now we have a new Christmas tradition: date night Christmas shopping. That's two of my favorite things.Very happy making! So even thought I never buy my husband a Christmas gift, he gets what he really wants every year. And so do I.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin