1.Get your children everything they want for Christmas.
Who says it's not healthy to satisfy all their desires? Think back to your own
childhood. Remember all those gifts you wanted so badly but never received?
Those disappointments haunt you to this day. Now is your chance to
break that terrible cycle of dysfunction and heartache.

If your parents warn you that you'll spoil your children by
giving them all they want, remind them that the Great Depression
of the 1930's was followed immediately by World War II. In
other words, if you deprive people of what they want for too long,
conflict will inevitably erupt. As philospher George Santayana
wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

2. Don't worry about charging Christmas purchases to your credit cards.
Isn't that why you have them? In fact, don't even worry about whether you can
pay off your credit card debt during your lifetime. That's a legacy you
can pass on to your children!

3. Finish most of your Christmas shopping by Labor Day.
That will give you time to devote your weekends in October, November,
and December to your last-minute shopping.

4.For relatives, purchase gifts that send them a message.
Let's say you've always competed with your older brother. As a kid, he beat you
in everything you played, and called you a wimp. Now you find yourself in
a higher-paying job, and you want to make him jealous. Get him an expensive gift
that proclaims, "I'm the man."

Or you may choose to purchase a gift that conveys your desire to improve a
relationship with a sibling, a parent, or another relative. Here,
for example, is a tally sheet I've kept on my sister to determine what
type of message her Christmas gift should declare this year:

GIFT FOR: SISTER

Naughty:

1) Bragged when she beat me in gin.
2)Said she was always Mom's favorite.
3)On my birthday, she said someone had just
found my birth certificate "in an archeological dig near
the Dead Sea."

Nice:

1) Got me a nice gift last year for Christmas.
2)Didn't joke about my weight.
3)Still hadn't told anyone about the
little incident in 1971.

CONCLUSION:

Jokes about my getting old...get her
something cheap but appropriate to remind her that she's
not far behind.

THIS YEAR'S GIFT:

Video of Lawrence Welk's greatest hits.

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