"Jesus received three gifts, so our little girl will receive three gifts this Christmas," the young mother explained.  I told about that conversation in a <a title="Family Christmas Traditions, Part Three: Give Three Gifts" href="http://motherhoodstress.com/2011/12/11/family-christmas-traditions-part-three-give-three-gifts/">previous post</a>.  And that started a flurry of discussion on the idea of limiting family gift-giving to three gifts.

[caption id="attachment_818" align="alignleft" width="251" caption="Our family Christmas tree in 2007"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ChristmasTree07.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-818  " title="ChristmasTree07" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ChristmasTree07.jpg" alt="" width="251" height="480" /></a>[/caption]

One mother takes the approach that they give each of their girls: one gift that she has requested; another gift that the parents have chosen; and a book.

Another parent, who has subscribed to the "three gift" idea for years, commented that her now-teen children "really put thought into what 3 things they ask for instead of some endless list."  The three gift idea would have that impact, wouldn't it? An excellent benefit to this program!

We are thinking that this Christmas each of our adult children will receive, from us: one item listed on their Amazon wish list; one hand-made gift and one other present.

Of course, our children also exchange gifts among themselves.  They draw names so that each of them get one sibling gift and buy one gift for a sibling.  With Jonathan's marriage to Jessica this past summer, this Christmas is the first year we had seven children to swap sibling names.

[caption id="attachment_817" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Andrew, Matthew, Lisette, Jessica (the bride), Jonathan, Debi, Gregg, and Benjamin."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JessJonWedding.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-817 " title="JessJonWedding" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/JessJonWedding.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="298" /></a>[/caption]

And, each of our children also have a stocking, with some small gifts. Traditionally the stocking has one orange and a small bottle of grape juice. That's a family tradition taken from my family-of-origin; we always got an orange and a bottle of grape juice in our stockings.

[caption id="attachment_821" align="aligncenter" width="325" caption=" Matthew watches Andrew opening a gift. You can see our stockings on the couch beside Matthew."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AndrewOpenGift.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-821 " title="AndrewOpenGift" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AndrewOpenGift.jpg" alt="" width="325" height="444" /></a>[/caption]

The stocking usually also contains some candy and, most years, one or two small items.