We plan our Christmas all year long by budgeting a little bit throughout the year, so that by the time Christmas comes around, we have the money we need to celebrate. We take the total amount that we want to spend, divide it by 12, and save that amount of money every year. So for our Christmases we've gone simpler and simpler to where now we do things like keep our decor focused on things from the outside natural world. We bring in sticks, berries, pinecones and decorate with that, or just our kids' crafts, things that they've made we decorate our home with. Then we look at our schedule and streamline to only the things we want to do as far as events and traditions, and don't worry about the pressure of having to do it all. Then for our family gifts, we only give our children three every year, and they've known this from the beginning, so they don't expect any more than three and that really helps temper their expectations about what Christmas is going to be like. That helps us, as parents, decide what we're going to give them, because we know we're only going to give them three gifts and that really helps simplify our holidays. We don't feel this pressure of giving a lot, getting a lot and going overboard, and beyond our budget.