My husband and I just had a heated discussion about this tonight.

I have never been one to buy my son "everything" he wants or spends an excessive amount of money on Christmas. I just don't think that is what it is about. I buy him a few nice things, sure ... but I also do things like getting a few of his favorite candy bars and packs of gum and wrapping them up. I want him to learn it's the thought and the love that counts, not the dollar amount.

My husband, OTOH, has always spent thousands of dollars on his kids. He seems to think they won't be happy and won't have a "good" Christmas if they don't get mountains of expensive presents.

We're trying to meet in the middle, since this is our first Christamas together since getting married, but it's tough. He's saying, "But we can afford it. It's Christmas. I just got my bonus check ..." and I'm saying, "But we don't need to do it. It's not the point ..." *sigh*

I'm just not feeling the Christmas spirit. I'm feeling like an ATM machine.