'Tis the season to be Grinchy. Tra-la-la-la-la. La-la-la-laaaa.

Am I Father Grinchmas???

This time of year is all about indulgence.

Food ✔️

Parties ✔️

Presents ✔️

More food ✔️

For our family, perhaps more than most, it’s a time when we go over the top. You see, it’s not just a Christmas celebration for us. My mom’s birthday is December 5, Alice’s birthday is December 14, my oldest brother’s anniversary is December 16 (also a public holiday and the official start to the summer festive season in South Africa), that same brother’s birthday is December 19, Christmas is December 25, my birthday is December 28, my wife and her twin celebrate their birthday on December 30. Then it’s New Year’s and my mom and late dad’s wedding anniversary was January 1. My mother-in-law’s birthday is January 24.

It’s a manic time, but it’s a good time. It’s a time where we get together a lot and eat even more. And it’s also a time when presents are handed out. Lots of presents - and least traditionally.

Presents at Alice's school Christmas picnic

In this climate of celebration, it’s really easy to get caught up in hype. Especially now that there’s a baby in the house. This isn’t Alice’s first Christmas but it’s the first one where she can actively engage with us, and it comes with a lot of temptation to spoil the living crap out of her.

Every outfit would look “so cute” on her. Every toy would be “so perfect” for the little one. Every everything can be justified. So the temptation shrouds over you, enveloping you up in this desire to buy it all, wrap it all and place it all under the tree until December 25.

But I don’t know if I want that for Alice. And maybe I’m the dad who stole Christmas for thinking it, but I really don’t want to go over the top. Now don’t get me wrong, we’re definitely going to spoil her [she is, after all, the absolute love of my life], but I think there needs to be some kind of limit. And thanks to a really cool Moneyish piece I stumbled across, I think I know what that limit is:

“Want. Need. Wear. Read.”

It’s a great rule of 4. It’s something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. This sounds pretty much bang on to me. It’s practical as well as meeting their desire - and it also factors in reading, which is huge. And, given the country’s economy right now, it’s also affordable [as a colleague wrote, ‘tis NOT the season to overspend].

So we won’t be going over the top this year. Alice will be getting a Christmas stocking as per the family tradition, and four gifts. My family will be encouraged not to go overboard either.

Does this make me Father Grinchmas? Let me know your thoughts.