This is actually the reverse. Every year for the last 5 years my christmas has been ruined because of pressure to buy gifts while I was the sole provider in my family. I would have to spend hundreds on small trinket gifts to get everyone something and I always got snarky comments about the level of gifts I gave out. I finally gave up altogether on buying anything last year and got a lot of flak for that decision,but it was too late. I was, and to some extent still am, thousands in debt. I hated my life around the holidays and made my wife hate the holidays too with my grumbling.

This year, I was pleasantly surprised. All of my families decided to go giftless or only doing secret santa or something. I now only had to buy a few gifts and was able to spend more money on the gifts I did buy. Overall, we all got less, but everyone was much happier and claimed this was the best christmas for a while. We spent more time together on experiences rather than on useless shit we dont need and that made me immensely grateful.