We have been parents for almost twenty years, and yes, I count the day of conception as the start date of the parenting endeavor. So, all told, in a couple of months, twenty years will have gone by, and FAST! When we began this life together, we told each other a few things about what we would like to do on Christmas. He had his traditions, and I had mine. Somehow, we needed to blend them or else make our own. So, we decided to make our own.
He came from a piles and piles of presents family, and I came from twelve kids need gifts so we do what we can family. But, just the same, we had more than three gifts each under the tree. I hated the fact that 
Christmas had become this time when everyone bought and bought and bought and never took the time to relate the buying to the real thing that Christmas was about and I was not going to let that become us. So, with the very first child, we decided to give her three gifts, and that symbolized the three gifts of the Magi for Baby Jesus.
I remember telling my mother-in-law, with much trepidation, we would like our daughter to have one gift from grandparents at Christmas. We didn’t want her growing up expecting a barrage of gifts and lose sight of what is important. What happened when we opened gifts at their house? They put a big pile of presents in front of our 2-month-old daughter, and while the baby didn’t know what was going on, we did. As history will show, it was nipped in the bud and my children all get one thing from the grandparents to this day.
So, why am I telling you this? Well, this Christmas, after all, the gifts were open, my three-year-old said, “I don’t want any more presents. I got three.” Twenty years and still hanging onto tradition. 😉