Is Christmas really about the kids anymore?

This is a topic that I held off before Christmas to talk about.  Someone in my husband's family, we will call her the Scrooge, made the decision that we would not be doing christmas presents this year between the families.  Now we hadn't bought gifts for the adults since I can't remember which was all fine and dandy.  But when the decision was made that we would not buy for our nieces and nephews, I was furious.  My kids are young as you all know.  Her kids are older.  I've been buying them presents for ever.  My brother-in-laws' kids are even younger.  So I guess his kids will never get gifts from aunts and uncles. WTH is that about?

Now she tried something last year about drawing names for the kids which was vetoed.  This time she did it in such a way that we all thought the other had agreed to it.  Well, at Thanksgiving, I brought it up after she left.  You know what...NO ONE had agreed directly.  NO ONE had said that was ok.  Now, to be fair here, her husband did quit his job this year.  So I could understand if she was in my financial situation or his brothers...but she is NOT.  In fact, I know for a fact that she gets upset about her checking account if it goes under 6 figures.  I'm not talking about $1000.00 figure either. 

So the Scrooge made this decision for our families.  I was really worried about it since the decision was made.  It was brought up at Faith's birthday party that only grandma was allowed to bring gifts.  So here I am in October thinking how can I make Christmas really special for my kids since they will NOT be having the typical Christmas that they are used too.  Was I being materialistic?  I don't think so because they could have even made the presents.  BTW I brought that up to the Scrooge that we get all the kids together to make gifts for each other.  It wouldn't have cost much.  That was a no go.

So when we found out on Thanksgiving that it was just the Scrooge who wanted this.  The family said that we could go ahead and buy Christmas presents.  Well I couldn't at that point, I had already prepared through my husband's guidance a surprise for the kids for Christmas.  As well as spent as much as I could for my kids by then.  Ebay is wonderful.  Now I did tell his family what my husband had come up with for Christmas.  I, also, told them that the Scrooge had knocked down the idea of making gifts. grins I'm a little evil here, so is my husband, Christmas was being held at the Scrooge's house.  Guess what we did?  We did arts and crafts.  I bought at Walmart.. yes I said Walmart.  I hadn't ordered my gift for Jason yet.

Now this isn't what we had but you get the visual.  We had felt boards to make cards.  We had Christmas Trees, Santas, and Letters.  At first it was the adults doing it but the kids soon got into it.  Even the older kids.

Was it messy?  A little bit but not that much.  See all the crafts on the table.  Of course that is a brand new laptop that the Scrooge bought herself.  So was it about the money?

See even the older boys got into it.  Wonder if they know that there would be proof forever that they did this?  Oh future girlfriends of these too.  I have the proof for you.

This is where it came down.  See my son's face?  He was upset that this was the only gift he got at this gathering.  So is Christmas about the kids?  Or was I just overreacting as usual?  Or did I have a Hormone upswing from Men-o-pause?  I don't think so.  Seeing my son and my daughter's face was enough to still tick me off. 

Tell me your thoughts.