April Jackson has three rules for her 4-and-a-half-year-old twins: no screens, no sugar, and no gifts. “I don’t do any gifts. I don’t do birthday, Christmas, or whatever,” the 37-year-old restaurateur and former Miss Jamaica Universe told me. “I want my girls to value people, not things.”
A 2024 survey found that 49 percent of parents said they expect to go into debt to buy holiday presents, spending an average of $461 per child. Some families scrimp all year to buy; others charge purchases to credit cards and AfterPay; others pick up loads of end-of-the-year overtime. While working- and middle-class parents scramble to give their kids a “good Christmas,” many well-off ones are opting out.
