Alright, I am going to be honest here:  Christmas shopping sucks.  It really does.  There are crowds, you spend a lot of money really fast, and it is stressful.  Generally speaking, I love spending time with my family and my wife does too.  Christmas and family are Great, shopping for it, is not.

If you really want to be successful you have to make sure you have the three key conversations with your wife about Christmas shopping.  These conversations can occur all together or, if like me, you cannot handle that much in one sitting, they can also occur at separate times.

Start out with a broad statement that others can connect to...  CHECK
Hone in on the overall point of the post...  CHECK
Create anticipation of the Definition Pause...  ????
--This bit of internal monologue brought to you by TheHusBlog--

Let's just get to it...

TheHusBlog Definition Pause : The Key Three Conversations You Must Have About Christmas Shopping or T.K.T.C.Y.M.H.A.C.S for short

• The "Who" (or whom, never sure on that grammar rule) should you buy for conversation.  This conversation is about creating the list of people you intend to buy presents for.  If you want to save yourself some time start with the people you are going to actually see on Christmas day and build from there.  Sure that may seem like a no-brainer for most of you but honestly some people need all the help they can get.
• The "How Much" should you spend conversation.  As with anything remember to break your problem down into easy to manage chunks.  There are two schools of thought on Christmas budgeting.  
• Set a total spend.  This method starts at the top and works its(it's?  I really should have paid more attention in my Language Arts classes) way down.  Decide how much money in total you want to spend and then break that out to a per person amount.
• Set a spend per person.  This method starts at the bottom and works its(it's?  I never should have become a blogger, my grammar is horrible and so is my spelling for that matter, I must be the only person in the world who's F7 key is worn from use[that is the quick key for spellcheck]) way up.  You decide how much to spend on all the people on your list and then total that.  Adjustments are made on a per person basis.
• The "What" you should buy for each person conversation.  This is usually the longest conversation and will lead to the most fights.  Simply saying "I don't know" is not an answer.  What makes Christmas shopping stressful is not knowing what to buy.  It can be challenge to find a great gift within budget and leaving that up to one person in the relationship is not fair.  Take some time to really think about the people on your list and what they would want.  Share this information with your spouse so that you both on the same page.