November 12, 2025 • 10 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to talk about this story because I was
just reading this during our last commercial break. Could you
go without Christmas? This is a story that was up
on Reddit. Could you go ten years without receiving Christmas gifts?
A daughter says it was the best decision of her life.
(00:22):
So for the past ten years, Chinnadi Wiles and her
family have not exchanged Christmas gifts, and she says it's
been the best decision her parents have ever made. When
she was fourteen years old, her parents decided to skip
the usual holiday gift giving and instead commit to a
(00:42):
full blown family vacation every Christmas. Over the years, the
trips have ranged from US destinations like the Grand Canyon
Disney World in New York City to international getaways in
places like the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Mexico. Chinneidi, who by
the way, is not any relation to Rachel Chinner rereader's
(01:03):
coming to our jingle Ball, says that the change didn't
feel like sacrifice. Far from it, she says because the memories,
the travel experiences, and the time that their family had
together turned out to be some of the most valuable
time that she has ever had.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Her advice is, if.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Your family is feeling like stuck in the same old
holiday routines, considering you know what to get each other
and always getting gifts that seem to get returned. She says,
try this as an option. I love it. When I
first read this, I thought, she's fourteen years old, she's
getting nothing. And then I thought to myself, Okay, at
(01:41):
fourteen years old, at what point does it now? At
that point the magic of Christmas kind of like it's
done right at that point, right, you're not thinking of
you know, the the you know what I'm talking about,
to the stuff I'm gonna get yourself in trouble with
the little kids, but the magic of Christmas and the
magic of the idea that that you are now not
(02:02):
having to sit there and go and get another stupid
gifted target that you know that the person really doesn't
even need. And you're gonna be anticipating next year. Kids,
we're all going to the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You know who does this? Wes?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
What?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, Wes does it with his two kids with my
step What age did he start going? So they've been
doing it for two or three years, So that would
have made Samantha fourteen, So same same age.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Now he does stockings for.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Them, but the stockings he'll he'll put like for her
like makeup and stuff and for curing, like a you know,
gas card, yes, whatever, And then it kind of works
out though for them because they still get gifts from
their mom.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Was this something? Was this something that started with a
divorce then? Or did he.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Didn't do this when he just started it?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
When he when the kids started getting older, and he
was like, I value experiences. I value making memories with
them more or so than just getting them a bunch
of stuff that they tell me to get them.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
When he was married to their mom, did they did
he they were little? Oh so they were little.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
They got twenties. He's been divorced for a long time.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay, so he did buy gifts as a single dad.
Then it was yah.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
But then once they hit high school, he started doing
this and they love it.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, I like it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I like it because you know what's funny is, until
I actually became a grown ass man and had my
own job, I hadn't been out of anywhere but my
suburb that I lived in, Like it was one of
those things where it's like I never went to any places.
We traveled. I think we did one family trip and
I got a picture of it, and you should see
how god awful my outfit was in that picture. Else
that's send it to you guys. But we went to
Disney World. We took a train and Amtrak train to
(03:45):
Disney World, Okay, and I don't even remember anything other
than the Amtrak train. My parents could have taken me
on a train to Chicago and I would have been
just as happy, because that's all I remember from this track.
And think about the fact that you know, when your kids,
you always remember your toys and things absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
I think at a certain age you kind of lose
not the excitement of what you love as a child,
which is the reindeer and the thought and the Christmas
cookies and the salmon, but you just lose like the
opening of the gifts, Like it's not as exciting as
you're a kid and you're opening up a toy or
you're opening up a favorite video game. Like once you
(04:24):
hit a certain age, it's like close underwear, like it's
all that kind of ground. Yeah, yeahs.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
My favorite is when the kids open up closes and
they open it up and they go, yeah, throw their jeans.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
In the corner.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's before they open it up. Smith knows rectangle vox
can be closed.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But the interesting thing is though then they get then
they open up a pair of New Jordan's. Or back
in the day, I remember easy.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I remember when the kids would get him and they
you know, they would get all excited over that stuff.
They put it on right away, but then in about
five seconds they're going downstairs and they're playing a video game.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Christina, what do you think of this idea?
Speaker 6 (05:03):
I think this is totally fair.
Speaker 7 (05:05):
It's like when I turned I think around.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Eighteen, like right out of high school, my.
Speaker 7 (05:10):
Mom switched over to doing vacations instead of Christmas gifts
because we already all had what we wanted, Like we
were adults, we had jobs, we bought what we wanted,
like ended up being like stocked, like you guys are saying, clothing. Yeah,
so now it turned into an experience that the family
could enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
At eighteen years old.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Honestly, at eighteen years old, what are you to get
besides something from the Apple? I think fourteen is a
great age because I think at fourteen years old, you're
at that age where now you're starting to be inquisitive
about what the world is other than the world that
you live in. And I think if you can do
it in a way where you go somewhere that kind
of is fun to learn about. Like I will say this,
(05:52):
one of the greatest family vacations my kids say that
we've ever took taken them on was the Washington d C.
We did a trip to DC and the kids loved it.
They thought it was It was great because they got
a chance to go to places that they were like
I see on TV.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I'm struggling with this a little bit because I believe
the kids are with us West's kids.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I think we have all four of.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
This Christmas morning and I told him, I'm like, I
don't want my kids to be ripping through gifts and
Samantha and Kieran are going to be sitting there not
opening anything.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
So I told Samantha it was like, send me.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Couple, at least one gift.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
You got to open something.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Listener, Samantha on the phone, what's up, Samantha? That much?
Speaker 6 (06:33):
I'm actually doing that. Me and my husband are doing
that for the first time this year with our kids.
They're nine, twelve, and fifteen.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Wait, you're nine year old, though, you're doing this with
your nine year old?
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, well, I'm still going to They're still getting like,
they get to give me their three top gifts and
I'm going to get those them those and they'll open
those on Christmas Day and then probably the day after
we're going to leave to go down to Florida for
about six days.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
That's great, all right, ease them into it.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
Yeah, has nine days off because his factory he works
at shuts off. So instead of just sitting at home
doing nothing, we want to take advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I think the nine year old is going to be
probably one of those ones that you compare your gifts
with your friends. But when you come back from break
and you say, this is where we went to. We
went to Florida and you got a tan, Like, that's
the other thing, alexis what's going on?
Speaker 7 (07:22):
Hi? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
So we start my husband and I started this with
my five year old.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Last year we took her.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Out of state, and this year we're actually going to
go out of the country.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
And she knows she's not getting gifts from mom and dad,
and she prefers it. She prefers the experiences.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Where you going about the different We're.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Going to the Dominican Ooh, I like it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
We're going to lay on the beach with a cocktail kid.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
So she and she prefers it.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
I mean, she'll still get stuff from Santa, but she
raves about all of our trips more than anything we've
ever bought her.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
And you know, she's she'll be six this month.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Where have you guys been?
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Uh, we've gone to a Florida, Chicago, Alabama next year,
so we're doing Dominican this year, We're doing Bahamas next year.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I like it adopted exactly. You got a room from
We're family? Wait was it was Alabama? Like? Uh?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Like Gulf Shores?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Crap? Or where'd you go?
Speaker 6 (08:22):
Obile?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Bill? Yeah? Kids? The gifts that year.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Dad didn't hit his Christmas bonus that year? What's going
on in Brooklyn? How you doing?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Hi the first time?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Long time?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
What's happening?
Speaker 7 (08:42):
Yeah? So I really like this idea. My daughter she'll
be two in January. Her birthday is January third, So
eventually I think we'd like to do this. But I
was telling them that a few years ago my husband
and I we got engaged in Disney World. But that
year we didn't do like Christmas with his family. We
(09:05):
just did like Little Stocking Suffers And we ended up
going to Disney World and had a great memory of
like being engaged and it was like, I don't know,
I think it's nice to not like to break up
the Christmas gifts also to.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Take some of the stress off of the shopping. Because
so my now as an adult, this is what I
do with my dad and my stepmom.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
We don't buy gifts for each other.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
We pick a weekend throughout the year to either like
go up north or go to Ohio to Hocking Hills,
and we do a weekend with the and it's.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It has been.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
We've done it for four or five years. It's so fun.
It's so much better.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I always say, look at the needless things that you
go and buy, and then look at the wrapping paper
and the tape, and you know, I can't find scissors,
Like I go out and buy another pair of scissors
to be able to cut the wrapping paper. All the
crap you spend money on, that's a waste of money.
And then think about the idea of making it a
memory instead of of spending the money.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
You know, when the kids are little, though I do
think toys and all of that, you have to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, it's it's it's a whole Santa thing.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So even even Santa Claus takes his elves to get
a little Vacan not mobile Alabama, but maybe Dominican Republic
I want to talk about this story because I was
just reading this during our last commercial break. Could you
go without Christmas? This is a story that was up
on Reddit. Could you go ten years without receiving Christmas gifts?
A daughter says it was the best decision of her life.
(00:22):
So for the past ten years, Chinnadi Wiles and her
family have not exchanged Christmas gifts, and she says it's
been the best decision her parents have ever made. When
she was fourteen years old, her parents decided to skip
the usual holiday gift giving and instead commit to a
(00:42):
full blown family vacation every Christmas. Over the years, the
trips have ranged from US destinations like the Grand Canyon
Disney World in New York City to international getaways in
places like the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Mexico. Chinneidi, who by
the way, is not any relation to Rachel Chinner rereader's
(01:03):
coming to our jingle Ball, says that the change didn't
feel like sacrifice. Far from it, she says because the memories,
the travel experiences, and the time that their family had
together turned out to be some of the most valuable
time that she has ever had.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Her advice is, if.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Your family is feeling like stuck in the same old
holiday routines, considering you know what to get each other
and always getting gifts that seem to get returned. She says,
try this as an option. I love it. When I
first read this, I thought, she's fourteen years old, she's
getting nothing. And then I thought to myself, Okay, at
(01:41):
fourteen years old, at what point does it now? At
that point the magic of Christmas kind of like it's
done right at that point, right, you're not thinking of
you know, the the you know what I'm talking about,
to the stuff I'm gonna get yourself in trouble with
the little kids, but the magic of Christmas and the
magic of the idea that that you are now not
(02:02):
having to sit there and go and get another stupid
gifted target that you know that the person really doesn't
even need. And you're gonna be anticipating next year. Kids,
we're all going to the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You know who does this? Wes?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
What?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, Wes does it with his two kids with my
step What age did he start going? So they've been
doing it for two or three years, So that would
have made Samantha fourteen, So same same age.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Now he does stockings for.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Them, but the stockings he'll he'll put like for her
like makeup and stuff and for curing, like a you know,
gas card, yes, whatever, And then it kind of works
out though for them because they still get gifts from
their mom.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Was this something? Was this something that started with a
divorce then? Or did he.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Didn't do this when he just started it?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
When he when the kids started getting older, and he
was like, I value experiences. I value making memories with
them more or so than just getting them a bunch
of stuff that they tell me to get them.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
When he was married to their mom, did they did
he they were little? Oh so they were little.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
They got twenties. He's been divorced for a long time.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay, so he did buy gifts as a single dad.
Then it was yah.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
But then once they hit high school, he started doing
this and they love it.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, I like it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I like it because you know what's funny is, until
I actually became a grown ass man and had my
own job, I hadn't been out of anywhere but my
suburb that I lived in, Like it was one of
those things where it's like I never went to any places.
We traveled. I think we did one family trip and
I got a picture of it, and you should see
how god awful my outfit was in that picture. Else
that's send it to you guys. But we went to
Disney World. We took a train and Amtrak train to
(03:45):
Disney World, Okay, and I don't even remember anything other
than the Amtrak train. My parents could have taken me
on a train to Chicago and I would have been
just as happy, because that's all I remember from this track.
And think about the fact that you know, when your kids,
you always remember your toys and things absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
I think at a certain age you kind of lose
not the excitement of what you love as a child,
which is the reindeer and the thought and the Christmas
cookies and the salmon, but you just lose like the
opening of the gifts, Like it's not as exciting as
you're a kid and you're opening up a toy or
you're opening up a favorite video game. Like once you
(04:24):
hit a certain age, it's like close underwear, like it's
all that kind of ground. Yeah, yeahs.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
My favorite is when the kids open up closes and
they open it up and they go, yeah, throw their jeans.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
In the corner.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's before they open it up. Smith knows rectangle vox
can be closed.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But the interesting thing is though then they get then
they open up a pair of New Jordan's. Or back
in the day, I remember easy.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I remember when the kids would get him and they
you know, they would get all excited over that stuff.
They put it on right away, but then in about
five seconds they're going downstairs and they're playing a video game.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Christina, what do you think of this idea?
Speaker 6 (05:03):
I think this is totally fair.
Speaker 7 (05:05):
It's like when I turned I think around.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Eighteen, like right out of high school, my.
Speaker 7 (05:10):
Mom switched over to doing vacations instead of Christmas gifts
because we already all had what we wanted, Like we
were adults, we had jobs, we bought what we wanted,
like ended up being like stocked, like you guys are saying, clothing. Yeah,
so now it turned into an experience that the family
could enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
At eighteen years old.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Honestly, at eighteen years old, what are you to get
besides something from the Apple? I think fourteen is a
great age because I think at fourteen years old, you're
at that age where now you're starting to be inquisitive
about what the world is other than the world that
you live in. And I think if you can do
it in a way where you go somewhere that kind
of is fun to learn about. Like I will say this,
(05:52):
one of the greatest family vacations my kids say that
we've ever took taken them on was the Washington d C.
We did a trip to DC and the kids loved it.
They thought it was It was great because they got
a chance to go to places that they were like
I see on TV.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I'm struggling with this a little bit because I believe
the kids are with us West's kids.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I think we have all four of.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
This Christmas morning and I told him, I'm like, I
don't want my kids to be ripping through gifts and
Samantha and Kieran are going to be sitting there not
opening anything.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
So I told Samantha it was like, send me.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Couple, at least one gift.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
You got to open something.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Listener, Samantha on the phone, what's up, Samantha? That much?
Speaker 6 (06:33):
I'm actually doing that. Me and my husband are doing
that for the first time this year with our kids.
They're nine, twelve, and fifteen.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Wait, you're nine year old, though, you're doing this with
your nine year old?
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, well, I'm still going to They're still getting like,
they get to give me their three top gifts and
I'm going to get those them those and they'll open
those on Christmas Day and then probably the day after
we're going to leave to go down to Florida for
about six days.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
That's great, all right, ease them into it.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
Yeah, has nine days off because his factory he works
at shuts off. So instead of just sitting at home
doing nothing, we want to take advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I think the nine year old is going to be
probably one of those ones that you compare your gifts
with your friends. But when you come back from break
and you say, this is where we went to. We
went to Florida and you got a tan, Like, that's
the other thing, alexis what's going on?
Speaker 7 (07:22):
Hi? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
So we start my husband and I started this with
my five year old.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Last year we took her.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Out of state, and this year we're actually going to
go out of the country.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
And she knows she's not getting gifts from mom and dad,
and she prefers it. She prefers the experiences.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Where you going about the different We're.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Going to the Dominican Ooh, I like it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
We're going to lay on the beach with a cocktail kid.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
So she and she prefers it.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
I mean, she'll still get stuff from Santa, but she
raves about all of our trips more than anything we've
ever bought her.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
And you know, she's she'll be six this month.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Where have you guys been?
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Uh, we've gone to a Florida, Chicago, Alabama next year,
so we're doing Dominican this year, We're doing Bahamas next year.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I like it adopted exactly. You got a room from
We're family? Wait was it was Alabama? Like? Uh?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Like Gulf Shores?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Crap? Or where'd you go?
Speaker 6 (08:22):
Obile?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Bill? Yeah? Kids? The gifts that year.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Dad didn't hit his Christmas bonus that year? What's going
on in Brooklyn? How you doing?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Hi the first time?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Long time?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
What's happening?
Speaker 7 (08:42):
Yeah? So I really like this idea. My daughter she'll
be two in January. Her birthday is January third, So
eventually I think we'd like to do this. But I
was telling them that a few years ago my husband
and I we got engaged in Disney World. But that
year we didn't do like Christmas with his family. We
(09:05):
just did like Little Stocking Suffers And we ended up
going to Disney World and had a great memory of
like being engaged and it was like, I don't know,
I think it's nice to not like to break up
the Christmas gifts also to.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Take some of the stress off of the shopping. Because
so my now as an adult, this is what I
do with my dad and my stepmom.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
We don't buy gifts for each other.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
We pick a weekend throughout the year to either like
go up north or go to Ohio to Hocking Hills,
and we do a weekend with the and it's.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It has been.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
We've done it for four or five years. It's so fun.
It's so much better.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I always say, look at the needless things that you
go and buy, and then look at the wrapping paper
and the tape, and you know, I can't find scissors,
Like I go out and buy another pair of scissors
to be able to cut the wrapping paper. All the
crap you spend money on, that's a waste of money.
And then think about the idea of making it a
memory instead of of spending the money.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
You know, when the kids are little, though I do
think toys and all of that, you have to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, it's it's it's a whole Santa thing.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So even even Santa Claus takes his elves to get
a little Vacan not mobile Alabama, but maybe Dominican Republic
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