Christmas memories are some of the most treasured from childhood, and Shirley Barlow's grandchildren will have plenty to share.

The extended family - several of whom live in Rapid City - will gather at Christmas in Morrill, Neb., to create homespun Christmas memories.

Rather than a Christmas morning spent opening gift after gift, the clan will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together, creating fun memories and exchanging handmade gifts. Economic downturn or recession aside, the family was already looking forward to spending more time together as a family and less money on gifts and credit card charges.

"My sister Glenna said, 'Since everybody's money is tight, maybe we should do activities,'" Lannette Schmitz said, as she listed the possibilities for Christmas fun this year.

How about a Christmas day where the whole family plays games, creates gingerbread houses, makes ornaments, feasts together (of course) and takes a hay ride?

How much fun is that? Plenty, with warm memories to last for years.

"What I've come to realize is Christmas is about family and creating memories with your family," Schmitz said. "It's about starting traditions that will last a lifetime … the gift of love and the priority of friends and family."

The extended family gathered at Barlow's house until it began to get very crowded. Fortunately, Barlow and three of her daughters operate and live at an event center in Morrill called 5-Star Ranch Country Event Center, and what better event to host than their family Christmas.

"We split Christmas into a couple of days," Schmitz said. Christmas Eve is her nephew's birthday, so the family celebrates that event with a family gathering, then gets into the Christmas mode.

Gifts are exchanged, the majority of which are handmade.

"We draw names early in the year and that gives us time to plan for the next Christmas," Schmitz said. She herself has been working on an applique quilt for her niece and gourmet food gifts such as barbecue rubs for her brother. She is planning to gather some fun containers for hot chocolate mix for the whole brood.

With belt-tightening happening for many people this year, one might expect that folks would be spending less on Christmas gifts. But according to Cathy Harper of Altered Art & Scrap Playground in downtown Rapid City, there is no sign of people holding back from making handmade gifts.

Harper's store carries scrapbook supplies, paper crafts and rubber-stamping supplies, and showcases many creative ideas throughout the store. She offers classes on how to make many of the projects, and says her store has been pleasingly busy all year long.

"The classes are always full," Harper said, as she described how her year-old store has exceeded her expectations in terms of success.

Schmitz, her three sisters and a brother, began taking a different approach to Christmas three years ago.

"I really just got tired of the commercialism of Christmas," Schmitz said. "My kids were just getting, getting, getting.

"As a child, some of my fondest memories were of spending Christmas at my grandparents' houses," Schmitz said. "As the years went by and I grew older and had a family of my own, Christmas stopped feeling like Christmas.

"For years, we would buy more and more gifts for our kids and our families, and as we bought more and more gifts, the less and less it felt like Christmas. It finally dawned on me why the spirit of Christmas had left. It wasn't about the gifts we bought or the gifts that we received.

"I can't remember a single gift I got as a child except for the ones that my grandmas had made," Schmitz said.

Schmitz and her family hang ornaments on their Christmas tree that they have made over the years, and remember the memories that those keepsakes bring.

"My mom has 14 grandchildren," Schmitz said, "almost every age from 17 down to 6 months. They get to help because we want them to be a part of it."

Some of Schmitz' best memories are of sharing her handmade Christmas gifts.

"If we model commercialism and the expectation of getting stuff and getting more stuff, we have lost the true spirit of Christmas," she said. "The gift of joy that comes from the tears in my brother-in-law's eyes as he opened the memory quilt I made for him in honor of his mother who, at age 47, passed from a massive heart attack. … That joy and memory will last me a lifetime."

Contact Marinell Scott Thornburg at 394-8280 or marinell.thornburg@rapidcityjournal.com