On Christmas mornings, the tree at the Wray family is typically packed with presents of all sizes. “But with the inflation and the layoffs in tech, we’ve been thinking of scaling back,” says Helen Fang, a mother of two in San Carlos, California.

Some gifts for their three-and-a-half-year-old will come from Facebook’s Buy Nothing group. Helen and her husband, Ed Wray, were more upfront with their 15-year-old. “We’ve had a conversation about what she wants and are really focusing on two items.”

The Wray family is not alone in being conservative with spending this holiday season. Mass layoffs have been sweeping across multiple industries, including tech, media, health care, and real estate. Inflation rates have risen 8.2 percent over the