Article and Photo Courtesy of Organized Christmas
For many families, gift-giving is among the most stressful aspects of
preparing for the holiday season. Wonderful as the tradition can be, it has
another side: where the rubber of our budget meets the road of our
expectations.
Anxieties abound! Will our gifts be enough? Will we send the right
message? Can we afford them? Will we find the year's hot toy ... or should we
even try to look for it?
There's another, brighter side to gift-giving. Reading assignments this
week will help us draw closer to the true meaning of the holiday season.
Today's essay, In Praise of Simple Gifts, is intended to get us off to a good
start, reminding us that holiday gifts and holiday giving are only pale
reflections of the true gift of the season.
Ready? It's time to take on the gift list and get ready for Christmas
with Gifts and Giving Week!
To Do This Week
Gifts and Giving Week Assignments (additional print outs available)
To Do Today
Print the 4 checklists:
Get going on gift lists
During Get Organized week, we made a start with a Master Gift List; now
it's time to flesh it out with more specialized lists to organize gift
shopping.
Get those printers humming! During Gifts and Giving week, we'll spin
off other lists:
A Gifts to Make list will keep us on track handmade holiday gifts. No
more late-night sewing sessions on Christmas Eve!
Fill holiday stockings with items from the Stocking Stuffers list. A
get-organized tip: store stocking stuffers in department store shopping bags
(with handles) hung from clothes hangers. Write the recipient's name on the
front, and hang the bags deep in the clothes closet.
A Gift Ideas Planner comes to the rescue when Grandma asks for ideas
for the children.
Begin Christmas gift shopping
Divide the Master Gift List into five sections. Purchase gifts for
one-fifth of the list entries this week. Wrap gifts as they are purchased. Keep
a running total of gift expenditures.
In Praise of Simple Gifts
Holiday gifts don't have to break the bank! Get armed against Christmas
Excess:
Gift. Say the word and many levels of meaning go through our minds!
When preparing for the Christmas holidays, "gift" is a loaded term,
one that provokes equal parts of anxiety and joy.
In our consumer society, the idea of "gift" is no longer
simple, no longer free. The forces of consumption have taken the pure and
simple concept of "gift" and layered that concept with staggering
traps.
As individuals, as families, we must try to preserve simpler values
against an economy, a retail institution, and an enormous idea machine, all
devoted to a single goal: to persuade us to spend money on holiday gifts. Can
we find a way back to the simplicity of old? How will we keep our balance in
holiday giving?
As we make out holiday gift lists, we contemplate gifts and giving. One
by one, we'll review the names of those we love. We'll call them to mind, think
of them, draw close to them as we plan. A loving exercise. A simple exercise. A
happy exercise ... if we keep the idea of simplicity up front and center.
But too often, we also experience stress! A gift no longer says,
"I'm thinking of you, I love you, I hope to make you happy!" No, a
gift now proclaims our taste, expresses our aspirations, broadcasts our budget,
and stands as a pawn in a highly complex retail transaction. What was once a
small and simple act of love is now a venture into high-level consumerism.
We've been encouraged to see each and every gift we give as a test.
What high standards we set!
Our gifts must "speak" to the recipient in a very direct way.
Will we find the "right" gift this year? Will we take into sufficient
account our loved one's habits, preferences, causes? Will we spend enough? Too
much? Will we have a reciprocal gift for all who give to us? Will our children
be shamed before their friends if we don't provide "enough" to answer
the schoolyard question, "Whadjagit?"
Too often, we measure our gifts against the world, not against our
hearts.
We worry that our gifts will seem too modest to family members who
enjoy greater financial resources. We measure our gift-buying decisions against
a hundred daily suggestions, from the newspaper to the television to the other
mommies on the park bench, that our efforts are falling short, are not enough.
To our shame, we participate, too! We line up, shivering with cold and
docile as sheep, outside the store offering this year's media-hyped, over-priced
"hot toy".
We nudge this recipient or that with gifts that reflect what we think
they should be, should become. We appraise our own gifts with a sharp
consumer's eye--did they measure up? We overspend, telling ourselves we'll
worry about the bills when they arrive.
Despite what we know about the commercial manipulations practiced
during the holiday season, we buy it--and buy it and buy it and buy it.
Time to stop! As we count down to Christmas, reach for simplicity:
simple gifts, free gifts, gifts of time and love and friendship. Gifts you'll
never see spotlighted on a red-clad table at your local mall, or catch
languishing at next summer's garage sale.
Warm cookies on a cold day. A favorite book, re-wrapped and handed on
to a friend who will treasure it. Board games that bring the family together
around the kitchen table. The spirit of the season is in the simplicity ... and
we can recapture it, by listening to the quiet voices within.
Making a list for Christmas giving? Let us steel ourselves against the
crass and blatant calls of the gift industry. It's time to reclaim a sense of
pure, right giving.
Giving from one heart, to another heart--no wallet standing between, no
cash register exacting a toll, no invisible judge and jury weighing our
choices. This is the season of the simple gift: reach for it!
Today's Recipe
turkey poop recipe
It's funny gag gift for your favorite pilgrim: Turkey Poop!
Easy to make from chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate candies or
seasonal jelly beans, our Turkey Poop recipe includes free printable gift tags.
It's a great gift for workplace surprises or Thanksgiving table favors.
You invited me to dinner
with your family and your friends.
You didn't say I was the main dish.
For me it was "THE END!"
You frightened me so badly
I knew I had been duped!
So I left you with my calling card:
This bag of Turkey Poop!
