The holidays are rapidly approaching, and one of the things that I love to do – but is also a lot of work – is to give meaningful gifts to people – at the holidays and for birthdays. So, while this information can be helpful year round, the holidays are a great time to talk about the ins and outs of gift giving. If you missed it a couple of weeks ago, the tip of the week was keeping track of gift ideas. Gift giving is FUN! But it is also a LOT OF WORK. It takes mental energy to come up with a good idea, and it takes physical energy to execute it.
The idea.
Have you seen The Simpson’s episode where they are celebrating Marge’s birthday and Homer gets her a bowling ball with his name inscribed on it? This has become a legend in our house and perfectly illustrates the phenomenon of not really thinking about the person you are giving the gift to.
Coming up with a great idea is HARD! So, if you’ve done the work – make sure you don’t forget it! Have a method and use it. If you use my notebook method, you can also keep track of sizes and likes and dislikes on each person’s page.
I love individual gift giving – but I also sometimes batch gift. Here are some ideas for simplifying – do any of them work for you?
Consider:
Money or gift cards: Depending on who you are gifting to, a gift card or money are completely acceptable gifts. Maybe even appreciated more. So, know your audience and consider sending a nice card with a gift card or check inside if you don’t have another idea.
Batch gifting: Is there something that everyone in your family will enjoy? A couple of years ago we brought nativity sets back for each of our kids from a trip. It was a nice gift and Christmas was sorted for everyone quickly! One of my kids’ in-laws bought new phones for each person in their family which was something they could all use but also made the holiday planning simple for them.
Family gifting: A variation on money gifting, I know some families that just give a check to each child for them and their spouse/children and let them get something they want. I do try to be cautious about just shifting the responsibility to someone else though (ie – asking my kids to buy the Christmas gifts from me for my grandkids).
A “no-gift” Christmas: One of my friends is doing this this year. Instead of buying gifts for all her kids and grandkids they are focusing on experiences and planning service projects as a family and other ways to celebrate together.
Gift Exchanges: One of the ways that groups may manage gift giving is through an exchange. There are lots of variations on this. They can be random or scheduled. Jana’s kids exchange names so that they buy a nice gift for one of their siblings each year and then they still get something small for each of their other siblings. In the end, the reason we give gifts is to share love and strengthen relationships, and being able to gift something – even a small thing – to each member of the group can really help spread the love.
Hand-made gifts: I love to sew and make other things, but I have to be really careful to not bite off more than I can chew when it comes to making gifts. If you like to make gifts – plan well in advance. I have some (still secret) hand made gifts on plan for this year, but I decided on it last Christmas and started working on them then. I’m still already feeling the crunch, but I expect to have them all done by Thanksgiving and be able to enjoy the Christmas season. If you haven’t planned ahead, don’t feel bad putting it off a year or coming up with a plan B. You want to be able to ENJOY the holidays!!
Share the load: Gift giving is something that my husband and I usually work on together. It is really nice to have someone to share the mental load with – and we have fun thinking about it together. If you haven’t worked on this task with your spouse in the past, consider talking about it this year and devising a plan to tackle it together.
Plan ahead: My most important and most difficult tip is to plan ahead. One of my friends has all of her gifts bought and wrapped by Thanksgiving (I’m in awe every year). A few years ago I was having a surgery on December 4 and would not be able to drive or be very mobile until after Christmas. Consequently, I got everything done for Christmas before my surgery. It was such a wonderful December that I have tried really hard to accomplish this ever since. I have not yet been completely successful – but even TRYING has helped me to not be in a rush the week before Christmas. Planning ahead allows us to slow down, enjoy the season and look for more ways to spread love and cheer.
Good luck and Happy Holidays!!
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