After taking steps to spend less on new things for the thrill of new things, and only on things that I truly need, or would allow me to grow, in other words, Christmas is a challenging time of year.
I was about to send emails to everyone in my family saying "please don't give me gifts this year" or "please donate to charity instead", and "I don't want to spend money on things that won't necessarily make you happier, so please tell me what you really want for Christmas", but writing those emails turned out to be much for difficult than I expected. It also dawned on me that it was incredibly insensitive and selfish, especially doing such requests by email and not in person or by phone.
First, giving gifts can be a wonderful happiness boost to anyone doing the giving. The experience between two people of giving of and receiving a gift can be a good bonding exercise. And asking for what my family actually wants could take the fun out of it, by eliminating the element of surprise. So I was faced with a tough decision. Make a change or keep up the family traditions.
Traditions are important towards happiness, as I've learned recently having started reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. And I didn't want to stir up anything by straying away from traditions. On the other hand, we're all grown and mixing things up can also be good for us, but it will have to wait until next year. Right now, December 17th, is much too close to Christmas to be changing our shopping lists, especially since not everyone is last minute. Once Black Friday rolls around, it's too late to change the Christmas traditions - even though Black Friday is not as popular in Canada as it is in the US, it is an excellent day to start buying gifts, as the sales are excellent!
I've also sought out information from The Internet, our #1 source of information, sad as that is... I took advice from other people embracing minimalism that, once a year, it is okay to embrace the traditions of Christmas. We may not control what others get us, but we can send gift list ideas and give gifts that are homemade, or "experience gifts". Or, another idea was to look at what kind of gifts you'd received in the past, which indicates what that person likes.
And as it turns out I've actually been gift-conscious for 1-2 years now, buying local produce as gifts, making homemade goodies, small tokens of appreciation, and things that I'd be sure the other enjoys, without necessarily having a gift ideas list from them.
And so, on that note, Happy Holidays to everyone!
xo Miss K (on a budget)
I was about to send emails to everyone in my family saying "please don't give me gifts this year" or "please donate to charity instead", and "I don't want to spend money on things that won't necessarily make you happier, so please tell me what you really want for Christmas", but writing those emails turned out to be much for difficult than I expected. It also dawned on me that it was incredibly insensitive and selfish, especially doing such requests by email and not in person or by phone.
First, giving gifts can be a wonderful happiness boost to anyone doing the giving. The experience between two people of giving of and receiving a gift can be a good bonding exercise. And asking for what my family actually wants could take the fun out of it, by eliminating the element of surprise. So I was faced with a tough decision. Make a change or keep up the family traditions.
Traditions are important towards happiness, as I've learned recently having started reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. And I didn't want to stir up anything by straying away from traditions. On the other hand, we're all grown and mixing things up can also be good for us, but it will have to wait until next year. Right now, December 17th, is much too close to Christmas to be changing our shopping lists, especially since not everyone is last minute. Once Black Friday rolls around, it's too late to change the Christmas traditions - even though Black Friday is not as popular in Canada as it is in the US, it is an excellent day to start buying gifts, as the sales are excellent!
I've also sought out information from The Internet, our #1 source of information, sad as that is... I took advice from other people embracing minimalism that, once a year, it is okay to embrace the traditions of Christmas. We may not control what others get us, but we can send gift list ideas and give gifts that are homemade, or "experience gifts". Or, another idea was to look at what kind of gifts you'd received in the past, which indicates what that person likes.
And as it turns out I've actually been gift-conscious for 1-2 years now, buying local produce as gifts, making homemade goodies, small tokens of appreciation, and things that I'd be sure the other enjoys, without necessarily having a gift ideas list from them.
And so, on that note, Happy Holidays to everyone!
xo Miss K (on a budget)
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