Christmas In TWO Weeks
Got your attention?!?
Good! No, I didn’t make a mistake.
My internally imposed Christmas shopping deadline is just TWO weeks away. So, it isn’t too early to talk about Christmas gifting. I needed something to grab your attention and apparently, it worked.
In the Canterbury household, we have a few Christmas Rules.
First, three gifts. This rule is important for several reasons. In keeping with the traditional Christmas story, three wise men brought the newborn child three valuable gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh. By limiting my children’s gifts to three special items, we remember the real reason for the season.
There are benefits to the limit of three gifts. Expectations are set and met by everyone in the family, bringing joy to the day instead of disappointment. By limiting the gifts, it requires me to think and plan the items I purchase. Therefore, I keep a list of gift ideas for each person in my family in the Notes App on my mobile phone. Throughout the year, when a family member says, ‘I need’, ‘that’s nice,’ or ‘I really want’, I type a little reminder on my phone so that I have a defined shopping list before I spend (this is also helpful for birthdays). The limit on the number of gifts also creates a spending cap so that I don’t blow my budget, which is easy for me to do during a shopping frenzy.
Secondly, we spend Christmas at home. I made the mistake several years ago of scheduling a surprise family vacation that encompassed Christmas. My children let me know quickly that they wanted to be home during the holidays, and this changed how we spend the day. Probably like many of you, when our children were young, we spent December 25th in the car. Running from grandparents to grandparents to make everyone happy. Instead of joy, there were five tired and unhappy people.
Lastly, this mother has a self-imposed shopping deadline of Thanksgiving Day. I learned years ago that waiting until the true Christmas shopping season—it use to start after Thanksgiving, then it became Halloween, and now stores are stocked and decorated by mid-September, no joke—added unnecessary stress into my life. I can’t enjoy the season when I’m fatigued from running around after work and fighting crowds on the few Saturdays of December. I found myself dreading the most wonderful time of the year.
Maybe it’s too early for you to think about Christmas, maybe not. At a minimum, give this some thought:
Limit the gift-giving. There is no need to over-purchase, to over-gift, with thoughtful preplanning. The retail industry is already decorated and marketed for Christmas, so that you will buy and buy and buy over the next three months. Don’t!
Keep a Christmas idea list in the Notes App on your mobile phone throughout the year to help with your purchasing process. More on this in the coming weeks.
Purchase early! Shopping in early November will allow you to enjoy the magic of the season without stress and dread. Trust me, it’s a life-changer.
For some of you, friends, the thrill of walking the malls, jostling the crowds, rummaging through store sales is pleasurable. But there’s no findingJOY in that for me. I do find joy in taking a stroll down Antique Alley, the local mom-and-pop outdoor mall, to see the lights, enjoy a hot chocolate, and explore for homemade goods. But the big-box marketing frenzy, holiday hype causes me stress, and that’s why I complete most, if not all, of my holiday shopping by Thanksgiving Day (that makes me thankful!).
Lagniappe. Remember the ole fashion Christmas Pagent? As a child I would play the angel in my grandmother’s church’s Christmas Eve Play (such wonderful memories). And afterwards, we would each get a stocking full of walnuts and oranges. Such simplicity! Such JOY!
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