A few years ago, it was my granddaughter’s first Christmas.
The first grandchild of the family. To say she got spoiled is putting it
mildly. And that’s not all – we didn’t just spoil her. We also spoiled each
other. We went right nuts, buying gifts for each other. We gathered at my
sister’s house on Christmas morning as we have been doing for the past few
years. After brunch we turned around and looked at the piles upon piles of
gifts. We couldn’t even find a place to sit down. That’s when we knew we had a
problem. Like many families, we had out-Christmas’d ourselves. We had too much.
Christmas is about getting together. It always has been, for
us too. But we have decided we are going to make it more about spending real
time together and less about gifts from now on. We will be sharing a meal, with
conversation. Giving time to that elderly uncle who just got sprung from the
seniors’ home for the day, and listening to every last one of his long stories.
Sitting together in the living room in front of the fire and attempting to sing
along as the real musicians in the family give us their rendition of Joy to the
World and O Holy Night. Trying old family recipes out on each other, and
staying long enough to do the dishes. Singing some more, as we clean up the
kitchen. Documenting the event in photos.
It will take some doing, to break the customary holiday
spending habits but we are in agreement, it has to be done. I don’t want my
family to be stressed, still trying to find the perfect gift for the last
person on their list late at night on Christmas Eve. I don’t want them maxing
out their credit cards so they can’t afford to do the things they enjoy or buy
the things they need themselves. And this Christmas we are also looking out,
beyond our family.
This year we have to focus on the people in the world who
need us to share a few of our blessings with them. We have enough. We can buy
extra groceries and give donations to the food banks. We can take a few hours
to ring bells and fill kettles with cash for the Salvation Army. We can buy a
gift for a child or senior on the Angel Tree. Fill a box for a woman at a
shelter. Bring some warm clothing to a man at the Mission. Goodness knows they
need the things more than we do.
For those few, simple and meaningful gifts that we are going
to buy, let’s make them memorable, and environmentally-friendly. Let’s wrap our
gifts in wearable scarves, cloth grocery bags, or socks! And let’s think about
who is benefitting from our purchases. Who is getting our hard-earned money
this year? Another big-box store? Nope. We are buying small-batch, handmade,
and local gifts this year. Make a small business owner do the happy dance when
you buy gift certificates, products or services – or take a loved one to lunch
at a local restaurant. Make your Christmas count.
We ‘foster’ a child in a developing country all year round
but at Christmas we top up the donation a bit to have more of an impact in the
community. This year we are ‘stocking a medical clinic.’ One year we bought a
goat for a family. I don’t care if they actually got a goat or not – it’s the
thought that counts, right? And I understand the charitable organization in
charge of distributing the wealth has to make sure that no family is receiving
an obvious surplus of benefits over another family. They share the wealth. So
my goat might have been translated into a clutch of chickens, or something
else. But I like to think my goat was real. She was female, she was pregnant,
and the woman who received her then had a bit of control over her own destiny,
with either goat meat or milk to offer in trade.
A Canadian man attempted to track down his gift goat on a
documentary in 2010. You can read about it here.
Whatever you decide to do this Christmas, don’t let the hype
carry you away and rack up your Visa bill. I know many families are even just
deciding to limit themselves to the simple “something they want, something they
need, something to wear and something to read.” That sounds like a good place
to finish. Here’s to not going overboard this holiday season.
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