The End!
I don't want to do the presents thing or the deck the halls thing or the running around for four straight days thing. Call me a hum-bug (my husband already does) but for me the holiday season is getting more and more stressful every year! It's getting to be too much!
Too much money. Too much waste. Too much energy. Too much!
So for me, the holidays - this season of too much - poses a challenge that I take on each and every year. How can I spread holiday cheer and enjoy this season with my family WITHOUT going overboard?
And here's what I've done so far to streamline...
- gifts for the kids ONLY - because, let's face it. Adults have jobs. Have money. They can buy whatever they whenever they want all year round.
- experience gift - last year we sent our niece to see Brittney Spears in concert. This year my nephew is going to see an NFL game. A few years ago we took all our nieces and nephews and our own kids snow tubing for a day. Memories last longer than interests in toys.
- avoid the mall like the plague!!! I'm not much of a shopper anyway, so this one suits me just fine.
- Online shopping is great when you want to find gifts that are eco-friendly, fair-trade, and made local!
- Have a holiday party with friends AFTER the holidays are over. There are so many family and work related shindigs slammed into an already crowded month. Get together with friends casually somewhere between Christmas and New Years, or after even better! There's not much chaos in January.
A great company I discovered for gifts is Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com. They have these beautiful organic gift sets (I found one with Himalayan sea salt and organic peppercorns and another with massage stones and bath crystals) that are all made by Green-e certified wind power and they donate 5% of their profits to environmental causes.
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