Talane’s Blog of the Week, December 18, 2006

On Enjoying the Holiday Season…

I’m a big fan of holidays. I love Thanksgiving with turkey and family. I love Christmas with all the fanfare, the tree, decorations, Christmas cookies, eggnog, presents, and of course, family. I love it all. But not everyone is as gung ho. My sister hates shopping so doesn’t like the giving presents part of Christmas and isn’t so keen on hanging out with all her relatives either. Her idea of a great Christmas is to stay at home with her husband and have a quiet dinner followed by afternoon skiing, or to travel for a holiday away from friends and family. This doesn’t appeal to me in the least. It has taken me some time to realize that just because I love something, not everyone does. And I have no right to impose my idea of a great holiday on my siblings. So if she shows up now, I consider it a bonus, not a requirement.

The other key thing I do to enjoy Christmas is to only do the parts I like and are important to me. I used to spend hours sending out cards every year until I realized cards aren’t really important to me. Now I save time and postage by simply sending a card to people who send me one. Over the years, fewer people send me cards so I have even less to do.

Our family has come up with a way to handle gift giving without financial stress. We have a $5 limit per person. We tried drawing a name and giving one bigger gift, but we missed having lots of gifts to open Christmas morning. Now we have lots of gifts but all inexpensive. We’ve experimented and this works best for us. Last year, my aunt opted out of the plan so we didn’t exchange gifts with her family. They realized that they missed it and are back on board this year. Again, you can’t force people.

On my father’s side of the family where we have lots of cousins and aunts and uncles, we’ve come up with a solution we call the Grinch Game. We each bring a wrapped $10 gift (one we’d be happy taking home) and put it under the tree. Then we draw numbers and the first person gets to pick any present and open it. The second person can pick a new present or take the present just opened. If they take the present from person 1, then that person can pick a new present and open it. Person 3 can then pick any of the opened presents or a new one from under the tree. The game can go on for ages as certain gifts end up being coveted and make the rounds a number of times. I remember one bottle of very old Whiskey getting passed around quite a few times before the game ended. It is great fun and we all agree it is more fun than simply opening twenty presents.

Think about what is important to you this holiday season. Focus on that and have a great time instead of a stressed time.

Warmest,
Talane