The gift giving season is in full swing. It’s the time of year when you can’t watch tv or scroll social media without being inundated with ads for things to buy others, things to buy yourself and things to put on your Christmas list.
For us, as we downsize our lives and continue to divest ourselves of extraneous possessions, this time of year is problematic. We will be attending Christmas parties and gatherings where the exchange of gifts is part of the tradition. As our perspective on possessions has changed over the last year, this mental shift has also crept into our thoughts about giving and receiving gifts.
Gift Giving
As our children have gotten older, we’ve been able to move from quantity to quality in gift giving. When they were little, the goal was to have a lot of things for them to open. Plastic toys were cheap (and usually cheaply made) and we could surround the tree with tons of presents for the kids to open. There was a definite “wow” factor to Christmas morning.
But in their teens to late twenties, the focus has shifted. We used to eschew Christmas lists, thinking that they reduced gift giving to a checklist of gift “demands.” We have evolved our stance as we focus on giving gifts that serve a purpose, rather than ones that add to clutter. The older two typically get one main gift, and it is something they have requested. The youngest still gets gifts, but as teens are impossible to shop for, we’ll happily shop from a list of options that we know are wanted and will be used.
This year we will be giving a variety of gifts. Some people on our list have hobbies or interests that have given us some easy ideas. For others we are focusing on consumable gifts: wine, liquor, homemade treats. For a few hard to shop for relatives, we’re going with cash. The one exception is our new grand-niece. She gets toys – just for the fun of it! She can declutter when she’s older. 😊
Gift Receiving
Our approach to gift giving and gift receiving are the same. We don’t give “clutter” and hope that our friends and family know us well enough to not gift us clutter as well. Gifts should be intentional. The gift giving process should start with the recipient. What do they value? What do they love? What do they need? If your gift doesn’t fit in one of those categories, there is a good chance it will become clutter.
We’re at the point in our decluttering where we really don’t need much of anything new. We are as surprised as anyone, but our preference would be to not get any gifts this year. If our friends and family really want to give us a gift, they can buy us a nice bottle of wine or rum, or, even better, give a gift to charity.
What are your go to holiday gifts? Let us know in the comments!
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