I love shopping. I genuinely, really enjoy it. I love the whole process of going to a store or to a website, browsing through everything they have, finding something fun and cute and useful and bringing it home with me. I’ll go into store just to browse because I find that just as enjoyable as actually buying something.
So naturally, I LOVE Christmas shopping. Like, really LOVE it. Every year, I’d start in September and make spreadsheets and lists and fill my online shopping carts with options and wait for good sales and coupons and find the PERFECT gifts for people. And, I’ll go ahead and admit that I think I’m a pretty good gift giver. I feel like my gifts are thoughtful and useful. generally speaking.
But this year, we sold a house and moved to a new one in November, and it made no sense to move Christmas gifts in addition to all of our other belongings. (How did we accumulate SO. MUCH. SHIT.?) So I basically had the first two weeks of December to get my life together for Christmas. Here’s how I kept it simple:
I asked for ideas- There are some families where making lists of things you want is a no-no, but my side of the family has always done lists. This doesn’t mean I don’t ever go off the list, because I often do, but it’s a place to start. And I’d rather give people something they actually want and something they’ll actually use.
Buy experiences, not things- As my friends and I get older, our list of responsibilities and obligations gets longer and longer and it can be hard to get together regularly. This year, we decided to plan a girls weekend away for our Christmas gifts to each other. We picked a date in January and made a hotel reservation in Chicago. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, either! It’s more about who you’re with than where you go.
I threw the budget out the window- (Cue the cringe emoji.) I used to set a certain amount of money per person, and then buy and spend until I hit that number. This year, I decided that rather than track all that, I’d just focus on just buying people what I thought they’d love and call it a day. I set a general guideline for the number of gifts per person to keep from going overboard, but at the end of the day, I’d rather spend more on a gift someone will really love rather than filling a self-imposed gap with stuff they don’t need.
I paid for convenience- When you don’t have a lot of time to shop and wrap, just pay for shipping to your house. While I am always the person to pick up from the store to save on shipping costs, it just wasn’t logical this year. I found deals where I could and just shipped everything to my house so I could get it and wrap it ASAP. And hey, those shipping boxes make handy gift boxes too!
We got creative- The siblings on my husband’s side of the family challenged each other to give each person only what they could fit in one standard-size shoebox. It was actually fun to see what everyone came up with, and no one left overwhelmed by gifts. It was awesome.
For some of you, this is probably how you shop every year. For me, simplicity is something I’m trying to incorporate into my life more often. Nothing will teach you about the overcomplication of our everyday lives than going through every single item you own-twice. What are some ways that you keep your holiday simple? Leave me a comment below!
Hey, I’m Meghan
Welcome to Morning Coffee, a place where I’ll be writing every week- about my life and my goals, my house, things I love, resources I have and tools I use. It’s not only a place where I can feel joy in sharing my thoughts with the world, but hopefully a place where someone else, maybe you, can find entertainment, inspiration or camaraderie. Let’s be internet friends over a good cup of coffee, yeah?
