Okay, what’s our plan?
Got some real writing done yesterday, not just cutting and pasting (which feels more like factory work than writing–blech), so things are looking up and I have a question for you all.
As some of you might have already learned to accept, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Which means (and here’s where I know I’m going to lose a bunch of you) Christmas is a month away. Hard to believe when you live where I do, where the temperature is still in the 80s. I know some of you hate me for saying that, since in Baltimore, for example, it’s rainy and cold, but just remember that during the summer here women are not allowed to give birth because their babies will evaporate.
So here we are, Big Brains all of us, and I think if we gather together as a community, we might come through this okay. I’m talking about strategies here, people. I’m talking about giving us all the benefit of our combined wisdom, and together we’re going to finish out the year without our usual crying jags and hyperventilating in traffic.
Part one was that whole let’s fatten our friends thing, where we shared a little info about what delicacies we could order on-line to send to our dear and too-skinny ones without ever having to hit the roads. Today, we’re going to expand our vision and share some of our best and most useful ideas for making the holidays FUN! and STRESS FREE! and WITHOUT A MAJOR MELTDOWN IN THE PRIVACY OF A BATHROOM WHILE THE REST OF THE FAMILY IS OUT THERE STILL ACTING THE WAY THEY ALWAYS DO, GOD BLESS THEM!
I actually have one idea that I think could help some of you. A few years ago, when I was really not enjoying shopping anymore for people I love but who really didn’t need anything else, and I had a hard time figuring out what to buy them anyway besides getting everyone gift certificates to the movie theater (never a bad gift, I think we all agree), I decided that was it. In part because I knew that at that very minute a group of people was out there trying to figure out what I wanted, too, and the answer was I didn’t want to shop anymore.
Don’t get me wrong–I love to buy things for people, but I love it to be something they need and want. Christmas forces you to buy just for the sake of having something to hand over. Sometimes you know exactly what to give someone, and then it’s great, but usually (correct me if I’m wrong) you’re just trying to fill in the blank so that no one feels unloved and unwanted.
So anyway, I had my epiphany, and ever since then, holiday shopping really is a PLEASURE. Get that? I’m not kidding.
On Thanksgiving, my family will gather for the gorge, and when we’re all sedated we’ll sit down in the living room, each with an index card. On that card we will write our name, and then list at least three items under $25 that we would love to have. We can be specific (this book title, this T-shirt in this size) or we can be general (like the year I just wanted anything at all having to do with Lord of the Rings).
Then we fold our cards and place them in a basket, and my niece does the honors of going around the room and letting each of us draw a name. The rule is you can’t draw yourself or your spouse, so those names go back and you try again. It’s all a big secret whose name we drew until the gift exchange Christmas morning.
The children are excluded from this drawing, because children should always be free to receive so many gifts their little brains nearly explode from overstimulation. But for us adults, it’s absolutely perfect–we get what we want, and that includes our wish to have to shop for only one person in our family. Hurray!
I am all ears. Please tell me what other brilliant ideas you have for making the holidays nice. It can include managing house guests, how you handle the big meals, what you do about decorating and gift giving–whatever.
Together we can lick this whole holiday thing. No crying jags for us.
Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Holiday Ideas
November 22nd, 2006 at 8:52 am
Wow, I love the lottery idea for family shopping. Sorta wish I could get MY family to do that.
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:40 pm
My family does a version of the lottery, too, and it has helped tremendously. But we don’t do the “wish list” part - I’m going to steal that.
For those really tricky relatives/friends, the ones who already have everything, we usually give to a charity we think they’ll like in their name. Good feelings all ’round.
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Eisha, I had to admit how shallow we are, but we tried doing a solely-charity Christmas once–all of us giving to charity instead of buying gifts for each other–and it was a big fart. Come Christmas morning, we were all depressed. Why? Because the truth is we all give to charity plenty during the year, and even more around the holidays, and so all we had really done was remove the fun part of gift-giving on Christmas morning.
But I agree that when you can’t think of anything to get someone, a donation to a charity you think they would like (resisting the temptation to give to your own political party, say, if this relative happens to be a Republican) is a really nice alternative to just buying more stuff they don’t really need.