I did it! I pulled off a homemade Christmas! Well, it was mostly homemade, which is what I was going for. Forced planning ahead made for a much more relaxed December. Somehow I still ended up with a bunch of last-minute things to do, but that had more to do with forgetfulness than anything else. Everyone either liked their gifts or faked it well enough to suit me, so I'm a happy camper.
In addition to the more relaxed month, the benefits of homemade giving included:
- not setting foot inside a mall during the rush
- watching lots of movies with my husband while I knitted or painted (he explained to recipients that he made this sacrifice for the sake of their gifts)
- learning some new skills
- saving money
- avoiding that empty feeling I usually get when I rack my brains to think of a gift, finally buy something mediocre, and then realize how dumb the whole exercise was
I've been thinking a lot lately about the whole point of Christmas and wondering how much of what we do during the season is good or bad or distracting or just plain excessive. We simplified our holiday this year in a lot of ways. We did no Christmas cards, no neighbor gifts and fewer presents. And you guessed it - I really didn't miss any of it. It freed up more time for better things: walking my son around the city's Christmas Village and looking into every single window; watching "Elf" with friends while the kids guzzled barely-hot cocoa out of sippy cups; making sugar cookies and not caring about the distorted stars or the gingerbread man's stretched-out arms; letting normal life coexist with the Christmas season instead of putting everything on hold until "things settle down."
To summarize, this Christmas was awesome. And it was just the cherry (or I guess you could say a whole bottle of maraschinos) on top of a great year of homemade gift-giving. I think I'll do it again this year. Anyone joining me?
Watch for lots of gift posts coming soon! Happy New Year!
