Stuff! Stuff! Stuff!
There is so much about this time of year that I love. The lights, the music, the celebratory gatherings with friends and family, having fires while there’s a crisp edge to the air outside…it’s so good.
The thing that brings me down, though, is the overwhelming push for consumption that accompanies the holidays. The flood of emails promoting sales, shopping, just one click and you’ll be so happy once you get this new THING!!!
I want to offer some other options for ways to express our love and caring for one another in this season as an alternative to shelling out the big bucks for more stuff Stuff STUFF!
Create experiences. Instead of things, plan an experience with those you love. Pack up a lunch and a blanket and have a picnic at a park with a great view. Take friends to a forest-y area for some shinrin-yoku (the Japanese term for “forest bathing). Plan a scavenger hunt in your city centered on getting pictures of unusual things or meeting new people. Get out and about for something besides shopping!
“Adopt” a child or family in need. There are ample organizations who are in touch with families or children who don’t have the resources for a holiday meal or gifts. Consider taking on a family or child to fill some of their basic needs over the holidays.
Start an exchange. Find something you and a group of friends enjoy and create an exchange. Are you all avid mystery readers? Have a book swap! Do you all knit? Send along your favorite color yarn to a friend!
Send lavish snail mail. Snail mail is one of those things we barely get anymore – unless it’s direct marketing that goes directly in the trash or those bills we’d rather forget. There is almost no greater pleasure than opening your mailbox to find a handwritten note from someone you love. Share a memory or a story, a wish or an aspiration – whatever it is, they’ll be delighted to read your message and know you were thinking of them.
What are some other ways you celebrate this season besides buying more STUFF?
