iPads, laptops, phones, cameras ++

Doesn’t it look familiar?

My niece and nephew’s wishlist looks exactly like that. Not one thing on them that I can afford to give them.

And do you know what? I hate giving away money for Christmas! I think it’s impersonal.

I like to give gifts that means something. Something that I’ve thought through and put some effort into.

I remember being little and writing my own wishlist for Christmas. My mom didn’t really have a lot of money and I remember that my brother and me knew that. We usually put one or two expensive thing on our wishlist that we didn’t expect to get, but wishing for other things as well. We did this because we knew how sad it would be for our parents to not be able to give us anything from the list.

And when you think about it, there’s always nicer to get those small things that really means something.

I wished for the same thing on top of my list every birthday and every Christmas for ten years.

I wanted a cuckoo clock. And when I finally got one I almost couldn’t believe it!

Mine looks pretty much like this 🙂

The cuckoo clock has become a part of who I am, and I love it so much! It was worth the ten year wishing wait.

I now work at an electronics store and I see the Christmas craziness on a daily basis. We’ve become spoiled and some people’s expectations for their presents are just beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.

Why are people so obsessed with giving gifts of the same money value? If you think about, aren’t we just swapping money then?

I love giving away homemade presents. Jewelry and accessories are fun to make and fun to get. You’re giving away something unique. Something that everyone else doesn’t have.

The price tag ain’t important really. You have to look at what you can afford and what would make that other person really light up 🙂

Maybe he or she needs something that they haven’t thought of themselves.

So lets drop the Christmas Craziness, slow down and enjoy this joyful time.

Put more thought into your gifts and personalize them into something special.

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

– Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas