Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tera -- Living My Five

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, the holiday season is officially here. (In my family we have a hard and fast rule of absolutely nothing Christmas-related until after turkey day!) This means I've started thinking about gift giving. I'm also trying to keep my Five in mind as I decide what kind of gifts to give. I've done some research, and a couple of my favorite blogs have terrific posts on "alternative" gifts.



Unclutterer has a 2009 Gift Giving Guide series. So far they've talked about small things (like gift cards and chocolates), gifts that reflect what matter most to you (perfect for Fivers), education (like online classes and language CDs), and uncluttering (aka their book). There are sure to be more great tips coming soon, but these are already giving me some great ideas.

The frugalistas at the Simple Dollar suggest giving experiences rather than things. This can be anything from a coupon for babysitting to planning an outing to do something the recipient loves. Simple, cheap, and meaningful.

Now, I can't exactly share how I plan to implement these ideas (there's still a lot to be said for the element of surprise) but you can bet that this holiday season my nearest and dearest will be getting gifts from the heart.

What about you? Do you have any unique and meaningful gift suggestions for the holidays? I'd love to hear them.

Posted by Tera Lynn Childs at 6:00 AM
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3 comments:

  1. I am so lost right now with the gift giving. I feel like as I grow older and wiser I should give things that really matter... but what matters that you can GIVE, ya know?

    I think, for the daughter's teachers at least, I am going to go handmade and give them all tiny jars of bath salts. But, then what do I do for more important people like my mom and dad. They are SO hard to shop for.

    So, I have no advice only shared confusion :)
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  2. My husband and I have agreed that we're not exchanging gifts this year because we pretty much buy gifts for each other all year round, so instead we're going to make a nice donation to Heifer in our names. Though there are a few other people on my list where I'm a little bit stumped, so I'm also wanting to see other's ideas!
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  3. Yay for experiences instead of gifts! We have one tradition I love: we buy family DVDs or family games in our gift exchange with our siblings. Anything that inspires Family Game Night or Family Movie Night is a winner. And for my grandmother? Our holiday tradition is a new photo calendar of all the great grandkids!
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