Happy November! I am done with my holiday shopping and you can be too! Here’s how I did it:
1. Establish concrete rules about how your family will approach the holidays. Then make a list and a budget. We celebrate Hanukah, and decided we wanted to get each girl the customary eight gifts (eek!), one for each night. Because we needed so many we made sure to set a budget and then work backwards. We also decided we would get gifts for the girls’ teachers, and one nice item (not to exceed $100) for each other. The rest of the people in our lives will get homemade treats, potted plants, or experiences – i.e a holiday dinner party or a home cooked meal. Check out my article on clutter-free creative gift giving here.
2. Now that you have a budget and a list, all you have to do is purchase or make your gifts. I shopped at my favorite shops (Ruby’s Garden and Ellington and French) as well as Amazon.com. We got our girls lots of fun little things without breaking the bank – hair clips, doodle pads, new washable markers, books, games and slipper socks.
3. Wrap and ready! My local boutiques offer beautiful (and free) gift wrapping services. For the rest I am going to use brown butcher paper and baker’s twine. Until then, I shoved all of our gifts in a large black suitcase so little snoops won’t ruin the surprises.
Around this time of year, feeling the consumer pressure is inevitable and it is really difficult to ignore. I find that establishing rules, setting a budget, and shopping from a list, really help keep me on track. I also keep in mind that all of my holiday memories are of experiences, not things. I remember joyful gatherings with friends and family, holiday foods, and songs, but truly can’t recall a single gift I received as a kid. So why not put your energy into creating meaningful memories for yourself and your loved ones and keep the gift buying simple and economical?
photo credit: oh happy day
I’m not sure what you mean, Bruce. Is your admin interface bkeron, or do you lack edit links? Because they are there, on both posts and pages, at the bottom of them for quick edit. Same with comments.If you admin interface broke then it is not a Notes Blog Core issue. Likely it is a plugin that mess things up, or possibly an error in your installation of the theme (from the wp.org servers). Reinstall and you should be fine if that is the case.