We're off later today on the Amtrack. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something interesting to tell you guys about the Amtrack.
Today I'd like to write about how pleased I am with the way I've simplified the holiday season this year.
The biggest thing I did was give up sending the Christmas cards. As I stated in this post, I saw no need to provide pictures and updates to every single person I've ever known, because I do that on a daily basis with Facebook and on this blog. And I eliminated so much stress by skipping those damn cards. No worrying about getting the perfect photo, no making address labels, no spending $50 on stamps.
Also this year I did not bake anything, save for the stuff I made for Nathan's school bake sale. (Which, note to the powers-that-be, you do not need to do in December.) And even for the bake sale, I made the cheapest, simplest thing you could possibly make (Toll House cookies), save just buying a package of Oreos. The thing is, I like to bake. But at the holidays, it feels like a chore. You aren't just throwing together a nice little batch of cookies. It's like a hard-core, factory-style assembly line wherein you make several batches. And then package them in some cute container. And go out like an angry soldier on a mission, frantically trying to deliver all those little containers the day before Christmas.
As for the gifts, my in-laws and my mom's side of the family decided to go with a sort of game-style gift exchange, where everybody brings in a wrapped gift and we play some kind of exchange game to open them. So, that cut out a lot of gifts I had to buy. And since I have to get all the stuff out to California, these alternative gift arrangements cut out a lot of the gifts I had to ship. (My very worst year, postage-wise, I was spending over $100 just to ship everybody's gift to the west coast.)
Which brings me to online shopping. Like everybody, I think online shopping is a beautiful thing. What's not to love? The traditional store shopping involves getting yourself and your family dressed in coats/hats/scarves/gloves, heading out in the cold, driving all over town, dealing with the in-and-out of the carseat, braving crowded stores, standing in line, wrapping gifts, and then still having to go to the post office to ship them. Or, you could sit in your pajamas, click a few buttons, and have a gift purchased and shipped by some website.
However, online shopping kind of doesn't appeal to my slightly anal side. I like my gifts to be wrapped in a cute paper I personally selected, with tags that clearly indicate the giver and the sender. If I get somebody a few different gifts, I like those gifts to be wrapped in matching paper, stacked, and tied together with a bow. Online shopping is kind of a crapshoot in the gift-presentation department. Sometimes you order a person a few different items that arrive at different times, which seems kind of weird and disjointed. Sometimes there is nothing, anywhere, to indicate who the gift is from. Even when there is a gift message, it's a sad little thing printed in tiny font with weird spacing. Like:
Dear Suzy, Merry
Christmas! Hope you like
your gift. Love Bob and
Mary
It all feels very sterile and impersonal. But this year, I just got. over. that. You're getting my stupid sterile box with my stupid message, and you're going to appreciate the hell out of it.
Another thing I got over was the "add-on" concept. I often buy a gift and think that I should just add on some little accessory, or some cute packaging. Inevitably, the purchasing of the add-on necessitates a separate errand that often ends up being more time-consuming and/or expensive than the purchase of the original gift. Also, as I previously mentioned, with online shopping the add-on accessory might come before the main gift, leaving the recipient confused. Like, "Why did Shannon get me batter for a doughnut maker, when I don't have a doughnut maker?"
(Note to my family: I didn't get any of you a doughnut maker.)
A case-in-point where I gave up on the add-ons was with the gifts for Nathan's teachers. I got them Starbucks gift cards and cute little Hallmark "for my teacher" cards to put them in. Originally I thought it might be fun to make each teacher a little vase of flowers to attach the card to. I do like to arrange flowers, and everybody likes to get flowers, right? Except, then I thought about how I would have to drive to Michael's, which takes about 15-20 minutes, because that's the only place I can think of where I would have access to a cute collection of affordable vases. I figured I could maybe spend about $5 total on the two vases. But then I would go to Costco (another 15 minutes past Michael's) and spend $15 on a big bouquet that I could divide up between the two teachers. That's a total of $20, not to mention a lot of time and effort. And would anybody ever say, "This gift card would have been a lot better if you attached it to some flowers"? No.
Let me note that as a former teacher and a person who comes from a family of teachers, I am absolutely 100% in favor of giving gifts to your children's teachers. Nobody deserves a gift more than a teacher. I'm just opposed to any gift that involves a stupid add-on, when the gift itself would have been sufficient.
So, in conclusion, while this holiday season has been by no means simple, it has been simpler. I don't think there's any way to make the holidays totally stress-free, at least not within the confines of your current personality and circumstances. But I am proud of the steps I have taken to simplify Christmas this year.
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