It never fails. Every year the rush of holiday gift giving ensues, and before you know it, you’re stressed, over budget, and the merriness is nowhere to be found. In part to avoid that, this year, my mom proposed a new idea for our gifting, and upon reflection, my family has always done something different.
Secret Santa
This is a popular idea for coworkers and office spaces. The premise lies in having only one person to purchase a gift for without them knowing you’re their gift giver.
I come from a large family with countless cousins and children, so we decided early on that it would benefit everyone’s wallet to only buy one gift instead of 20. With such a large family, however, Secret Santa, quickly devolved to Not-So-Secret Santa. It was still effective, though. My family agreed to a $25 limit to all gifts, so it was up to giver if they truly wanted to splurge. If not, you can still get an amazing gift for that amount.
Donating Your Gifts
Recently in California, we had a string of wildfires. Although fires are not entirely out of the ordinary for this region, they have become more severe due to the increasingly dry falls and winters (but that’s another post). Because of these fires, many people have lost their homes and are dealing with unimaginable stress and sorrow.
A couple of weeks ago, my mom suggested that we buy a gift for an adult and child and donate them. We would do this in lieu of buying gifts for each other, and I think it is a great idea and something that could work all over the world.
If you plan on adopting this idea, I suggest that you research an organization to which to donate, and if a tragedy has recently happened in your local area, like the wildfires, ask said organization which items are needed the most. That way you are truly helping instead of adding to a pile of unnecessary things.
However you choose to give this year, I hope you have a lovely holiday season.
Happy Holidays,
TheWritingSol
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