Simplify the Holidays... easy as 1-2-3!

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Yesterday, in a mile-long checkout lane complete with six-year-old boys dive-bombing everyone with their monster trucks and full-on combat sound effects, I found myself vowing to become one of those annoying people who finishes their Xmas shopping by mid-July. I've simplified a lot of things in my life this past year. Why, in the name of all that is sane and holy, did I not apply this principal to Christmas!? God knows it's been crying out for a makeover.

I'd love to just do a little baking and make everyone gifts of time like a gift certificate for a day or evening out with me. Does that sound weird or sleezy or cheap? Think about it though, I'd much rather take friends and family members out for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a movie - just the two of us spending quality time together sometime during the year - than buy them one more thing they don't really need, and may or may not even remember a year from now.

This past year I wrote a lot of birthday poems and they went over like gangbusters. People loved them and started requesting one for their birthday. They were also a heck of a lot of fun to write, as I tried to cram in as many funny memories as possible. So maybe cookies, a poem and a gift of quality time?

My first thought is that it wouldn't be right not to get toys and things for all my nieces and nephews like I always have, but when I really think about it, I realize that they each really value time alone with me. Then I worry about the people who won't cash their quality time in.Well, at least they got some cookies out of it. It's a free country. Or what about the people who will think it's the lamest gift ever... their loss? What about a few people I have no desire to spend any time with... my loss? Could be.

Still, I think I might be onto something. At any rate, it's bound to be an improvement over my current tradition of overspending and spreading myself as thin as crepe paper, out of fear of hurting someone's feelings or pissing someone off. It's time to let go of those fears and free myself up to enjoy the season more. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I just loathe the pre-Christmas chaos I handcraft for myself every single year.

So mark my words and hold me to them. Next year, everyone's going to receive some of my insanely addictive freshly-baked Snickerdoodles, a gift certificate for quality time to be used at their leisure and a little Christmas poem from the heart. I'd love making these gifts, and I'd also love to receive gifts like these! Wouldn't you?