Motivation: A More Meaningful Holiday
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I’ve always been a huge fan of the holiday season. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, we have an entire month to celebrate and examine our relationships with our family and friends. We see the best in people. The world turns into a happier place. Until you make your gift list, and then you get a little frazzled at what it costs to show people you love them. You get stuck in holiday shopping traffic on the way home from work. Each year, all of us think “There has to be another way!” Well, there is! Here are a few steps to making the holiday season more peaceful:
Examine yourself
Spend the holiday season reflecting on the past year. You can’t move forward without looking back (catchy, isn’t that?). What were your favorite moments? What were your least favorite moments? What would you like to change? How will you change it?
Give of your time
Recognize that spending money isn’t the only way to show someone how much you care. Give more time and energy to those who are most important to you. Bake treats with your family and friends, write handwritten and personalized Christmas cards, or offer to help cook holiday dinner. Time spent with a loved one will be remembered long after the $10 gift card.
Spend intelligently
Know that the purchases you make are very important to creating a better world. There are a variety of ways to do this. Make a commitment not to buy anything, or to only buy handmade and fair trade, or DIY everything. However you do it, know that your money is your loudest voice.
Love your neighbor
The holiday season is the perfect time to put the golden rule into practice. Volunteer at a shelter, collect long johns and other cold weather gear, donate all the money you would have spent to a charity.
What are some of your ways you celebrate a more creative and meaningful holiday season?
A.
Thanks for sharing this. With all the buzz and hype surrounding shopping and whatnot, sometimes the focus of the holidays get misdirected. My favorite part of this post is “give of your time” section. Time shared is more valuable than any amount of money spent and more often more memorable.
Thanks for this post!. This year the hubby and I are hiring a local photographer friend to capture loved ones during our annual holiday celebration. We then plan to have prints made and framed for gift giving! Sooo much more meaningful than a gc!
