Have a Small is Beautiful Holiday
An UPDATE: Yikes! Jen just called and said they’ve had major problems with their zine files and have to abort the project of this season. (So sad!) So the prize for the Tip Rally is now two beautiful hardcover holiday cook books: Christmas: A Cook’s Tour with reciepes and tradtions from around the world, and The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast with wonderful meals for the Jewish holidays and essays on food history and the holiness of gathering around the table. Keep tipping!
Hello Small and Passionate bloggers!
Like it or lump it, the holiday season is upon us. And don’t you just hate it when you let yourselves over-book and over-buy during the holidays? It sure doesn’t leave you feeling merry and bright!
You know what we need in the midst of all the superstore craziness?
Tips.
Yes my friends, tips — ideas and suggestions for maintaining a small but beautiful holiday. It’s time for the first annual Small is Beautiful Holiday Tips Rally.
Got a short cut for the turkey? Figured out how to downsize your gift list? Learned how to make the season holy instead of harried? Let us know!
Put your tips in the comments below by November 25th. A couple of lucky tipsters will be given a copy of The Soulsister’s Guide to a Very Merry Christmas, a fabulous guide for tiny, meaningful celebrations. So good! You’ll love it!
(If you don’t pick one up in the drawing, you can still buy one by the 30th and make the Soulsister’s final ship date. But really, you should just buy one now, because even if you win another, you will definitely want to pass this little bundle of goodness on to someone you love!)
Oh, and one more thing. In addition to winning the Soulsister’s guide, drawing winners will also be featured in a Small is Beautiful Saturday post, where they can highlight their Top 5 Posts of 2007. (Good reading ahead! Yum!)
So go ahead, start submitting your tips below!
9 comments
This tip relates to that ever-growing gift-giving list that we are all faced with each holiday season. Last year, my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, along with my little girl and I, all gathered in my mil’s kitchen to have a Baking Day.
In advance of this special day, we each purchased a ton of holiday-themed tins and boxes.
Each of us baked, boiled, or somehow created, one to two different goodies a piece. One sil made cornflake candy. I made about a kazillion different flavors of jello pudding/bisquick cookies. Another sil made peanut butter balls and something else delicious but I forget. My mil made a party mix. You get the idea.
So by the end of the day, every available surface in mil’s kitchen and dining room was covered in delicious cookies and candies. We then took our tins and made the rounds, a bit like a buffet, filling each of our tins with an assortment of treats.
Over the course of the next two days, we each delivered the tins and boxes to friends and co-workers. The gifts themselves were inexpensive, but everyone who received a package of our homemade goodies couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful they were.
Mary
Hello Rachelle and All Small, Passionate Bloggers.
I read this post almost first thing this morning and this thought popped so effortlessly into my head I thought I’d share it right away.
Here is a tip on how to keep the Spirit of Love & Joy this Holiday Season: buy gifts that transform lives.
For the past few Christmases, I’ve shopped from the World Vision Gift Catalogue and bought livestock — goats, chickens, roosters, sheep — in the names of my family. As the catalogue says: “Your donation will assist a child or family in need, helping them to help themselves on the road to lasting change.”
Here is the link to this alternative shopping guide: http://www2.worldvision.ca/gifts/app
For the past several Christmases, my family has nixed giving Christmas gifts altogether. Instead, each of us chooses a special charity that is close to our hearts. Each family member spends the same amount they would on a gift, but instead gives (online!) to the charity of their loved one’s choosing.
I’ve chosen to have my gifts from my family donated to a missionary couple in Ireland, to Heifer International, to World Vision, and to an African relief organization that serves children in AIDS afflicted regions. Each of my family members has chosen their own pet causes, and I give to those organizations in their name.
Not only is shopping a lot easier, we’re making a huge impact for others, but in a very personal way. Instead of concentrating on what we get at Christmas (although we still do stockings for all the kids, who are all over the age of 14), we spend our holiday enjoying one another’s company, gathered together to enjoy music, festive decorations, good holiday food, and the good feelings that come from giving.
My tip is about the holiday mindset. When people ask me if I’m “ready” for Christmas, I tell them “Absolutely!” Then I try to explain (without sounding like a snooty-patooty) that I love the holidays and see them as a time to enjoy and celebrate, not a single event to kill myself getting ready for. Whatever decorating or baking I get done ahead of time is a nice gift to myself, because I enjoy those things. But if I’m too busy to make cookies or play Martha Stewart around the house, it’s still all good! I’m ready for Christmas. Bring it on!
I teach art and craft classes, and make stuff for the classes throughout the year that doesn’t have a specific home – jewelry samples, collages, felted wool gloves, magnets – so last year, I sent out an e-mail to my friends letting them know that they had a gift certificate for $25 in my “store” – then I had an open house, and my friends came over and picked out gifts – either for themselves, or to pass on to others. It was a big hit! And people picked things for themselves that I never would have picked for them . . .
I’ve also seen folks have a gift “trade day” – each person brings things from home that are in really good condition, but that they don’t want, and everyone digs through, and finds gifts for themselves and others . . .
Both ideas are about letting things that are already made find new, happy homes instead of going out and buying a bunch of new stuff . . . something I’m always tempted to do (shiny!).
I’ve been pondering this very thing lately. I seem to get caught up in my kids lust feast for “stuff” and then I wind up being mad at myself, hating the holidays… blah, blah, blah.
I love the cooking, decorating and all that part of the holiday festivities. I just hate the out of control consumerism.
I’m thinking I will set a spending limit and actually stick to it.
Maybe only buy green – organic cotton pj’s, organic gourmet coffees, etc.
BTW – lots of great tips, thank you.
I love the holidays…..
I set a budget out of necessity and buy what I can…and continue holiday traditions that we’ve made. It wasn’t always this way for me. I had some pretty traumatic holidays as a child. I came from extreme poverty so….I decided as an adult I would change that story and made my own traditions. I continue with these and add new ones as we come up with them. My family and I on Christmas Eve get out of bed at 6am and rush to the nearest mall to be the first in line to see Santa. Then we take a picture with the whole family and afterwards we go to breakfast….
Happy Holidays to all…make a new tradition this year…..
Hugs,
Tracey Huguley
traceyhuguley.blogspot.com
These are all so inspiring!
My favorite tip is to ‘do less’ during the holiday season. I avoid looking at the enterrainment section of the newspaper so I don’t get sucked into the mall sing-a-long or the jingle bell dash. Instead we do just one holiday outing, “downtown day”, where we jump on the bus to see the decorations, ride the carosuel, have hot chocolate at our favorite coffee shop and meet the grandparents for dinner.
My other tip is to start the season out peacefully. For me, this means going to “A Peaceful Advent Evening” at our local cathedral. I’ts lovely to walk the labyrinth and sing evensong by candlelight.
for a few years now, i’ve made my own xmas cards and bought handmade gifts – either global fairtrade or local craft items… this year, all my friends will receive handmade gifts and cards from etsy – THE most wonderful website :o)
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