I know, I know...even the title of this post makes your skin crawl right? Holidays, who can think of holidays? I still haven't put away my flip flops and denim cut-offs from summer and now I've got to think about the holidays? I can hear you saying, "you are all kinds of crazy right now lady, stop writing immediately." Except, I have some fairly valid arguments which I'm going to share.
Full disclosure, I've done my holidays BOTH ways. I've done it with über, semi-psychotic levels of organization, months early and with 15 million separated lists. Color coordinated wrappings and thoughtful touches abounded. But I've also had years where I purposefully sat back and watched other people start early and I declared I was, "doing it different" and waited until the week before. I wrapped it all in a chaotic jumble of prints based on whatever was left over at Target. What I lacked in thoughtfulness, I gained in sanity (or at least that was the theory.) I can argue some pros for both ways truthfully, but I'm going to lay down the 10 reasons why, if you can wrap your mind around the concept, it really IS better to start now.
- If you finish a good chunk, or even just some of your shopping before December, you have a much more mellow month of December. More time to do fun stuff like leisurely wrap, cook and bake, drink wine by the fire...that kind of thing. Don't you deserve to actually enjoy December vs. having it fly by in a frenzy of running around?
- Just because you ignore it, doesn't mean the reality isn't there, which is that December is not all that far away. Usually I breathe a sigh of relief when the kids get back to school and the dust slowly settles, I take a few days and start drinking Rooibos tea and nesting. Then I blink and it's Halloween. Get thru that (it's always a mad catch up for me), then boom, it's Thanksgiving (and that always takes way more work than I think),. Then....yeah, you know what I'm going to say, you blink, and it's THAT time. Everyone says the same thing, "can you BELIEVE how time flies?"
- If you mentally massage yourself into simply considering that keeping an eye out for gifts NOW is a good thing, you'll start to notice things pop up that ARE actually great gifts for later. If you don't mentally open that door, things will pass you buy just because you haven't put it on your radar.
- When you wait, the selection is zippo. Ever try to buy a Halloween costume the day before Halloween (that's me, just about every year.) Forget it, your kid is wearing something lame, three sizes too small. That's how it is for Christmas too....you wait, you miss out.
- The holidays cost a boat load, spreading it out over three months makes it less stressful.
- I find that when I get my 'less fun' gifts over with early, I'm WAY less stressed overall. Everyone has a list of a few people they need to buy for but you know it's not going to be fun and your heart isn't in it. Picky mother-in-law who semi-hates you, and hard to please passive-aggressive sister-in-law. Aunt who forgets your birthday every year, and that you are pretty sure re-gifted you a coffee mug last Christmas that you'd seen at her house. You get the picture. It's super, SUPER satisfying to just get those obligatory gifts out of the way, because you know you have to do it, it's not particularly fun, and it feels good not to think about it anymore. And yah yah, I know, you give out of the kindness of your heart and not out obligation, but I'm talking about in the real world where we really do have obligatory gifts to buy.
- I generally speaking try to ignore some of the details that end up stressing me out in December. It's not going to change, you will need teacher gifts, hostess gifts, something for your favorite yoga teacher, or that music teacher you adore. Those inevitably end up stressing me out because I am more focused on the "big list", and then I find myself running around the week before Christmas trying to pull things together because I waited. Not fun. A holiday gift drawer is a brilliant idea, filled with things wrapped and ready for all those "thank you" gifties you end up having to hand out. For me it happens every year, I just need to get ahead of it instead of being run over by it.
- I actually think there might be something therapeutic about buying gifts for people on a regular basis. I mean, look at it this way, you are doing something nice for someone else, and thinking about someone. Buying gifts can be really fun too (obligatory list aside), and having fun thru generosity has to be all around good for you right? Why not spread that goodness out instead of cramming it all in one month?
- Holiday day gift giving isn't about buying huge gifts, or even about buying things "on people's list" (I personally hate even the idea of lists), it's about thoughtfully thinking of someone, who they are, what they like etc., and picking something out for them. Do you know how hard it is to do that when you have to cram it all into two weeks? Forget it, it's impossible....by the end of the two weeks you are throwing stuff into your shopping cart just to have an object to wrap up (and that's got no spirit at all.) I say I won't let it happen like that, but I've had many-o-year that I'm running out Christmas Eve because I still don't have something for so-in-so and I just got a phone message saying they are, "dropping off gifts tomorrow night." Is that person getting a thoughtful gift at the 11th hour? Nope, seriously doubt it. So really, one can argue it makes you a MORE thoughtful person to be an early shopper.
- Lastly, Melange has been diligently curating a cool group of gifts, accessories and awesome little and big things for gifting. I mean, we'll be honest, we also think about gifting it all for ourselves, BUT it's also about gifting it to other people with love (because we are just THAT kind of person.) If you see it, grab it, and mark someone off your list.
There you go, my reasons for starting early (i.e. pretty much now.). Does it make you crazy? Just a crazy genius I think.
Signed, ME {lv}
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