One of the greatest things I've had come out of my experience of simplifying the holidays is how on-board my family and friends have been. One of the best suggestions to come thus far has been from my mother's side: an uncle suggested that instead of the adults receiving presents this year, money that would have been used for gifts could be collected and given in honor of my grandfather, who passed away earlier this year, to an organization that purchases and donates medications to people with cancer who would not normally be able to afford the medications.
The suggestion warmed my heart, and came even before me and my family opened up the discussion of what matters most to us during the holiday season. The idea was greeted with resounding approval on my mother's side of the family and has providing my own sort of basis of what I'd like my holiday season to revolve around: time with family and friends, honoring loved ones who have passed, et al. Since I'm still considered part of the 'kid' section of my family, we're going to be receiving fewer presents, too, which is more in line with our values. My mom keeps trying to brace me for 'fewer presents under the tree' than in year's past, but I remind her that what's important to me during the holidays is time with her and everyone else, not how many boxes are marked for me under the tree.
Once the concept of moving away from the overmaterialistic part of the holidays is planted into craniums, one never know what ideas may sprout!
Monday, December 11, 2006
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
More of What Matters
Here is a special post written by Emily Axelbaum, a senior at the University of Maryland College Park. Enjoy!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"- Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
My grandparents migrate to Florida each winter to avoid the St. Louis cold. In order to spend time with them over the winter and to guarantee that we see our cousins at least once a year, we all follow behind for about five days over the holidays. For my extended family it was considered “the holidays” for a reason. While my immediate family and the family of my mom’s youngest sister have Jewish households, her older sister is non-religious. Therefore, our celebration is always secular, and although we light candles if Hanukkah happens to fall during our time together, it is not the main focus. For us, it has never been about a huge pile of presents when we pack into my grandparents Florida house. After all, my mom and aunts see 17 people as too many to spend December buying for, so for as long as I can remember, we have found an alternative. Each year over Thanksgiving, we do a name drawing so that each of the kids buys for one other kid not in their immediate family, and all the adults buy for one other adult. This simplifies things for most of us, although my grandparents, being the generous people that they are, still buy for all of us.
A name drawing is a really easy way to still incorporate presents into the holidays, without having them overwhelm the spirit of the season. We each get one present that we really want and nobody feels they are missing out when they don’t receive six or seven less meaningful gifts like ill-fitting clothing or a human-powered crank flashlight. Each person just has to focus on what the person they pick would like, instead of dividing attention amongst the wants of more people.
For my family, the name drawing is more than just a way to simplify, it also serves as a way for us to get more of what matters from the holiday season. The actual drawing was part of a larger Thanksgiving tradition we used to partake in. Those of us in St. Louis over Thanksgiving, normally just my grandparents and my immediate family, used to write and film mysteries and musicals (all of which turned into comedies) every year to send, along with the list of who got who in the name drawing, to our family on the East coast that couldn’t be with us over the long weekend. It was a great way for all of us to spend Thanksgiving afternoon before feasting, and though it has been phased out as we have all grown up, the idea of making that day about spending time together has definitely carried over.
Another activity we do is the famous holiday sing-along; it comes at some point during our week in Florida every year. It groups all the adults against all the kids in the ultimate sing-fest. This is no corny, let’s-sit-around-and-sing-by-the-fire family time game, it’s a competition. My uncle selects a different word each year, ideas include rain, heart, kiss, etc. and each team has 10 minutes in a sealed off room to make a list of as many songs as they can think of that contain “the word.” Then we all come back together and go back and forth between the teams singing a different song on our list, no repeats across teams, while my uncle awards points for originality (long-forgotten songs), presentation (dancing especially or soloist performances), and the “that-is-one-of-my-favorite-songs” Uncle Scott bonus. The first team to run out of songs loses points and ends the game. It is a truly great way to spend time with family and enjoy each others company, creativity, and awful singing over the holidays.
These are just some of the ways that, over time, my family has found to appreciate the holidays more for the time we get to spend together than for the things that we decide to buy for each other. The name drawing can be done using gifts received years past that you think someone else may have a better appreciation for, or it can be done as a secret where the person giving the gift doesn’t reveal themselves. The idea is to be creative and make gift-giving about spending time together instead of just opening a pile of presents.
For more gift swap ideas and descriptions go to http://www.newdream.org/holiday/giftideastaff.php#swaps
Happy Holidays,
Emily
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"- Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
My grandparents migrate to Florida each winter to avoid the St. Louis cold. In order to spend time with them over the winter and to guarantee that we see our cousins at least once a year, we all follow behind for about five days over the holidays. For my extended family it was considered “the holidays” for a reason. While my immediate family and the family of my mom’s youngest sister have Jewish households, her older sister is non-religious. Therefore, our celebration is always secular, and although we light candles if Hanukkah happens to fall during our time together, it is not the main focus. For us, it has never been about a huge pile of presents when we pack into my grandparents Florida house. After all, my mom and aunts see 17 people as too many to spend December buying for, so for as long as I can remember, we have found an alternative. Each year over Thanksgiving, we do a name drawing so that each of the kids buys for one other kid not in their immediate family, and all the adults buy for one other adult. This simplifies things for most of us, although my grandparents, being the generous people that they are, still buy for all of us.
A name drawing is a really easy way to still incorporate presents into the holidays, without having them overwhelm the spirit of the season. We each get one present that we really want and nobody feels they are missing out when they don’t receive six or seven less meaningful gifts like ill-fitting clothing or a human-powered crank flashlight. Each person just has to focus on what the person they pick would like, instead of dividing attention amongst the wants of more people.
For my family, the name drawing is more than just a way to simplify, it also serves as a way for us to get more of what matters from the holiday season. The actual drawing was part of a larger Thanksgiving tradition we used to partake in. Those of us in St. Louis over Thanksgiving, normally just my grandparents and my immediate family, used to write and film mysteries and musicals (all of which turned into comedies) every year to send, along with the list of who got who in the name drawing, to our family on the East coast that couldn’t be with us over the long weekend. It was a great way for all of us to spend Thanksgiving afternoon before feasting, and though it has been phased out as we have all grown up, the idea of making that day about spending time together has definitely carried over.
Another activity we do is the famous holiday sing-along; it comes at some point during our week in Florida every year. It groups all the adults against all the kids in the ultimate sing-fest. This is no corny, let’s-sit-around-and-sing-by-the-fire family time game, it’s a competition. My uncle selects a different word each year, ideas include rain, heart, kiss, etc. and each team has 10 minutes in a sealed off room to make a list of as many songs as they can think of that contain “the word.” Then we all come back together and go back and forth between the teams singing a different song on our list, no repeats across teams, while my uncle awards points for originality (long-forgotten songs), presentation (dancing especially or soloist performances), and the “that-is-one-of-my-favorite-songs” Uncle Scott bonus. The first team to run out of songs loses points and ends the game. It is a truly great way to spend time with family and enjoy each others company, creativity, and awful singing over the holidays.
These are just some of the ways that, over time, my family has found to appreciate the holidays more for the time we get to spend together than for the things that we decide to buy for each other. The name drawing can be done using gifts received years past that you think someone else may have a better appreciation for, or it can be done as a secret where the person giving the gift doesn’t reveal themselves. The idea is to be creative and make gift-giving about spending time together instead of just opening a pile of presents.
For more gift swap ideas and descriptions go to http://www.newdream.org/holiday/giftideastaff.php#swaps
Happy Holidays,
Emily
Ho Ho Holiday Cards
Whoa, so here we are, December 6th, the holiday season is already buzzing. One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is send Christmas cards. I've never sent out lots of them, but it is special to send out or hand out a few to special people, especially ones that I drift in and out of touch with all year long.
I adore quote, so I love to send Quoteables Cards. Alas, to my knowledge, they are not made with post-consumer content, which dismayed me. But, I made a concession and decided to buy my handful of boxes of Quoteables cards at a local retailer instead of trying to find a better bargain online. My neighborhood store Pulp DC (they can be found at http://www.pulpdc.com/) is where I chose to get my cards. In addition to having some lovely choices, they are involved in a variety of programs that contribute back to the community, which is important to me.
Having done some research on other card options, here are some great resources to buy recycled cards, or cards that, with your purchase, you're funding a charitable organization at the same time. Alas, a two-for-one deal!
http://www.conservatree.com/paper/AddlProductsCards.shtml#holiday
-Nicole
I adore quote, so I love to send Quoteables Cards. Alas, to my knowledge, they are not made with post-consumer content, which dismayed me. But, I made a concession and decided to buy my handful of boxes of Quoteables cards at a local retailer instead of trying to find a better bargain online. My neighborhood store Pulp DC (they can be found at http://www.pulpdc.com/) is where I chose to get my cards. In addition to having some lovely choices, they are involved in a variety of programs that contribute back to the community, which is important to me.
Having done some research on other card options, here are some great resources to buy recycled cards, or cards that, with your purchase, you're funding a charitable organization at the same time. Alas, a two-for-one deal!
http://www.conservatree.com/paper/AddlProductsCards.shtml#holiday
-Nicole
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wow...December...are you serious? Oofta.
I love making things, and I often feel that the best days of my life were in 3rd grade art class where we got to make marionettes one day and big murals the next...As I've gotten older I've gotten fewer and fewer opportunities to CREATE things with my own hands...My time is taken up with other things...jobs, volunteering, and the day-to-day essentials of life...All this is obviously important and necessary, and while jobs can include creativity and you can do creative things with friends..it's not the same. There's value in waking up thinking..."you know? I really feel like making a bowl out of acorn tops" and then doing it. I don't know. Am I making any sense?
Moral of the story: the holidays are the time of year when I have the best chance to use my creative energy to express my love and appreciation for my friends and family. Part of how this expresses itself is in finding how bits of my current environment remind me of my loved-ones, which then inspires me to incorporate that piece into a gift for them. For me, believe it or not, this sometimes comes in the form of a bowl made out of newspaper (paper mache) with a newsprint photo of my brother's favorite soccer player in the middle... or how the pressed flowers my significant other gave me for my birthday last year can be backed with nice paper and put into a frame or into a book of favorite memories of us together... It reminds them, and me, that everywhere I go I am surrounded by things that make me think of them...
Moral of the story: the holidays are the time of year when I have the best chance to use my creative energy to express my love and appreciation for my friends and family. Part of how this expresses itself is in finding how bits of my current environment remind me of my loved-ones, which then inspires me to incorporate that piece into a gift for them. For me, believe it or not, this sometimes comes in the form of a bowl made out of newspaper (paper mache) with a newsprint photo of my brother's favorite soccer player in the middle... or how the pressed flowers my significant other gave me for my birthday last year can be backed with nice paper and put into a frame or into a book of favorite memories of us together... It reminds them, and me, that everywhere I go I am surrounded by things that make me think of them...
Well, in preparation for the holiday gift-giving season I started getting crafty back in August, but I'm still scrambling a bit. I've developed a pattern over the last few years...each year has a theme. Some examples include the years of: knitting/crochet, paper mache, hand-made jewelery, home made paper, mix cds/tapes, collages, and then there was that one year I felt less than inspired which was the year of gift certificate cards (probably by far the favorite of my brothers, to be honest).
This year is definitely a mishmash (is that honestly a word?) of each of these years' endeavors.
Here are three of the things I've been working on, but shhh...if you know any of my family/friends--don't tell them. Don't want to ruin the surprise. :)
1. The Sister: A butterfly chain
For whatever reason, I always associate my sister with butterflies. A boyfriend in college made her a large hand-made twisted metal butterfly necklace which I thought was the most stellar piece of jewelery ever created. Maybe that's where it started...who knows. So this year I cut out of cereal boxes about 10 thin cardboard butterflies of varying shapes and sizes. I painted each one with different colors (I found a bunch of old acryllic paints on the side of the road--I think the family was moving or something) and patterns. Some had stars, others had spots, and the rest were stripes or random blobs to cover up deformed stars and ugly spots. So then I lined them up in a vertical column and using needle and thread, stitched the bottom wings to the top wings of the next butterfly leaving about 2 inches of thread between each one and adding little beads the length of the thread. In the end I had a unique, colorful chain of butterflies to hang on the wall. :)
2. Friends: Scrap Yarn scarves
Well. I'm not too great at that whole crochet thing...I enjoy it...but it's not my forte. So, you may imagine the idea of trying to mix different colored yarns together out of scraps to make a full length scarf was just NOT realistic...so I improvised... Using the medium balls left over from old projects I crocheted about the length of half a scarf, added the fringe, and then sewed big wooden and fake mother of pearl buttons (I found them in my mom's storage room) on towards the other end so there was just enough to wrap around the neck and button so it would stay put. The fringed end just hangs down like a normal scarf. This way, I use up the rest of those balls of yarn, but don't have to try to match colors or textures or figure out how to switch colors in the middle of a row. :)
3. The Sweetheart: collage
I spent the semester after I graduated college in China with my sweetheart. We traveled all over the place, went to museums, national parks, movies, local musical and artistic events...etc Being the sentimental/pack-rat type, I saved just about every ticket stub, plane ticket, receipt and program I ever picked up along the way. And since I have a hard time getting rid of them--especially after associating all those little torn, bent pieces of paper with the memories, it's even more difficult to let go despite the cluttered vibe they give to my living space several months later. So. This past weekend I gathered them from every corner, drawer and box in my room and laid them out on a large piece of cardboard that served as the backing to an old frame left by prior housemates--cutting them to fit nicely with one another. With this background, I went back and added photos from different trips throughout the semester. It was a relief to condense all those memories into one 2 x 1.5 ft piece of framed cardboard that I can give as a gift to hang on the wall as opposed to shoving in a box to the back of my closet. :)
I don't know... does this count as re-gifting? :P
Jingles. :)
~Julia.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Inaugural Post
Happy Holidays, all! My name is Nicole, and me and my colleague are going to be blogging for the first time about our Simplify the Holiday efforts.
We're aiming to give tips that appeal to a broad array of people, commentary, et al. On a larger scale, we'd like to show that it is possible to implement New American Dream's Simplify the Holidays tips to create a holiday season that focuses 'more on what matters'. I, specifically, am new to the whole notion of simplifying the holidays. I'm originally from Orlando, Florida, which is known for it's abundance of malls and consumerism around every corner. Suffice to say, 'stuff' has tended to be a large part of my holiday season.
We want to bring the human aspect to the forefront of this blog, as opposed to claiming we're perfect Simplify the Holidays folks or anything. We'd like people to see how we go through the process, and thus be inspired to take the steps in their own lives.
The overabundance that permeates so many facets of life during the holiday season is something I have a tough time with.A few years back, after returning to the states for the holidays from studying abroad in Switzerland, I remember being overwhelmed by the huge scale of a us supermarket. Santas and candy canes everywhere, I found myself staring at a wall of Santa-themed liter-sized Coke bottles: every single shelve was Coke! I couldn't fathom how so much soda was going to be consumed during the holidays, and just the massive scale on which it was produced for my local supermarket was too much. That aside, it's such an unhealthy beverage...ho hum!
We hope that you'll stay along for our journey of simplifying our holiday season. A great place to look for resources, and something that has become a big part of my holiday season, is http://www.simplifytheholidays.org/. There you will find tons of great ways to put the focus back on family, friend and FUN this holiday season!
Nicole
We're aiming to give tips that appeal to a broad array of people, commentary, et al. On a larger scale, we'd like to show that it is possible to implement New American Dream's Simplify the Holidays tips to create a holiday season that focuses 'more on what matters'. I, specifically, am new to the whole notion of simplifying the holidays. I'm originally from Orlando, Florida, which is known for it's abundance of malls and consumerism around every corner. Suffice to say, 'stuff' has tended to be a large part of my holiday season.
We want to bring the human aspect to the forefront of this blog, as opposed to claiming we're perfect Simplify the Holidays folks or anything. We'd like people to see how we go through the process, and thus be inspired to take the steps in their own lives.
The overabundance that permeates so many facets of life during the holiday season is something I have a tough time with.A few years back, after returning to the states for the holidays from studying abroad in Switzerland, I remember being overwhelmed by the huge scale of a us supermarket. Santas and candy canes everywhere, I found myself staring at a wall of Santa-themed liter-sized Coke bottles: every single shelve was Coke! I couldn't fathom how so much soda was going to be consumed during the holidays, and just the massive scale on which it was produced for my local supermarket was too much. That aside, it's such an unhealthy beverage...ho hum!
We hope that you'll stay along for our journey of simplifying our holiday season. A great place to look for resources, and something that has become a big part of my holiday season, is http://www.simplifytheholidays.org/. There you will find tons of great ways to put the focus back on family, friend and FUN this holiday season!
Nicole
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