Blogmas: Christmas mind

It turns out it’s hard to sit down and write when your mind is busy, and my mind is occupied thinking about Christmas. 

I’m:

• Worrying about the logistics of an eight hour road trip alone with a cat and dog. 

• Stressing about the dog barking during introductions with new people until she’s comfortable. 

• Spiraling about what the hell I’m going to give twelve different relatives.

• Mourning the end of this time of year before it’s fully begun. 

But the other day I read an article by one of my college professors, Emily Grosvenor, on the topic of over-gifting. Along with being a really great article, it made a brilliant point about the holidays— one I almost forgot while contemplating buying my best friend a $32 dollar tomato lamp (uglier than it sounds) from a HomeGoods with a snaking checkout line.

The point being: Your friends and family don’t need to be burdened with unnecessary stuff; the thing or the guilt of not returning the favor. One and done should be the new motto, and it’s not a competition you’ll win if you get every single person you’ve ever known a gift. 

“At what point does gifting stray from being about the person to being about the giver – my creativity, my insight, my money, my time, my thoughtfulness?” (Seriously, read her blog!)

Christmas is supposed to be about the people you spend it with. Somewhere along the way we all collectively forgot that message as soon as the Netflix (formerly Hallmark) credits rolled.

I know I forgot this upon entering a new limbo stage: the mid-20s. Too old to send a Christmas list of wants, but too young to afford “a little something” times twelve or more!

I am incredibly grateful to have so many loved ones to celebrate the holidays with, but there is an elevated level of freak-out (especially around gifting) that comes with it. I have entered uncharted territory and I’m self conscious of my little somethings, even when checking all the boxes of little, something and… thoughtful.

With every oscillation in my spiral, I try to re-unwrap the true meaning of Christmas: it’s not about the gifts.

Give your mom a kiss and hand your dad a beer; then hand your mom a beer and kiss your pop’s. Wear the ugly sweater, smile for the one hundredth photo and shut up about politics.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? So act like it.