Blogmas: Christmas mind

It turns out it’s hard to sit down and write when your mind is busy.

My mind is busy thinking about Christmas. Worrying about the logistics of traveling alone with a cat and a dog in a car for 8 hours. Stressing about my dog barking at all the new people she’ll meet until she gets comfortable. Mourning the end of this time of year before it’s fully begun. I’m bogged down with those sorts of things, obviously.

I read an article by one of my college professors, Emily Grosvenor, the other day 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 Home Goods with a snaking checkout line.

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

“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— duh! Or did we all collectively forget that message as soon as the Hallmark (or who am I kidding, Netflix) credits rolled?

I know I started forgetting this since entering a new limbo stage in life: the mid-20s. Too old to send a Christmas list of wants, too old to not get every kid and adult “a little something”, but too young to afford that something times twelve (and then some!).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have so many loved ones to celebrate the holidays with— the same bunch since birth! But there’s an elevated level of freak out (especially around gifting) that comes along with it. I’m in uncharted territory and I’m self conscious of my little something I put together, even though it checks all the boxes of little, something, creative and thoughtful.

With every freak out 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 100th photo and shut up about politics.

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