Our Frugal Journey

After years of crazy, run-at-full-speed, wrap-the-gifts-on-Christmas-Eve-type Christmases, I made a conscious decision to actually start enjoying Christmas.

What a concept.

It almost sounds ridiculous. Of course you enjoy Christmas. Everyone enjoys Christmas, right?

And I did, to a certain extent. But if you’re a woman you know what I’m talking about.

There has become this expectation in America of what Christmas is supposed to be like. And most of the responsibility for cranking out that version of Christmas falls upon the woman. The cooking, cleaning, baking, gift purchasing, tree purchasing, tree decorating, the shopping, the gift wrapping, the travel arrangements, the entertaining, the cards (photo? hand-made? boxed? hand signed? imprinted? personalized message? Christmas letter? or not?), the card addressing, picture taking, the required party attendance, etc, etc.

Not to mention all the endless list-making to pull off all the aforementioned. Like I said, if you’re a woman living in America, you’re familiar with the drill.

Add children to the mix and the responsibility weighs even heavier. The matching outfits, the photo shoot, the teacher gifts, the toy store, the letter to Santa, the Santa visit, the expectations of bigger gifts, more gifts, more expensive gifts.

So, in my new spirit of less is more, I won’t be churning out dozens of blog posts on tons of preparations for the holidays and the mega deals on shopping for Christmas. While these types of posts have their place and can be helpful, I don’t want to add to the holiday frenzy — yours or mine.

I will write the occasional post on what we’re up to regarding Thanksgiving and Christmas.

No pressure, no guilt. If you want to tuck this or that idea away for next year and try it, I would be honored.

That’s not to say we’ve achieved the perfect stress-free Christmas in our house. The words “perfect” and “Christmas” really have no business strung together in the same sentence.

But, we have, over the last several years, begun celebrating Christmas more mindfully, thus my casting off of at least half my Christmas decor, more giving of experience gifts instead of thing gifts, wrapping gifts in cloth instead of paper, turning cookie baking and tree decorating into a family event rather than a chore to rush through and check off the list.

It’s definitely been a process and a journey. It will never lead to perfection but I will tell you where it won’t lead to ever again: a frantic me holed up in my locked bedroom on Christmas Eve night, paper and ribbons strewn about the floor, frantically wrapping gifts that will be ripped open in just a few short hours.

Thoughts?