It’s been quite some time ago when, at Christmas time, my husband and I really did not have any financial money at all. We were completely and utterly broke, as they say. And at that point in time we went around all our family and we intimated to them that we didn’t have the financial ability to buy presents for the copious amounts of nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters, and that they would be getting a card and that was it. And, I have to say, it’s the best thing we’ve done. It’s the best process for us in that in giving or participating in the Christmas spirit, do we really need to buy lots of gifts to show our appreciation, or do we need to create a memory?

In our life now, in our modern life, my partner and I, we create memories at Christmas time. We have access to shops 365 days a year. You can buy your t-shirts and your shorts and your underpants and your funky ties any time of the year, any time of the year. But in creating something memorable at Christmas, to me anyway, makes Christmas feel special. Now that could be volunteering in the soup kitchen, it could be spending time in a sacred space. The last couple of years, our Christmas presents t each other have been very simple in that we save up and we buy a concert ticket and that is our memory. We will always remember going to that concert. We will always remember seeing that beautiful performance. We will always have it. That’s not something that can be taken away or thrown away, discarded, or simply something that we grow out of.

So, I want you to really think about what is important to you. Is it the giving of a gift? Is it the creating of a memory? What is it that, at Christmas time, really symbolizes or reflects who you are? And it could be that by making a really simply change, you can impact your life quite differently, or create memories that will be everlasting, much longer than something that’d you’d buy and place under a tree.