Making Christmas
Presents
It is always fun when I surprise myself. Frankly, it doesn't happen very often
because I am such a creature of habit and so rigidly
controlled. It's cool when it happens, though.
This week I sort of got into the Spirit of Christmas. As anyone
who has read any of my prior posts on the
subject of the holidays will know, that was quite out of character for me.
One of the things I have done for years is to pick only one
thing to focus on during each holiday season. Typically I have concentrated on food because
I used to love to cook. That always helped me avoid going nuts over the craziness that
seems to overwhelm people this time of year.
This year, I am focusing on gift giving. I
usually hate the gift-giving part of Christmas. I hate to shop
anytime, anyplace and for any reason. I
also hate feeling "obligated" to buy gifts for people. My idea
of giving presents is to give people things I know they
need or would love whenever I come across them, not necessarily at
Christmas or birthdays. I have often given away things I owned
and cherished because I knew a friend would appreciate them. I have
very few treasures left because over the years I have given most of
them away to people I thought might like them. Buying presents in
stores seems like cheating except in the rare situation when I have
the opportunity to buy something
I know the
person really wants. Giving gifts should cost me something, besides money.
As often as I shop online the rest of the year, I hardly ever buy Christmas
presents online. It is just too easy. I am reminded
of the line in the book of Samuel, where David goes out
to buy a place to build an altar and the local king offers to
give him the land; David rejects the offer, saying he wants to pay full price
because he will not make offerings to God that cost him nothing (2 Samuel
24.24). I feel that way about giving gifts.
Since I have pared my world down to the point that I
only have a few gifts to exchange, I have the luxury of spending some
time on each one of them this year. I decided to make my gifts this year or, at least,
give "collections" of stuff gathered from a variety of stores to make up
a gift basket on a theme that is significant to the person. The
object of the excercise is to make the gift something that has cost
me not only money but effort as well. I am not an
"artsy" or "crafty" person, so
I have to be creative in other ways. I have to spend
time looking for a bunch of little things to make up a collection of
items that would be appropriate for the people to whom I am giving gifts. I
also do a lot with photos and computer-generated collages. That is difficult and incredibly time
consuming. It is also wonderful. It gives me the opportunity to spend time
thinking deeply about the people I love. This weekend I spent hours and hours
working on my gifts for my mother and my husband, enjoying the process of
creating something they will love and cherishing them
while doing it. I even spent an inordinate amount of
time editing a photo of my daughter for her boyfriend. (I'm very rusty on photo editing
techniques!)
In a way, since
I did not write very much, it seems as though I sort of pissed
away the weekend. I do have a few things to buy yet for
my daughter, and people at work, but it was fun to spend so much
time "making" gifts.
The sad thing
is that the results of all that labor turns out not
to look like much. I am not sure the recipients
will know how much effort went into it. In a way I guess
that doesn't matter. In another way, that was kind of the point.
Back to Recent
Posts