I started this post on December 17, 2018 and I just found it in my Drafts box when I was looking thru all my Christmas posts. I thought now would be a good time to finish writing the post and change the title.

I wanted to share “the best of” Christmas posts that I have written over the years because it is gift-giving season. My hope is that in reading over some of these blurbs, it may inspire more non-traditional thoughtfulness during this mega thoughtful season.

When it comes to presenting our gifts, in the post entitled Cool and Warm Presentations (2015), I include a lot of play on words. Presenting could be summed up as follows: “However you decide to present (as a verb) your present (as a noun) I'm sure it will be great. Giving a gift card doesn't have to be boring or predictable. Just don't over-think or over-spend on the presentation. All you want to do is give a thoughtful pinch. So remember, you will end up giving a cool gift when you think outside the box. And if you think about giving a hug, you will inevitably come up with a warm way to give a Target or Amazon card. Put a pinch of thought on whether you want to give a cool or a warm gift and the right presentation will magically present itself.”

And keeping in line with presenting, I wrote Keep Calm and Wrap On (2016) because in some cases the gift isn’t going to “nail it” but the wrapping just might. Be confident in the thoughtfulness that we are showing and try not to worry about the gift itself. In referring to the gifts we were giving our teachers I wrote, “The key to our gift is the gift tag itself. It either says, ”Keep Calm, I have the receipt” or “Keep Calm, you can always exchange.” Even though purse accessories are all the rage, inevitably when you are giving eleven female teachers a gift, someone is not going to like it. So I hope they would exchange it or re-gift it to someone who would LOVE it.”

With that said, “The old saying goes, “It’s not what you give, but the thought that counts.” So true. But I like my updated version better: “Thoughtful gifts happen when you bring awareness to the people around you.” Enjoy the magic of Christmas!” That blurb is from the post entitled It’s The Thought That Counts (2015). The post also included, “But I have this blog and the reason why I write each week, especially this week, is simple: All of us are thoughtful but from time to time we need to be reminded that thoughtfulness is within each of us every day. My examples of small ways to show thoughtfulness (which I affectionately nicknamed pinches) are meant to inspire. However, I am hoping that most of you already have your own ideas and that you follow the blog because it validates you being you. No matter how you show thoughtfulness, whether it is Pinterest-worthy, Martha Stewart approved or straight out of the book of common sense (i.e. holding the door open for the person behind you) it all boils down to being aware of the people around you.”

And I understand that sometimes we are in a flurry to check things off our holidays list so we are NOT always aware of the most precious people around us. If the holiday rush is total overload, I like to think about my family traditions and stick to the ones that really mean the most. If we’re trying to do too much, this is the worst time of year to do it. Not only is there so much going on around us that we can’t control, but if we’re run down, we will tend to get sick. In C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S (2016) , I wrote, “May all of your holiday traditions, new and old, become your f-a-v-o-r-i-t-e-s.” In that post, I share the traditions and rituals of my family. There are about 9+ traditions that I would L-O-V-E to do every single year but don’t always get to. This past year I was lucky to execute maybe four out of nine traditions. Same with this year, I already know of a few that I am not able to facilitate. I will stick to traditions that will happen easily and as naturally as possible. Forcing events or traditions for the sake of having to do it is not advised. (FYI - I don’t always take my own advice.)

Which brings me to my last post that I wanted to share. Even though there are other “best of” Christmas posts that I have in my collection, Hey Santa! (2017) is about a time when I didn’t buy my hub and my mom Christmas cards because I ran out of time. I felt a sense of peace with the way I resolved the issue so I thought I’d share my experience today in case someone gets stuck like I did. I said, “By midnight on Christmas Eve, I still hadn’t figured out the card situation. I started to clean up before bedtime when I came across a pad of paper that the kids used called Hey, Santa! by Knock Knock. I don’t know what came over me but I decided this would be a great way to express my feelings and solve the card situation. Before I wrote anything on the pad, I thought a lot about the person I was writing to and I felt this sort of peace - knowing that this was what Christmas was all about. Back in the day, it was only about the heartfelt wishes you gave to your family and friends and not about what gifts you gave to them.”

Heartfelt wishes seem so inexpensive and too easy to try to pass off as gifts to our loved ones. However, I must say, if the goal of Christmas is only to check off the to-do list, then the only thing on the list should be to give our love to our families. It’s where Christmas begins and ends.

Pinches,

Barb