Christmas is just two weeks away. How are you feeling? If you’re like many people, you may be feeling stressed about everything you still need to do, or gifts you still need to buy. This week’s Simple Living Sunday post is about shifting focus, and discovering how consciously choosing presence over presents can make our holiday celebrations more meaningful…and less stressful.

It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters, it’s who’s around it.

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Three simple pleasures and highlights

Continuing my practice of celebrating the simple things in life, here are three simple pleasures and highlights of the last week.

• Last weekend, we started decorating the house for Christmas. I’m a little behind schedule with decorating this year. Christmas seems to be sneaking up on us very quickly.
• On Wednesday, I had a wonderful lunch with a former co-worker that I haven’t seen since before the pandemic.
• On Friday afternoon, I attended a pre-Christmas gathering with a group of work friends, hosted at the home of one of our co-workers. It was lovely to gather and enjoy some delicious food and good laughs.

This week’s simple living focus: Choose presence over presents

One of my favourite Christmas shows is the animated cartoon of Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas. If you’re not familiar with the story, the Grinch does everything within his power to rob the residents of Whoville of their Christmas celebration. On the night before Christmas, he breaks into their houses and steals their presents, and the food for their Christmas feast.

Despite the Grinch’s efforts, the Whos’ Christmas spirit is not dampened. Instead of tears in Whoville on Christmas morning, the Grinch is surprised at the sight and sound of the residents gathering to sing a joyful Christmas song.

The message of the show is that Christmas isn’t about toys and treats. The Whos had figured out the value of presence over presents.

Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.

Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas

When did Christmas get so complicated?

When I was a child, we were always so excited to open our gifts on Christmas morning. Our presents were very simple. We’d usually get some chocolate, a tangerine, a book, and one toy that we had asked for.

As I got older, I would be jealous when I heard what other kids got for Christmas…and Easter…and birthdays. Hearing their stories made me think we must be poor.

Later on, as an adult, I went a little overboard with gifts for our kids—equating the number of presents under the tree with the quality of our Christmas celebrations. Between things we bought, and gifts our girls got from other family members, our house was bursting at the seams.

Reimagining Christmas

When I think back to my childhood Christmas celebrations, I only remember one or two of the gifts I received. The things I do remember are the delicious dinners my mum cooked, lots of homemade goodies, and visits with family and friends.

Over the years, presents have become less important. We’ve agreed with most of our friends and family not to buy gifts for each other. Instead, we plan a get-together, or donate the money we would have spent on gifts to charity.

I suppose it’s a combination of the wisdom of life experience, combined with two years of pandemic Christmases, but I now realize gifts are the least important part of Christmas. Given a choice between spending time with family or a pile of presents under the tree, there really is no choice.

I’ll choose presence over presents every time.

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To do this week

If you’re still not convinced about the need to consider cutting back your Christmas shopping list, check out this post from Hello Brownlow where Amanda reports that $16 Billion of unwanted gifts go straight to landfill every Christmas. The article also offers excellent suggestions to make the holidays more sustainable. 

Feeling stressed and frazzled by all the holiday preparations is a good sign that it’s time for a change. Here’s how to get started on taking the focus off of material things, and capturing the joy of the residents of Whoville.

Choose to do things differently

You have a choice: keep doing what you’ve always done, or be courageous and make a change.  

To celebrate holidays differently, you need to make the decision to do so.

Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist

With Christmas just two weeks away, you may be done all your Christmas shopping for this year. In that case, it’s probably too late to change anything for this year. However, now is a good time to start thinking ahead to next year.

I’ve been hearing a lot in recent years about an interesting trend: “Want, need, wear, read” means everyone gets something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. Does anyone really need more than that?

Start the conversation for next year

If you’re really serious about making a change, start having the discussion with friends and family soon. It’s a conversation no one want to initiate, yet every time I’ve suggested to anyone we stop buying presents, it has been received positively. More often than not, I hear, “I’ve been thinking the exact same thing, but didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.”

Be courageous. Be the one to bring it up. Years from now, no one will remember who made the suggestion. Instead, they’ll remember the good times you’ve enjoyed together.

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What are your thoughts on simplifying Christmas by choosing to focus on presence over presents? Have you made similar changes with your family and friends? Tell me your thoughts below.