Christmas is just around the corner and many of our friends who celebrate Christmas are strapped for cash. This creates stress, lots and lots of stress for those folks as they wonder how they can afford the gifts for friends, family and particularly children who are expecting a visit from Santa. This post is dedicated to you if you fit this picture.
The first thing to do is to stop and take a deep breath. Remember, little children who believe Santa is coming will be perfectly happy with small inexpensive gifts. Did they ask for an expensive gift? Maybe so as advertisers on TV spend millions promoting their wares that sometimes cost way over what your budget will allow. It is only natural that your child will ask for those products, but that doesn’t mean they will be unhappy with a much less expensive item as long as Santa is the one giving it.
If you have older children who believe Santa represents the spirit of Christmas, they will understand that you are on a tight budget. For these children, give small gifts to unwrap, and give them the best gift of all, your time. You can make this Christmas one they will remember for the rest of their life. You can play games with them; go sledding if you have snow, make popcorn garland with them, bundle up and take them for a walk in the woods or park. The opportunities are endless. Hint, hint: Help them make simple, inexpensive spa products that they can use or give to their friends.
For your friends and adult family members, the gift of time is the best gift of all. Say you have someone with small children. Give a gift certificate for one night of babysitting. Treat another friend to a latte at a local coffee shop. You are limited only by your imagination. You can also create inexpensive to make, but expensive to buy spa products for your friends and family that they are sure to delight them. When you think about it, any gift is ultimately a gift of time. If you buy something, chances are you had to spend time working for the money you used to buy the gift. Why not just give them the hour or so of time you would have spent working for someone else in order to buy a gift that takes 30 seconds to open.
Christmas should be a happy time. A time to be with those you care most about. It’s not about gifts. It’s about giving. There’s a huge difference. So, don’t let how much you have to spend, make a Christmas Grinch out of you. Those around you who matter will appreciate a smiling face, time you spend with them and the love you offer. There is no greater gift.
Now here’s a little surprise. If you are more fortunate and have plenty of money for gifts, give like you don’t have the money. For those gift recipients who can’t afford to give you a like kind gift, chances are your gift will not make them feel good. They may feel guilty or even resentful that they can’t afford to give you a more expensive gift. There are a host of other feelings you might invoke with your costly gift and none of them in keeping with the Christmas spirit. Instead of an expensive gift, take the family out to dinner or grab some pizzas and a movie and spend time with them. Take a friend to lunch in lieu of a material gift. Remember, Christmas is about giving not gifts.
If any of the people you know think differently and don’t appreciate the value of what you offer, too bad for them. We love you here at SpaFromScratch and want you to have the best Christmas ever regardless of how much money you have.
Now go have fun and relax.
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