Christmas was one of the best I can recall, we has some amazing Christmas gifts. It was fantastic having everyone gathered and even having my girlfriend tag along. This year my family decided to focus each other’s gifts around items that are either used or handmade. This proved to be a fantastic idea. As I am fond of being frugal and minimalist, buying used items or making handmade items helped focused the gifts on being more affordable or practical in nature. It also helps make the gift giving more personal and creative.
Some of the great ideas that came from my family this year were:
- Weekend trip to NYC with my father as a thanks for helping me throughout the years and helping so much on the sailboat.
- Handmade scarves from my sister
- Handmade lotions and toiletries
- Handmade colonial flag made out of barn wood from my ever creative father
- Used VHF handheld radio for my new sailboat
- Old wooden dolls hidden throughout the living room for the kids to seek and find
- A first edition book for less than $5 that turns out to be worth many times over
- Handmade Pottery
- Individually customized painted dolls
Having everyone together on the holidays are a great time to catch up and share stories
Of course if I am to someday travel on the road or by boat I need to focus on minimizing my possessions and focus more on what’s needed versus desired. All too often it is easy to get caught up in the Diderot effect when giving and receiving gifts. I do my best to stay the course and focus on what is it that helps me stay true to my goals and dreams and what does not.
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