I am as guilty as everyone else.  As much as I tell myself I will be conservative this year when it comes to holiday spending – I spend more than I should.  As much as I tell myself to not send cards and save a few trees – I still send them out.  As much as I tell myself to spend time thinking of meaningful gestures for family and friends – I often don’t.

What’s a girl to do?  My mission today is to write about this matter in hopes that I will create for myself, and you, top of mind awareness about alternatives and options that allow for more meaning during this holiday season.

Making meaning during the holidays is really about good communication at the core.  Here are some thoughts about what you can do to communicate that you care.

  • Look through all your old photographs and find one that you know would make a friend smile and slip it into their stocking.
  • Invite a family member to take a hip hop dance class with you – something you know you both secretly want to do but would not have the courage without the other.
  • Create “favor coupons” that might include
  1. Transportation to a doctor’s appt. when needed
  2. Babysitting
  3. Chicken soup delivered during the next cold or flu
  4. An hour’s help cleaning their apartment
  5. Going out Christmas caroling together
  • Calling that person on your list who you’ve lost touch with and re-c0nnect
  • Forgive someone whose angered you
  • Call and invite someone to volunteer at a soup kitchen with you
  • Write an old-fashioned, handwritten letter to loved ones
  • Dig out old VHS videos or Super 8 movies reels and transfer to dvds and share with friends who are featured in them
  • Make time for a coffee of hot chocolate

As I write my list – and check it twice – I realize I could keep adding to it.  There really are so many ways – so many gestures that don’t need to cost a cent – they just require time.  And they will make meaning.  They will communicate that you care.

Let me know what you’ve done or do to make your holidays more meaningful.

Thanks for listening….and now I’m off to get started on my list!