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Sunday 1 December 2013

Pause in Advent - Gifts

I am probably the least qualified blogger to join Floss over at Troc, Broc and Recup for her annual Pause in Advent seeing as I am not a fan of Christmas!  However Advent is a good opportunity to take time to think about what Christmas means to me and these weekly posts will be my take on the festivities.

Seen on a church notice board in Exeter!

Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Christ over 2,000 years ago but it seems to have become something else altogether these days - take gifts and giving for example.  This time of year the magazines, catalogues and shops are full of present ideas many total tat or if not then costing what to me seem vast sums of money.  Giving doesn't have to involve getting into debt in an attempt to give expensive presents if you can't afford it surely? 

Now it's lovely to give and Scrooge though I may sometimes seem to be I like to give as much as the next man (or woman) but just not to friends and family and especially not at Christmas when the shops are heaving!  I have spent too much time over the years getting stressed whilst searching for gifts my friends might like, that I can afford and that can be posted without needing a mortgage to pay for the stamps and by the time you get to our age there is nothing that I could buy which they couldn't buy themselves if they wanted it.  As there are no children to buy for I decided back in 2010 that I would not buy anything but instead give the money I might have spent on gifts to my favourite charity Centrepoint and that way somebody might actually get something they really want, like a roof over their heads!!  Some of you may remember my blog post about this here.  I sometimes add a little hand made tree decoration or something to my friends' cards as a little token gift but there is no stress involved and they are also relieved of trying to find something for me too.  It works!  This might not work for you but it is my take on Christmas giving.  Gifts don't always have to cost money anyway and what mother of young children wouldn't gladly pass on the cashmere sweater for a couple of hours baby-sitting or what elderly person at home alone wouldn't prefer the promise of a regular visit instead of some expensive gift? No shopping involved just a note in their card and a promise kept - simple eh?


This little tale might make you smile if not laugh out loud at me!  The above are some little gifts I made to give to a group of friends at a recent get together.  You may remember last year I showed you here  how to make a pretty gift package - pity I didn't keep the measurements before I regifted the packages as when I came to make some this year from memory I found mine weren't large enough.  I had carefully used some green card I already had and stuck gold stars onto them before searching for some small chocolates to put inside.  I got some funny looks in our local shop when checking out sweets which might fit!!  Anyway as they would only hold one chocolate each and not the 3 or 4 I envisaged I decided to make some larger ones this time using old manilla files for the card and going for a rustic look.  I thought that potato cut Christmas trees printed on the card might be a better decoration than gold stars and more in keeping with the simple look (shame they look rather like the symbols on prison garments isn't it?) but when I checked out my potato supplies I had just enough for supper and none to spare!  As I had a letter to post I took a walk to the local supermarket which has a postbox where I posted my letter and went inside to buy one potato - yes just one since I would be going to the farm shop where I usually buy my potatoes the following day.  The lady on the checkout asked if that was all I wanted, just the one rather small potato and I felt I must explain what I was going to use it for ie not for my supper!  I can just imagine her at tea break telling her colleagues about the weird old lady she'd had at her till that afternoon can't you?!!!  One of the great things about being my age is that I don't feel the embarrassment I would have felt years ago at things like this and maybe if it made her laugh that was a good thing?  Goodwill to all men and all that!

21 comments:

  1. You did make me laugh with your descriptions of buying one potato!
    The boxes are very pretty and will be a lovely gift because they are handmade.

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  2. Those gift boxes are lovely and well worth the slight odd look from the check out girl when you purchased your lonely potato.

    We have a very large family and I try to give as many handmade gifts as I can manage.......it helps that I love to make.

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  3. Lovely post Jane and a chuckle at the single potato purchase...you aren't the first to have done this I can assure you! ;-)

    Love your little bags, they are sweet and a good idea.

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  4. Now I don't think your boxes look like prison garments at all, I think they're lovely and a very good idea! I admire you for 'dealing' with Christmas presents, it's very hard not to get sucked in by it all and even harder to get out!!
    I agree 'time' is probably one of the best presents to give but one we find hard to gift!
    V xxx

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  5. Such a lovely idea, and charming little gift boxes. I'm sure you gave them something to think about on the check-out.
    I sometimes feel I need to explain that I'm buying very cheap supermarket bread to make sandwiches for the badgers!

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  6. I think your gift boxes look delightful, and make the perfect little gift with some (or one) choccie inside.

    And I just need to say to Relatively Retiring - sandwiches for badgers?! Please explain!

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  7. I love the one-potato-pyramid boxes!!
    And I do agree, Christmas is about so much more tan 'stuff'

    Advent blessings xx

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  8. A lovely post, I completely agree with what you say about buying stuff at Christmas. A lovely idea to put notes in with cards.

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  9. Everyone loves a little handmade gift. Bless your heart.

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  10. I would have given you the potato!x

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  11. I love your idea of giving to charity. We give gifts only to the grandchildren under age 18, but that's still quite a few. Gifts of our time is a great idea! So many of us just can't afford to be materialistic,lol!

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  12. I think it's important that we all do what WE think best about Christmas, rather than feel pressured by retailers or others. Your idea of giving to charities is wonderful. I also love the little chocolate boxes and laughed about the purchase of one potato.

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  13. Well done with the home made gifts. -a great idea. Loved the story about the potato !!!

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  14. I totally agree with your sentiments Jane! I've mainly only given home made gifts for the past 20 years or so. However the coming up with something different is sometimes challenging!! Really love the potato print story :)

    If you do go for a photo book make sure you wait for a good deal. Photobox and Vistaprint often have bargain offers and I certainly wouldn't pay full price for a book or calendar - the costs can be astronomical. However a book of family photos as a gift for a special occasion or birthday is perfect for those who seem to have all they want. I've just done one for my sister's 60th and I know she'll love it. :)

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  15. Great post!
    I'm on the bah humbug side on gifting. I especially dislike the news reports about holiday shopping sales. It feels like telling consumers if we don't buy ourselves into a coma, stores will fail, and send the economy into ruin. I believe the media plays a large part in making the holidays about money.

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  16. You're knocking against an open door here Jane.... I share your sentiments about the true meaning of what's about to rain down on us. Nice to see the appearance of that single potato again!

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  17. My goodness, I can't begin to tell you how much I love this post! Do you know the Advent Conspiracy. they have a little video on youtube somewhere. It brought me round to your way of thinking a few years ago, especially re the token gifts. Thank you for this reality check in a week that sees me floundering in "fun" festive homeworks, cardboard boxes of still unplumbed depths of decorations and knowing that I still haven't soaked the wretched fruit for the bloomin' Christmas cake...

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  18. Agree completely with you Jane. I struggle with being a Bah Humbug---I work in retail and every Christmas season I convince myself I won't go through another 'shopping season'. I have found that coming home and just sitting in front of the fire in our wood stove grounds me. Yes, let's rebel and stop the Christmas Machine! (But Merry Christmas to you anyway!) The potato story was funny.

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  19. Thank you for your "Pause in Advent" post. Like the others who have commented I agree that Christmas is not about buying Stuff! We only buy gifts for the two youngest grands now. I'll be back to read you future "Pauses". I'm very sorry about your dear dear cat.

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  20. Jane, can you believe it, just the other day a sales lady mentioned how many days it was til Christmas (2015)! I said, "Oh no, don't even talk about that." Good grief, let us enjoy the year without the rush towards purchasing.

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