The Best Gifts You Can Give This Holiday Season ... It's Not About More Presents!
The holiday season is upon us. The energy feels electric, and seems to be this mix of festive cheer, magic, and heaviness, density, and uncertainty. I mean, let’s face it, 2024 has been challenging on so many fronts.
The stress of the season seems to be at an all-time high, and there already is a very palpable frenetic and frantic air buzzing around us.
Fears are being magnified and amplified. We seem more disconnected than ever, and we continue to further polarize ourselves, even in our most intimate circles and communities.
The commercialization of the holidays adds another heavy layer of expectations, shoulding, and shaming that seem to be tethered to endless checklists, demands, and jam-packed schedules.
I’ve talked with endless clients who are struggling, feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders, tapped out, and completed depleted.
The busyness is overwhelming, with depression and burnout on the rise.
And, for what?
Why is it we feel this need to run a faster rat race during the holidays?
To put even more pressure on our already overloaded plates? That we need to keep up with some idea of what this season brings?
For each of those clients I talk with, I ask them how they are going to give themselves some relief this holiday season, space to just be, to rest, restore, reconnect, and renew.
And, the majority give me 100 reasons why they can’t slow down, citing all the demands and to-do’s … all the excuses.
We are missing the point entirely.
The season is not about more… and, truthfully, neither is our lives. It’s not about further overloading our systems, our schedules, our lists, and our expectations. It’s not about more stuff, more demands, and more stress.
It’s about something entirely different.
What if, instead of the extra hustle, we were meant to slow down. In Human Design, this energy is a period of recalibration. It means going within and calming our nervous systems.
It’s a time to connect back to our truth and to what is really important.
With only a week left until Christmas, perhaps we can shift our perspective.
A Season of Presence and Generosity
This past weekend, I spent a beautiful and festive Sunday afternoon putting together Christmas Eve boxes for foster kids with fellow board members, their families, and friends.
It was a gathering of generous spirits who wanted to intentionally give back. As such, we put together boxes for the foster kids at the shelter with some treats to create an experience for them on Christmas Eve.
We filled their boxes with holiday pajamas, socks, hot cocoa bombs, candy canes, their own holiday mug, a stuffed animal, and two ornaments for them to hang on the tree.
You see, so many kids get displaced from the their families and homes this time of year, for so many reasons. In an attempt to bring them some normalcy and festive cheer, we put together special boxes for each of them so that they can snuggle in and watch Christmas movies together.
It’s a little thing … but, it’s the little things that matter most.
Being able to provide a memory that suspends time and their current reality, even if just for a moment is a gift I will treasure forever.
These kids are facing harsh truths, things that often are unfathomable, making the holidays extra hard. So, to be able to brighten up a dark corner with a little fun feels like a pretty meaningful gift to me.
How to Bring This Spirit into Everything
We have an opportunity to rethink how we embrace (or navigate) through the holiday season. For so many people, the holidays are hard.
What if we could make it be about something else?
What if we made it about love?
Love for ourselves, our neighbors, our communities … and, for life, itself.
What if we made this season about giving back and tithing our time, talent, and treasure, and about gratitude for what we do have?
I like to see the holidays as a season of true giving and generosity.
And, I don’t mean material things, but rather, generosity of spirit: giving love from a place of deep compassion, kindness, and grace.
I believe the gifts to give this season are ones we have forgotten:
- The Gift of Presence
- The Gift of Connection
- The Gift of Peace
- The Gift of Joy
- The Gift of Magic
Let’s not make the season about more stuff or by the gifts we buy or the tasks we complete, but rather, by the moments of genuine connection we create, the compassion we extend to ourselves and others, and the peace we cultivate, as a result of really being present.
The most significant and memorable gifts cannot be wrapped; they are felt in the heart, shared in a smile, experienced in true connection.
May we choose love, grace, and joy, and remember that the magic of the season lives in our hearts and in our souls.
So, instead of more presents, how about more presence of YOU?