Holiday Gift Guide

Give someone you love (including yourself) a gift you can’t buy.

Give them the gift of meaningful experiences.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Give a homemade holiday dinner. My friend Jacki was running low on money for holiday gifts to give to our large group of close friends, so she invited everyone to an incredible four course dinner served by her, by candlelight on fine china and silver tea service at her home. I am still talking about it 25 years later.

 

2. Give a hike. Include gorp for the walk. Do all the planning and get directions. Find a nice little diner where you can end the excursion so you can rehash the climb and where you can post your summit selfie to Facebook.

 

3. Give the gift of story. When my daughter was 10, she wrote a story for each member of our family. In his or her story, she made each person the hero. One person was a good pirate, swashbuckling around to save the day. Another was an astronaut. She included all of their hobbies and idiosyncrasies. That made each one a treasure.

 

4. It’s time to make a coupon book. But fill it with 12 months of meaningful experiences. Your pick.

 

5. 12 months of love letters to your squeeze. Knowing ahead of time they are going to receive one each month gives them something to look forward to. Get creative with the containers they come in so there is an element of surprise.

 

6. Give a pledge of no cell phones or screens for the hour during and around meal times.

 

7. I’m loving this pledge idea, so how about a pledge of doing the other person’s chores for a week. Their choice of weeks.

 

8. Give a gift of computer lessons to your mother. She gets 10 free anytime phone calls when she can’t turn on her computer. Or forward a message. Or buy something online.

 

9. Give a playlist. For those of us not into Spotify, give us a playlist for different times of our lives so we don’t have to laboriously listen to and search for songs. I am thinking that relaxing songs, tunes that make you dance, and old favorites would be great lists. Or pick out songs that mean something to the two of you. I love to laugh more than about anything, so I would personally love a list of online links to really funny things.

 

10. Give a year’s membership to the National Whitewater Center if you are in Charlotte. Or a package of passes to one of those trampoline places. I have wanted to take a trampoline exercise class. How about adult ice skating classes? I have wanted to take a knife skills class at Whole Foods. It would be even better if the gift given took the class with me.

 

11. A tour of your own city. By bike or moped or Segue would be even cooler. Personally, I want to take the walking tour of Charlotte public art. You can download the docent on your iPod.

 

12. A massage. Or chiropractic adjustment. Or tarot card reading… Something off the beaten path.

 

 

And then, FOLLOW THROUGH. Don’t give the gift of an experience and then never give the person the actual experience. Bah humbug.
Give yourself a gift too. Take the pressure off of your loved ones to guess what you want. Buy it or do it for yourself.

 

Merry Christmas,

Happy Hanukah,

Happy Kwanzaa ,

Happy New Years!