It’s that time of year! I went shopping in Reno last week and already, before October even started, the stores were setting out their Christmas displays. I have mixed feeling about it because 1) I hate how commercialized Christmas is and 2) I start seriously shopping, creating, crafting for Christmas gifts in September so everything is bought and completed by November 1st. It makes the holidays low stress for this mama of a big family when the gifts are taken care of by then. Maybe you do this too or have thought about getting things done earlier. It really does help! And totally takes off a lot of the pressure to get Christmas “right”.
I decided every Thursday for the month of October to share with you where I am shopping, what I am creating, what I am doing to prepare for Christmas this year.
Did I mention this is also birthday season at our house? Starting on September 27th we have a birthday at least every two weeks until the end of January. I have to have all my ducks in a row to get birthday gifts as well as Christmas gifts ordered and here on time! I also do my best to buy handmade or from companies like Uncommon Goods that work with artists and small businesses or have a good work ethic.
Debbie is the next birthday at our house and she loves anything to do with nature. She also enjoys unique gifts so I went looking and found this necklace that I know she will love!
For Christmas I have been looking for a children’s book starring a boy named Jason. I have found ones for Gideon and Henry but Jason is hard (at least one that I like)! I finally found a couple of great personalized books in this section of personalized gifts that will make Jason feel special.
Oh, yeah, our wedding anniversary is also 5 days before Christmas. FIVE DAYS. What were we thinking? I did find some great ideas here for anniversary gifts: a heart box book, intersection of love photo print, and even a personalized family tandem bike print which would have to be really, really long to fit our family! But guess what? The artist can fit up to 14 people! Do you know how rare it is to find something that will fit our entire family on there?
Anyway, those are some of the gifts I’ll be getting my family this year. Next week’s post: handmade goods.
Haha! “What were we thinking?” is something I can understand. The 20th of December is actually my birthday, so we got married on the 13th. Now I get three gifts and instead of being specific, he just says, “Happy December.”
Happy December! I love it.
You were thinking what so many other young adults are still thinking–“We don’t want to wait until summer so, when will we have enough time off of school to get married and have any kind of a honeymoon?” My oldest son, along with several of his friends and acquaintances, are in “marriage season” and I keep trying to tell them all not to get married close to Christmas. Many still are, though. It’s the only time they think they can.
All of my boys were born in December, except one in November. It feels like one solid party from Halloween to New Year’s. I shop all year long for Christmas and birthdays! I especially keep my eyes open when I travel to new places to find unique things. We have a Fair Trade store that has a lot of unique items. Last year I gave several people adorable journals made from paper that’s made from elephant pooh! http://www.globalvillagegifts.org/home-page-gallery/o1gppqtsa010mo68uzxje8n77j1e5g
I had to laugh about the journals you gave. Definitely unique! I wish we had stores close by to browse through like that. Oh well, the internet is great for those of us who live out in the boonies!
I guess I was a reasonable person or I should say the Government kept us on the straight and Narrow. I was in the Navy and My husband was in the Coast Guard and We met on the Saturday before Father’s day in 1970. We were Betrothed on July 8th and in the Jewish faith that is your binding wedding day. If you do not want to get the “government” wedding you must get a divorce. Like I said the Government kept us on the strait and narrow because the time before the ‘Government” wedding you stay as a single person. We were married by the state of Illinois on April 3rd 1971. We celebrate our anniversary as July 8th and my husband has begun to celebrate both anniversaries. We consider our true anniversary is July8th and we have been married 46 years. I hope to celebrate our 50th anniversary with another Betrothal service.
Cute gifts! I like getting books for my kids that have their name too. By some miracle I found about with a cat named Tabitha! I had to go with a really old book to find anything that had a Miriam.
Our anniversary often ends up on Father’s day or right next to it, so that can be a pain. And we have 3 December birthdays, so we know how tricky it can be to fit those in with the holidays!
I hate shopping for birthdays and Christmas. I wish I enjoyed it because then I would start early like you do. I keep putting it off until the last minute. I can never decide what to get anyone and I despise spending the time looking- it’s so frustrating! It looks like you have a good talent for giving people meaningful gifts. My mom is like that too. She’s always looking at an item and thinking, “That would be perfect for___!”
Thanks for some ideas of places to look for gifts!
Don’t forget you sent us the Gideon book! It has been so meaningful. Gideon just loves it to pieces (almost literally).
I have to wonder if you “despise” shopping for gifts because it isn’t your love language? I do like to shop, yes, but I also love thinking about who I’m shopping for and thus it becomes a labor of love that isn’t really a labor. It probably helps that gifts are my love language, though.
True- I was so tickled to find a Gideon book and you are the only other person I know who has a Gideon, so I had to share of course!