Skip to main content

Great small gifts

Image
By
Often Christmas is about more, more, more. More spending, more gifts, more stuff. It's tricky for the person who is happy with less stuff.

Three cheers for my family

My loved ones have done exceedingly well this year. All the gifts I received on Christmas day could fit in one envelope - not including those that fitted in my stomach ;) .

My free e-book 10 Great Gifts for People who Don't Want Stuff has a great range of gift ideas. Here are specific examples that are giving me joy rather than clutter.

Hand-made gifts

It's an unexpected treat to get something someone has put their time into making.

A friend (and her 8 and 6 year old daughters) made us this collection of soaps. We'll appreciate them as we use them up.


Held up to the light, they're amazingly colourful and bright. Even the bag they came in (courtesy of the kids) was fantastically cute.


Vouchers

Vouchers can be hit and miss. The tip is to go broad if you don't know the person well. Only go for a specific niche if you're dead sure that's what they want. Otherwise it's just a gift to the corporation as the voucher sits unused.

The hardware store voucher I received might normally have missed the mark but our new apartment could do with some energy-saving lights. The broadness of the voucher saved the day and made it a gift that is appreciated.

Experience

A book of 35 walks in my city. Yeah it's a physical present but relatively small and should provide a great number of experiences for my wife and I. Some of the places I haven't even heard of yet. It's like a little "lonely planet" guide for my own city.

Experiences are great because they create memories. Memories are great because they last a very long time - and often get better with age.

My wife knows this well and gave me a voucher for an activity we'll do together (more on that another time). My sister-in-law and brother-in-law gave us a voucher for sports tickets. They go to almost every Brisbane Lions home game. It's our choice which one we attend as their guests. (Update: Here's how it went.)

Food

My sister is very generous with presents. Sometimes overwhelmingly so. This year she combined generosity with her baking skills to cook up a storm. Great idea.

She fills those containers to the max. Whatever it doesn't have in fancy-schmancy presentation it makes up for in quantity and sweetness.


Also in food category, my wife made us a special Christmas brunch before we went out to the extended family Christmas event. No photo of that - I went straight for the cutlery before the camera ;)

Focusing on joy

The traditional (commercial) image of Christmas is a giant tree surrounded with large shiny presents wrapped with a bow. You see it at the shopping centre and on practically every Christmas movie.

These presents might not fit that expectation. But they bring more joy. Isn't that what counts?

PS. You may also want to read about my extended family's new tradition about gifts.
Read more about:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Less Clutter More Cash - now available

By
Do you feel like you have too much stuff? Is your home full of things you never use? Would you like to swap them for cash? We did My wife and I have sold more than 550 items online as we downsize and we've learnt a bit along the way. I've put some of our best tips into this handy ebook. I hope you can use these tips so you too can have less clutter and more cash. Enter your email address below to receive the book for free. Less Clutter More Cash Get my new ebook for free. PS. This will subscribe to the But Wait There's Less email list, so you'll know when the new updated version of the book is available. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Big motivator for small living

By
It's been a while between posts here - mainly because we've been moving house. It's been a real motivator for downsizing. Packing each and every item we owned, really makes me wish there were fewer of them. Moving everything from the old apartment to the new one made me envious of those people who live in a "tiny house on wheels". For them moving house simply means towing it to a new location. No packing required. The whole process has reaffirmed our commitment to owning less stuff. So we're going to be intentional about downsizing. It will be an ongoing activity. My environmental heart couldn't stomach a spontaneous dumping of things into the garbage, but it's also more fun this way. Selling things online brings in some handy pocket money. Giving items away is also a great community activity, whether it is to friends and family, to charity or to people in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to it as a lifestyle rather than a task to do....
Post a Comment
Read more

Motivated money - book review

By
This book is often recommended. The author sees shares as safer than term deposits, prefers low dividends and isn't keen on property. I was keen to read it. Here are my highlights: Two tips Spend less than you earn. Borrow less than you can afford. Those two tips alone would help so many people. Assets and liabilities What we often call assets are really liabilities (they cost us to maintain). Houses, cars, boats can be liabilities - useful for "status or position in the pecking order" . He uses the example of a retiree with $3 million in assets. A million dollar house, a million dollar boat and two $500k cars. They sound wealthy but how will they buy food, let alone pay the ongoing costs of all those items. By contrast, assets bring in an income. Attitude to shares He says the sharemarket is our friend, and "provided it is treated with respect, it creates appropriate wealth for all those who use it sensibly. However if we approach it as a gambler, we need to be prep...
Post a Comment
Read more