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Great small gifts

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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.
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