Too early or not early enough?
To be thinking about holiday gifts?
Usually I am all ready for Christmas by November 1. I know. I am one of those people.
Oh! And I don’t mean ready in the sense that I have my house decorated and meals planned and gifts purchased. Ha ha ha. No.
I mean ready, in the sense that I am excited for it! Feeling gung ho about it!
Well, it’s November 11th, and I am still waiting for those feelings to kick in. The holiday still seems far away, even though it isn’t.
I’m not feeling grinchy or anything. I was super excited to get my first Starbucks red cup drink last week.
I’m ready for the radio station to start playing holiday tunes. I’m greatly looking forward to watching holiday movies with my mom when she visits in a week. And somewhat looking forward to outlet mall shopping with her, ha ha.
And that’s probably the big thing that is making me feel like I am not in my normal holiday mood – the gift ideas. I usually only have a few presents purchased by this time in November and some ideas for the rest, but this year, I have very few (I have an idea for one friend, and a few for Steven). And I am not feeling too excited about present research.
Because of that, and because I think it’s a fun idea, I asked a few friends if they wanted to do “experiences” this year instead of gifts. A spa day. A hotel and a race the next day. Spending time together. Making memories. Ha ha, queue cheesy music here—>!
Luckily, the friends I talked to about it really liked the idea, and didn’t seem to think it was somewhat (only somewhat) what it feels like to me – a cop out. But the thing is, the friends I asked are the friends I would have no problem finding gifts for, and kind of gift to all year long. They’re the people I feel really excited about having a day planned out in the calendar to spend with.
And researching races and other things to do with friends is a lot more appealing to me, right now, than researching gifts. Ha ha, that is probably because another reason I don’t have Christmas-brain yet is because I have marathon-brain! I am so focused on that December 14th marathon, that 11 days after, I’m going to be like “Christmas, what?!??!?!” Ha ha.
Do you get in to the holiday mood? About what time of year?
Themocracy
I love the idea of doing an experience instead! It’s what I started doing for my birthday and it’s so much better than gifts. Not that I don’t love gifts, too, but I also love being able to spend time with people.
And, yes, I bet your ALL THE CHRISTMAS THINGS will kick in after the marathon 🙂
I’m just not feeling it this year…Sadly finances play such a huge role in the holidays, and money is tight lately. I’m hoping my grinchiness wears off SOON.
I had the experiences thought, too. I want to ask my aunts and uncles to send me a story about their life instead of the usual earrings or dishtowels. I’d better get on that before they go shopping!
Oh! That would be so cool, then you could put all the stories together!
My husband has been playing Christmas music on his phone (pandora) since like two weeks before halloween. he is always so excited for Christmas, especially this year since it is our daughters first! We hardly do gifts anymore, now its about the “grandkids” as my mom and Mother in law say. So its nice, we don’t really have to buy stuff except kids toys which my husband also loves – I hate going to toys r us so i do it online. Anyway, that is longer than i intended.
Aww, that is fun that he is so in to it! And buying toys IS fun! For most of my friends with kids, I try to get books or something non-toy like since they’ve all almost expressed to me how many toys they have… but it’s fun when I get to pick something out!
Nice! Ha, I’m not in the holiday mood yet. But then it just got cold today…we had our first freeze warning with the cold front that came through overnight.
Woo hoo! I bet that cold weather was a nice change! 🙂
I think experiences are great gifts and not at all a cop out!
I’m a grinch. I can admit it. I think it’s because I work for a retail company, when people are especially grouchy and demanding once Halloween is over. Also, I have a mid-November birthday, so it makes me twitchy to see Christmas decorations so early.
I am trying really hard to be Christmasy. I have started to shopping but I’m focused on it as a task – not a season/feeling. I’m having trouble shopping for Mark, and I was actually thinking of doing an “experience” type gift.
I have a really hard time shopping for Steven, too. Especially cause his birthday is a few days before Christmas! What experiences do you have in mind for Mark? A groupon or something else? 🙂
I’m keeping an eye on Groupon but we don’t get as much super cool stuff since FW is smaller. I’m looking at concerts, shows, etc.
It’s funny you mention Steven’s birthday being near Christmas. Mark’s is two weeks to the day after, and I feel like I’m shopping for two gifts at once!
Cool! You could always travel to Chicago for something 😉 Or Indy. Hee hee.
Yes! You are! And you have to be careful not to make it a “themed” gift for both! It sure is tricky! Luckily, Steven has given me lots of ideas this year 🙂
I do experiences for V, I think it is a great idea
We did an experience gift last year for our families. We did a salmon charter! It was so fun and everyone loved it!
I purchased a few holiday gifts this week, actually. I’m not always on top of things though. I’m trying to be on top of it this year because I have a felling having a baby around will make Christmas sneak up on me! I don’t know how people functioned before online shopping existed.
Woo hoo! That’s a good start!
I always feel a little anxiety about Thanksgiving and Christmas time because we have so many family gatherings we’re invited to, it’s stressful to decide which to attend and which to skip.
I’ve already started up a Christmas music channel on Pandora and will most likely listen to it most days until Christmas.
As far as gift ideas…I generally only shop for my wife. She does most of the gift shopping for the family. I’m pretty proud to say I already know what I’m getting her and am just waiting on my bonus check to make the purchases. Most years, I’m still trying to come up with ideas the week before Christmas.
That is nice your wife does a lot of the shopping! What are you getting her?! 🙂 🙂 🙂
At work, we’re still wrapping up stuff for the Holidays and we feel like we’re so LATE. And it’s only Nov 13. The malls have warped my brain. But Santa Photos have already started at some of our malls, and the majority are opening this weekend.
As for my personal life, I have purchased zero gifts, and Robert won’t let me start decorating until after Thanksgiving. (But I’m going to try to sneak up some decorations the weekend before because I like sparkly things.)
I was wondering what season you were on at work! It does seem late for the wrap up 😛
Sneak them up and share pics!!! 🙂
We’ve been buying gifts piecemeal for months now in hopes that it will keep us from having to go too overboard once the proper shopping season hits. We do this every year. Also a great way to minimize the financial stress of the season.