Christmas is almost upon us. Just one more week to go. I can’t believe 2019 is almost over. We don’t have a tree up and odds are we won’t put one up this year anyway. When Hubby and I first got married I used to go all out for the holidays. Tree, ornaments, the whole nine yards. But then we would end up spending almost every day at his Mom’s since his brother always came home for two weeks around Christmas and Hubby wanted to spend as much time with him as possible since it was the only time he got to see him back then. After a few years I stopped decorating since we were never here to enjoy it really and it just seemed like a lot of effort for nothing.

We got rid of our fake tree about ten years ago. And a good portion of the decorations I had accumulated over the years.

Since my birthday is in November and Hubby’s is in December we’ve never gone wild with Christmas presents. In the beginning we would buy the main presents for our birthdays and then just get something small for Christmas. Then after a few years we decided to just buy birthday presents and then for Christmas we would decide on a big item we both wanted and get it as our Christmas present to one another, although it didn’t have to be at Christmas. One year we bought a new television in October when it was on sale. That was back when flat screens were super expensive. Another year we bought a dishwasher. 

The last few years, however, we’ve stopped buy gifts altogether. We have more stuff than we need anyway and we realized we were buying gifts because it was expected. Now we go out to eat at a nice restaurant for our birthdays.

And for Christmas… well, we still don’t do gifts. I don’t see that changing either.

We’ve decided once we finally get moved we want to start new traditions. We haven’t decided what they will be yet, but we already have a few ideas. But the no presents thing will continue. And if other people insist on giving us gifts, we will ask that instead of buying something new that they either make something, buy it secondhand, regift something that they already have, or support a local artist.

Really though, Hubby and I have enough things. That doesn’t mean we’ll never buy anything ever again. it’s just that we plan to be more choosy about what and how we buy. Buying secondhand means giving new life to older items. It means no plastic packaging. And it means not supporting the industries that care only about making as much money as possible instead of their employees or their impact on the environment. It also means often times getting better quality things for cheaper than what they would have cost new. I figure if a mid century modern couch is still in good shape all these years later, then it’s worth spending a little extra to get an original rather than paying for a cheaply made reproduction. Let’s face it, things were made to last back then. Now days they are made to be disposable, forcing you to replace it after only a few years.

It’s been almost fifteen years since Hubby and I bought one another presents for Christmas. During the holidays we focus instead on spending quality time with each other and the ones we love. Because to me, that’s what the holidays are really all about.

I hope you all have a happy holiday season regardless of what holiday you celebrate. This will be my last post until after the new year. So have a wonderful holiday and a very happy New Year. I’ll see you in 2020.