LAST week I rocked up to my book club Christmas party dinner with a feeling of dread.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It wasn’t that I’d not read the book of the month; that wouldn’t have rattled me in the slightest. We’d finished our last book on the reading list for the year during November but I’d missed that month’s meeting and as a result any warning of a potential Kris Kringle exchange.
“Please tell me we didn’t need to bring a KK gift tonight,” I say once we’re all seated in the restaurant.
“Otherwise, I’m going straight to the kitchen to do a deal with the chef on a nice piece of crockery or gin-cured salmon.”
Thankfully there was no KK planned, which is one of the things I love best about my book club.
It’s become strangely liberating to catch up with people around Christmas, enjoy a glass or few of wine and not have to exchange gifts.
Hang the expense, it’s the time spent shopping I resent for what ultimately boils down to clutter or calories. Though if I had to choose: calories trump clutter big-time. (Hint: I fancy Rutherglen Estates Arneis and Bright Chocolate.)
Here’s my take on keeping Christmas green, clean and meaningful:
- Nude Christmas is catching on. Like the Nude Food Movement, less packaging is, well, more. Wrap kitchen-themed gifts in a vintage tea-towel; package a book in newspaper; or artists’ supplies in your child’s own masterpiece. If you have to use wrapping paper, recycled brown kraft paper and string don’t have a season and never go out of style. Christmas is a good chance to reuse the scores of glossy gift bags that come to you courtesy of birthdays throughout the year. I’ve never bought one; I swear there are 50 in my wardrobe!
- Buy experiences instead of presents. Once Christmas has come and gone, your loved ones will still have something to look forward to in the way of an experience. Think tickets to a gig, Aquazone Waterpark season pass or Opera in the Alps.
- Don’t buy anything plastic unless it’s Lego. Plastic never breaks down long after kids have finished playing with it but Lego never goes out of date. Our youngest still plays with her Dad’s Lego.
- Make or bake something. In our hyperconsumerist world, homemade shortbread biscuits or ginger cake are a delicious rarity. Time-poor or non-bakers can defer to the amazing Border bakers and artisans for their wholesome produce.
- Handmade Christmas. My husband’s family introduced this four years ago for the adults only. Highlights have been a personalised family version of Guess Who?, an embroidery of my daughter’s hand-drawn self-portrait done by her grandmother and screen-printed pillowcases. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Other favourites were lime-infused vodka, homemade granola and potted succulents.
- Resist the urge for a Pinterest-perfect, themed tree and decorations. Our pine tree sports everything from wooden decorations to preschool creations to vintage pieces (from the 1980s!). It’s a slightly different combination every year but we embrace the slapdash-ness of it. Comfort and joy!!
- Buy magazine (or newspaper!!) subscriptions as gifts because they keep giving monthly or even six days a week until next Christmas.
