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Don't Let it Kill the Spirit of the Season! | | by Mira O'Connell | | 'Tis the season to be bombarded with advertisements.
Whatever you celebrate, life can seem a little overwhelming with the media and advertising that happens this time of year. Take control of your holidays with a few simple steps. | |
| Television |
| Is your television in an Armoire or Entertainment Center with doors. Shut the doors and take the center of the living room away from the television. Television is a strong influence on what we should buy, eat, look like. It is impossible to be totally unaffected by this high powered source. Save television for one night a week or weekend nights. Prerecord your VCR to tape those favorite programs during the week and then watch them over the weekend and remember - fast forward through the commercials! Television commercials are especially influential to children. Companies bombard the Saturday Morning and After School Programs with Sugar Fill Foods and Toy Commercials.
Removing television from your life will leave you an amazing amount of time to explore other interests. It will leave you more free time to spend with your family, do crafts, correspond with love ones, and do projects. Some alternatives to a night of TV watching could be family game night, date night with your partner, family meeting, bowling league night, or take up a hobby, go to functions at church or your local community center. If you are at a loss of what to do with the kids search for activities or kids craft projects
To tame the spirit of receiving and desire for material goods and foster the love, family and giving spirit of the Season, begin to develop family holiday traditions. Sing christmas carols around the neighborhood, take gifts or treats to local retirement centers, host an annual party, pick out the christmas tree as a family, go to the Nutcracker and other activities that bring your family together and share the warmth and love of the season. Rich traditions will be far more meaningful and memorable than the latest fad in marketing. Traditions and family gatherings give a meaning to the season and allows families to remember the true meaning of the Season. |
| Advertisements |
| The holiday buying season used to begin the day after Thanksgiving, it has now been pushed back to the day after Halloween. To the organized and disciplined Holiday Shopper this extended period can serve as a great way to get the best deal on all of the items on our list. Every week our mailboxes and the Sunday Newspaper are crammed full of advertisement circulars. Advertisements can be wonderful resources for finding the best deal on our predetermined purchases but to most consumers they are a great distraction from our budget and influence us to buy items simply because they are a good deal.
Avoid the confusion of circulars by preparing a budget - list possible gift ideas and a spending limit for every person on your holiday list. Do not forget to include stocking stuffers on your list, an often forgotten and costly mistake. Keep an eye out in the circulars for items on your list. If you find a comparably priced item, that someone on your list would like, buy it, and cross that person off of your list. If you find more items afterward know that there will always be another Christmas not to mention Birthdays, Anniversaries, Graduations, etc.
Intercept the weekly circulars from your children. They most likely have more than enough ideas for their gift list and do not need to be bombarded with extra choices or temptations. Recycle circulars so you do not have a pile of them sitting around for bathroom reading material. |
| Licensed Products
A Licensed product is a product made by a company that has a licensed character on it - Pokemon, Scoopy Dooh, Winnie the Pooh, etc. Though many of us may have fond memories of our love of Raggedy Ann of other childhood favorites. You may think twice before encouraging the interest of license characters by your child. Do not get me wrong I am not so naive to believe that you can totally avoid licensed products I am just saying do not ENCOURAGE your child's need for these items.
Children may indeed love Barney or some other favorite video character, but if they start collecting these items, decorating their rooms with Barney sheets curtains, etc. You are setting yourself up for a financial roller coaster, because inevitably your child will outgrow Barney, the Telletubbies ,etc. and then you must replace all of the outdated items that your child owns. When decorating stick to the basics - primary colors, pastel colors. If you prefer to decorate with a theme choose something generic as well - cars, trains, ballet, teddy bears, etc. You still may purchase related accessories items that match those themes but your child will be able to find better deals on nonlicensed items and your child will most likely be interested in that theme for longer periods of time. A car decorated room could conceivably take a boy into his adolescence years before he gets bored with his room. Collecting Licensed products may also make your child feel as they have to have every attached to that character. So when a box of pencils could have previously been bought for $.33 for 15 now you must buy 10 for $2 to get the special character pencils. Licensed characters can affect every aspect of our lives from underwear to cars, if we choose to support this type of marketing.
Starting this idea is easiest with young children. You have the greatest influence over what they like and what they want. For older children who absolutely must have the latest fads in clothes, shoes, etc. reach a compromise with them. Perhaps give them one of the fad items on their gift list per year and the rest handmade or other meaningful gifts OR give them money. I know that for most of us the idea of giving money seems so material and takes the joy out of giving, but it also feels terrible to spend time and energy in picking out a meaningful gift for someone and they do not share the same enthusiasm in receiving the gift. If you give your teenager money they can supplement it with their own earnings to buy their trendy item and they will learn the value of money.
Make it a tradition, to give each immediate member of your family one handmade gift every year. Young children will enjoy these types of gifts and later they will cherish the meaning and memory that the gift brings to them as they start a new family and new traditions.
| | The holidays can still have great meaning and significance in your life. Sticking to realistic budgets, planning your purchases and most importantly valuing family time over gift lists will keep the Spirit of the Season alive in your Home.
© 2000 Mira O'Connell |
| Mira O'Connell comes from a long line of tightwad. She runs the very popular site Frugal Living at Mother's Nature. She is a freelance writer as well as publishes, Miserly Musings Publications and Newsletter. |
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