Crafts & Fun

Tis the month before Christmas
And all through the house
Not one gift is purchased
For child, friend or spouse.
Your credit card’s maxed
And your gift list is growing.
You want to get in the spirit
But stress is already showing.
You look at your kids
Who are watching TV;
They say with such passion,
“Can we have that, pleeease?
And we really need that
And this and that too.”
It all feels so wrong,
But what can you do?

Homemade Holiday

When you picture your ideal holiday, isn’t it evenings cuddled up with your kids, in your flannels, reading stories, playing games, laughing, talking? What better excuse than the current state of the economy to scale it all back — way back — and shake up your family’s approach to the season?

That’s exactly what Andrea Lie was thinking after Christmas last year. The Ottawa mom of Hannah, five, and Ryan, one, thinks the upside to the current economic downturn is that families are starting to reassess what really matters. Faced with the prospect of downsizing at her office, money is one of the motivating factors for going back to basics this year. “But I’m also thinking of my daughter,” says Lie. “We’ve tried to explain to her that gifts from the heart and the hands mean more than something you can pick up at a store. That’s true for all of us.”

Lie started early with her plan to create a homemade holiday for 2009. Every month she has taken photos of her kids doing something seasonal (celebrating Valentine’s Day, dressing up for Halloween, playing on summer vacation) so she can create personalized 2010 calendars for family members. “Grandparents love anything that allows them to show off their grandchildren,” she says.

She also has a special plan for her dad’s gift: “He is a great handyman and dreams of having his own business one day,” says Lie. So she has designed a logo for the business he dreams of and will give this to him along with flyers she’s made.

Lie decided to ditch the traditional greeting card this year to save time, money and trees. Instead, she’ll send out a personal email with a family photo. Her extended family is now giving only to the grandkids and, last year, Lie’s group of friends also made the decision to forgo gifts.

Lie’s childhood holidays are motivating her to hold firm to her simpler holiday plans. “What sticks out in my mind is all the things we did together, like crafts and tobogganing on Christmas Day,” she says. “Those are the kinds of things I’m trying to carry into my own family. I have been tempted to overspend, but I’ll catch myself because that’s not the message I want to get across.”

Originally published in Today's Parent, December 2009