The Art of Giving – A Christmas Experiment

A Day to Shop

Last week I had a play date with my friend Sarah. We get together once a week to hang out and let our kids play. Her first child and my youngest are only four months apart in age and are high energy, enthusiastic play partners. Sarah’s husband was making plans to take their little boy out of town for a weekend and she wanted to know if I could join her to do some Christmas shopping. I was thrilled at the idea of picking up some local gifts so I gleefully assigned my husband child duty and we made our arrangements for Christmas shopping at the outlet mall.

Systematic Gift Giving

The following Sunday morning I woke up early and sat near the fireplace enjoying the sunrise. I started thinking about how I usually decide to buy gifts at Christmas time. The normal criteria my husband and I use of (a) spend in-between $30-$50 per person and (b) buy something from their list seemed off. Also present, was the deep frustration I experience with the people who fall outside of this criteria. You know, the people who have everything they want, refuse to make lists or buy what they need just before Christmas (I am actually very grateful for these people for making it tough for us to create a system). I decided to venture deeper into these feelings with the thought of there has to be a better way than this!

A Better Way

This year I am conducting an experiment. I came to the conclusion that buying gifts with the focus of price tags and lists is dissatisfying because it does not acknowledge the energy behind giving…this is a much needed non-material focus! The whole thing was lacking a deeper meaning. So the question I asked myself was…how can I give this a non-material purpose? The answer was to think big.

Thinking Big

If I could give anything to the people in my life for the new year…what would it be? I mentally scrolled through the people I would buy gifts for and thought on the largest scale of which I am capable. If I could give you one thing, anything to improve your life for the next year…what would it be? The answers that came back were startling. In my mind I began assigning what I call themes to different people according to need or desire. I found myself giving comfort, peace, guidance, self-worth, contentment, love, growth, balance, health, joy, abundance and more. These themes I realized, are the non-physical anchor I was looking for…they are the meaning behind the giving.

The Marriage of Material Gift-Giving to its Non-Material Partner

So this year I am assigning themes to the different people in my life. I am not looking at lists or prices. Each theme represents something that I wish to manifest in the life of the recipient in the coming year. Each gift I buy will have a connection with the associated non-material theme. To complete the transaction I am including a hand-written note explaining that connection and the powerful intent that empowers the gift. It is my hope that throughout the year when the gift is thought on by the person receiving it, they will remember my intent for them and without even realizing it…will also be focusing their own thoughts toward that end, thus in essence bringing those very things into their lives. Giving and receiving are part of the same process. So this year…I will give with intent!