Christmas Gifts for Her

How to get what you want for Christmas.

By Lauren Winzar – Decluttering & Organising Coach

We’ve all been there.  Sitting there on Christmas morning, wrapping paper all around you, a smiling face eagerly waiting your reply as their question echo’s in your head “Do you like it?”.

Time starts again as you remember to paint on a smile and reply “It’s great, just what I wanted! Thank you!”. You look at your new ‘favourite’ thing wondering “how long do I have to keep it?” or “Where am I going to put THIS?”

More. Christmas. Clutter.

Problem

Christmas and clutter tend to go hand in hand. Our loved ones WANT to give us things we will like and use, but if we don’t tell them what that is, they have to guess.

Many of us stopped asking for what we want for Christmas around the same time we stopped writing to Santa, because we’ve been taught that it is selfish and can appear entitled.

What if we could let it be known what we would truly like for Christmas without feeling guilty?

Let’s start by flipping this story: by making people guess what you would like, you are creating more stress and work for them – selfish much?

Help them out by giving they some realistic gift ideas that are not to pricey and fit their gifting and shopping style.

Prepare

You are not too old to write a letter to Santa.  In fact, it can be a fun exercise in self-discovery and help your friends and family in the process.

Take a moment out of your silly season rushing around to think about yourself.

Get all your wishes out on paper.  Go ahead, start with “peace and quiet, and kids who get along”, then focus on realistic wants.  I like to think about the parts of my life that make me happy, “How can I get more of that?”, compared to the little stresses “What would help reduce those?”.

What if I REALLY do not want anything?

I know a lot of people who simply do not want more STUFF – I still recommend writing the list.  Fill your list with experiences, or donations to your favourite charity, or a session with a Professional Organiser (https://www.iopo.com.au/find-an-organiser) to help you reduce what you already have.

Share

We’ve established that people need to be told what you would like.  So now that you have your list, you must share it.  You could hold onto it for when someone inevitably asks what you’d like, but we really do need to be proactive here.

Give the list to someone close to you, a partner, parent, or adult child.  The person people are most likely to ask about you. Tell them that you do not want people to waste their money or time looking for gifts for you so you’ve thought of some things that would be nice to receive.  Bonus – they know what you want now, and you can ask them to write a list too!

If someone tells you that you are difficult to buy for, let them know that you’re sorry for being hard work and do not expect them to shop for you … so here are some ideas.

DIY

At the end of the day, sometimes if you want something done you have to do it yourself.

You have your list now.  If you don’t want to wait for Christmas, still don’t feel comfortable asking for things, don’t have anyone to exchange gifts with or (and this may still happen) you get to Christmas and your people have totally missed the mark – it’s 100% ok to be your own Secret Santa.

Clutter is the stuff that stands between you and the life you want.  This is your opportunity to live that life, now.