Fewer Gifts, Greater Meaning: Greening Your Holiday Season
Some tips to help you enjoy a less stressful, more joyful, prosperous, and sustainable holiday season.
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Fewer Gifts, Greater Meaning: Greening Your Holiday Season
The holiday season is upon us and everyone is bracing for an expensive time of year. It’s supposed to be about spending time with friends and family, enjoying winter sports and activities, and being thankful for all that we have. Instead, most rack up credit-card bills that they spend all winter trying to recover from. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely treasure the time I spend with friends and family over the holiday season—it is some of the highest quality time I enjoy with them all year.
However, we’ve all strayed a little bit and I just want to give you a few things to think about while you’re shopping over the next couple of weeks, so that you and our planet begin 2020 in a better place. I know that many families are already making concerted efforts in the right direction, but there are a wide range of ways you can make your holidays more meaningful, less expensive, and better for the planet. I want you to know about, and consider, all of them.
How much do the holidays really cost?
The average Canadian spends $1,593 on their December holiday season and makes $55,806 per year. After tax and necessities, Canadians spend almost 13% of their expendable income for the entire year on the holiday season. Put another way, they went to work for 33 days or 264 hours in order to generate enough expendable income to cover their holiday-season spending. These are the numbers for an average Canadian, but if you are making more than the average income, then it’s very likely that your spending is also proportionately high and these percentages will be true for you, too.
If the average Canadian spends only $1,000 on the holiday season instead of nearly $1,600, they would have an extra $9,360 in 10 years and $127,263 in 40 years. If you’re someone who spends even more on the holiday season and can manage to save a thousand dollars a year, you will have $15,783 in 10 years and $214,609 in 40 years.
That being said, if all you can manage is a simple $233 reduction in your holiday spending, you’ll be left with $50,000 in 40 years. That $50k is equivalent to after tax income, meaning the average Canadian can retire a year and a half earlier. Let that sink in.
In order to help you enjoy a less stressful, more joyful, and sustainable holiday season, I’ve outlined five actionable steps you can take to start 2020 on a better financial footing.
First and foremost— Set a budget!
It’s been twelve years since I sat at the back of my drivers’ ed class not paying any attention. However, one thing has always stuck with me, and that is to always plan your route before you start driving. This same strategy should be employed for holiday shopping. People get financially ruined by the holiday season because they let all their good sense go out the window—a consumer state of mind that retailers love! So, before you buy any gifts, take a few minutes to think about how much you can actually afford to spend on presents this year—set a budget before you start shopping.
Less is more
2019 was the year of Marie Kondo and her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Netflix series Tidying Up, where she showed the world how to de-clutter our lives and improve our happiness. We all know this intuitively, but we’ve been tricked into believing that accumulating more stuff equates to greater happiness. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Marie Kondo says that we should only keep the things in our life that provide us with joy. This holiday season, I urge you to try to give fewer, more thoughtful gifts—gifts that you know will provide more joy for each receiver. Instead of packing a stocking full of little things, get them the one thing that will bring them the most joy.
If you are willing to take this approach a step further, you could implement a Secret or Not-So-Secret Santa amongst your family members. Instead of getting all eight family members a $50 gift that they may or may not use, you could combine your efforts to get each family member a $400 gift that you know they would love but haven’t been able to afford for themselves. The Not-So-Secret Santa reference is to propose that, well ahead of the holidays, you open the dialogue to give gifts that are actually desired or needed.
Make a list!
You will literally hear that song about making a list and checking it twice a thousand times over the next month. It turns out that it’s very good advice! Not a list of who’s naughty or nice, but a list of key gifts that you want to give. That being said, make sure the list stems from and stays within the budget. Set a budget, make a list, and do your research before you start shopping.
Don’t get sucked into buying what’s on sale. A deal is only a deal if you were going to buy it in the first place. The origin of Black Friday was to help the corporations get their accounting books in the black (profitable) by offloading their unwanted inventory. Don’t let the retailers decide your list for you, instead, take the time to give the things that your friends and family actually want or need.
What’s on your list can make a big difference to the planet. Here are a few sustainable gift ideas to help kick-off your list:
Patagonia products: Anyone who knows me knows that I haven’t taken off my Patagonia puff vest since my lovely wife gave it to me. Patagonia is known as one of the most sustainability-focused companies in the world and many of their products are made from recycled materials. They are also some of the highest quality, longest lasting, and most comfortable clothes you can buy. I swear I don’t have a referral code, I’m just a fan.
Experiences (avoid flying): For the sports fan, get them some hockey or basketball tickets, or some tickets to the theatre for the artsy ones in the family (I hear Come From Away is awesome). You could also consider movies, a weekend getaway nearby, a trip to the spa, comedy or concert tickets, or Ticketmaster or restaurant gift cards. I hear millennials like experiential gifts!
Investments: If you have children, nieces (mine below) or nephews, start them a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) at Wealthsimple. These gifts will pay dividends for the rest of their lives, literally, as a $100 annual RESP contribution is enough for a year of university or college tuition (~$5000) when they turn 18, but also figuratively in that they will learn about investing at a very early age. My grandfather used to gift me small 10-year Canada Savings Bonds when I was a kid. When I cashed them as a teenager my mind was blown. I guess that explains a lot..
The gift of joy: Consider giving the superb guide to de-cluttering and to finding what really makes you happy: The Marie Kondo book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Charitable donations: Ask your family and friends for a cause they care deeply about and make a donation on their behalf. This has the added benefit of a tax deduction that you can invest next tax season. I recommend the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Your time: Give your parents a three-hour genius appointment to help them get the most of all their gadgets, help your sister paint the garage, or spend a weekend with Grandma cleaning out the hoarder room. This will extend quality time beyond the holiday season and will be much appreciated.
Skip or reduce the wrapping
Do all your presents really need to be wrapped? Just so that they can be unwrapped and the wrapping paper, tape, ribbons, and bows thrown directly in the garbage? Try something different this year—you’ll be more memorable, save money on wrapping supplies and produce much less waste. Here are some alternative ideas to wrapping:
Hide your presents do a scavenger hunt to find them around the house or create a dramatic revealing. My friend’s parents have taken this to the next level and turned Christmas into a game show! It seems that she remembers the event much more than the gifts themselves. Get creative.
Use a bag or box that you already have.
Reuse last year’s wrapping materials.
If you are gifting clothes, you can wrap one gift inside of another.
Bury your gifts in the snow and get outdoors!
Do something active
Make plans for you and your family to do something other than just opening presents, and eating, on Christmas and Boxing Day. The idea is that if you’re busy with other plans, your day won’t feel boring and empty without endless presents to open, and you won’t feel the need to keep the high from wearing off by shopping all day on Boxing Day. So, make a plan to go skiing, hiking, or play some outdoor hockey. If you’d rather be inside by the fire, then plan a day full of board games, or watch the NBA Christmas Day line-up from noon until midnight.
I have been receiving a lot of feedback and great ideas from friends and readers—please keep them coming! Thanks to some of that feedback, I’m going to add a cheat sheet to the end of each article with a quick and dirty action plan to implement the new Lean House Effect change into your life.
Put it into action:
Start with a budget: Decide what you can actually afford and give yourself a hard cap.
Make a list: List the people you want to buy gifts for, break down your budget amongst those people, decide on their gifts, and stick to it!
Less is more: Give fewer, more thoughtful gifts.
Skip the wrapping: Get creative and try to reduce the waste from wrapping.
Make other plans for Christmas and Boxing Day: Fill your day with outdoor plans so that you’re not trying to fill it all with shopping and gifting.
Bonus: Thank me in January when you can actually afford to pay off your credit card bill 😊
I know this article was a little less numbers’ focused than usual, but people were asking for help with their holiday shopping and I wanted to get this out before everyone’s shopping was done. I put the next article on hold to write this post but there will be a second post in December—I promise!
Please share this to your friends and family so that this holiday season they can take care of themselves, the people they love, and the planet. If you’ve learned anything from this article or any previous one, please subscribe to get the next article directly in your inbox. Together, by being thoughtful about how we give this holiday season, we can build wealth and contribute to the fight against climate change.