What’s Wrong With Christmas Gift Giving?

The commercialization of the Christmas gift giving tradition revs people up into a buying frenzy, leaving them overspent and exhausted.

Seasonal marketing messages designed to attract buyers and increase sales, employ psychological insight to leverage personal insecurities and low self-esteem for corporate gain.

The resulting impact has created a culture of excess reflected in a vicious cycle of indebtedness – maxed credit cards and spirit of competition or neglect, resulting in homes and garbage dumps filled to the brim and overflowing with unwanted, broken, unused or turfed stuff, self-alienation and dysfunctional relationships.

A New Paradigm for Christmas Gift-Giving

Gift giving is an ancient tradition that has helped humanity build community and survive for millennia. Gifts – as in food, tools, animals and other “chattel” were used to honor, appreciate and recognize social interdependence fostering a sense of belonging and connectivity between people.

The changes in our social structures require us to reframe and reposition our behavior in light of changing contexts and needs.  

What does it take to be happy?

Can happiness exist without freedom? Can there be freedom without Self-responsibility.

Growing awareness and a sense of environmental responsibility is helping to shift collective consciousness to a new appreciation of our interdependence on the natural world and each other for collective survival. This emerging holistic and ecological sensibility creates an opportunity to reframe holiday gift-giving as an ecological tradition for the 21^st century – one that invites us to engage in the world in a new and empowering way. 

Christmas, a Time for Healing!

Christmas celebrates the passing of the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice on December 21, and gives birth to the hope and promise of a return to light and renewal. As such, Christmas is well-positioned to be celebrated as a season of healing – a time to come to centre, reflect on what matters deeply, to accept and appreciate all that is – a time for healing.

Healing the relationships we have with our self, a loved one, family, community or our environment is an intentional act that allow us to infuse our holiday gift-giving tradition with a renewed spirit of compassion and hope for the renewal of healthy and happy relationships, at peace with ourselves and our world.

Gifts from the heart empower people to BE MORE rather than HAVE MORE, lead to growth and will never end in the landfill. ©

This year, give the Gift of Coaching.

The gift of coaching is a gift that keeps on giving. Whether you give the Gift of Coaching to your Self or you give it to someone you love, a coaching journey will help you create a blueprint for a healthier and happier life. It’s an investment that pays dividends many times over. Learn more.