Celebrate Your Way !!

The Holiday Season is upon us now. It all started with Thanksgiving. Advertisements on all our media flood us with similar messages. They offer many different way to be HAPPY during the holidays. Our happiness according to the media can be achieved by giving the perfect gift, preparing the best tasting cookies and purchasing the best outfit to wear to all of those holiday parties we have been invited to attend. With all of this advice floating around it can become difficult to find a way to actually ENJOY this season that holds meaning for each of us individually.

If we spend all of our time running around buying gifts and decorating to fulfill the desires of others, what does that leave for our own sense of enjoyment? What happens if your budget cannot accommodate the expensive gift that you are expected to give this year? Instead of trying to find a way to finance something that will take about a year to pay off, stay within your means and give a gift that you can AFFORD. People will respect you more for that in the long run.

I remember being in high school working at Macy's. We all used to dread the day after Christmas. The lines were ridiculously long and the customers were extremely impatient. An eight hour shift felt as though it was sixteen. My head was swirling with people getting agitated over the waiting time to return their unwanted items. I worked two years at Macy's and processed over two hundred returns. What I learned was that it does not matter how much you SPEND on a gift. It is the heart behind it that matters the most.

If your budget cannot handle anything too expensive, give a gift that will last the whole year through. Maybe some home made cookies, a card with a gift card that has no monetary value, but the contains the promise of time that will be spent together. After all, that is what this season is all about isn't it? As far as all of those holiday parties you have been invited to, go to those you can and forgive yourself for the ones you cannot. You may need a dress to wear but wear the one YOU like instead of what everyone else says you should put on. Everything you do during this season should come from a place of feeling joyous and fulfilled through the promise of a new beginning.

Be blessed and not stressed in that days ahead ! Celebrate YOUR way !!