spending

The evolution of my gift giving

80856232858_be68d12232_z

Good morning Loves.  As the weather gets colder and the malls put up their holiday decorations I’m starting to get into the gift giving spirit.  Are you?  There is something about twinkle lights and snow tunes (get it? HA HA) that makes me want to buy gifts for everyone I know.  Of course I can’t afford to do that but it doesn’t stop me from making mental lists of all the perfect gifts I would hypothetically buy for everyone in my life.

As I strolled through the mall last night looking for a gift for BF’s sister I thought about how my gift giving as evolved over the years.  My my has it changed.

Think about everyone on your list this year, is it the same as last year? 

My Christmas list changes drastically from year to year depending on my relationship status with my family, how my friends choose to celebrate and what events my co-workers plan.   This year I am going to buy gifts for my family (very different from last year), my friends decided not to exchange gifts and the lunch dates with my different circles of friends at the office is increasingly growing (I think now I’m up to 3).

How have your gift giving habits changed over the years?

My school girl crush.  Over the years I bought several gifts.  I’ve always liked giving gifts, even as a child I would like to wake up and try to cook breakfast for my parents.  Other than being invited to my classmates birthday parties the first real gift I ever bought was for my elementary school crush.  His name was Paul and I “loved” him from grade four to grade eight.  I bought him the Kid n Play cassette tape.  Since I couldn’t afford to buy two I bought one for him, opened it, dubbed it onto a blank cassette I could keep for myself and then wrapped up the original and gave it to him as a Christmas gift.

Then boys started buying me gifts.  That was a weird concept.  For some reason after graduation my childhood crush on Paul faded away and we actually became friends.  I guess it’s easy to be friends with the girl next door after she stops following you around everywhere you go.  My first boyfriend in high school bought me a gold necklace and the Boyz To Men CD for our first Christmas together.  Yes by the time I reached high school CDs were all the rage.  He was no longer my boyfriend by New Year’s Eve – it had nothing to do with the gift.

My first true love.  When I moved away to college I worked in retail sales and I wasn’t able to come home for Christmas.  It was absolutely devastating, but thankfully I had BF to help make the most of it.  School began in September and by December I had already been with BF for a couple of months.  It was our first holiday away from home but we weren’t alone because we had each other to spend it with.  We didn’t have a lot of money so there were no gifts, but after all it was more about the bonding experience of being together.

An old unmarried couple.  Now I’m 34 years old and BF and I have been together for 15 years.   Our holidays are about creating our own traditions: gifts, Christmas trees, egg nog and a lot of down time.  Our grown up lives are a lot more hectic than they were when we were students so the holidays are now more about having time off work to spend together and eat desserts.  We love our desserts!

Photo from Flickr

+ posts

Leave a Comment