Practice Minimalism This Christmas

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

8 Comments

  1. This is an interesting topic! As someone who values simplicity and sustainability, I’m curious to learn more about how a minimalist vegan lifestyle can contribute to a greener Christmas.

  2. I am not minimalist but. We don’t buy much at Christmas. We usually give money to our 25 year old son Joshua. For our Granddaughter Everly. I practice the 3 gift rule. Something she wants and something she needs. Then something to read. The same with my 2 nieces and nephew. Do I think everyone should do what we do no. Every family is different. Some enjoy the gift giving shopping and wrapping, I personally don’t like it.

  3. Hello,
    I love the idea of changing up traditions. We do this in our family for several reasons: One, the needs of our family have changed, two, the needs of our planet and society have changed and three, changing it up can be fun.
    We still buy presents for one another, now do a gift exchange and have greatly decreased the dollar amount of each gift. I recycle gift bags and paper and ribbon and am looking at sewing some cloth present bags for family that can be re-used time and time again. We show the little ones in the family that the best part of any family occasion is being together.
    Thank you for your insight and practical suggestions.
    Take care.
    Anne

    1. Hi Anne, Sounds like you’re onto something great! It’s lovely to see that the younger generations are shown that the focus is on the quality time not the gift giving/receiving at Christmas.

  4. Yes! Love this so much. I love the way you wrote it too, not many people could be offended by it.

    This is the second Christmas we are basically skipping and it feels so great! Everyone around me is talking about how stressful it is, and how busy the shops are, and I think how happy I am with my choice to opt out of it. Instead we will be having a yummy vegan lunch with family and donating to charity for Christmas.

  5. Hello Masa,
    Thank you for another wonderful article. I look forward each Sunday to your updates and thoroughly enjoy them all.

    Our family have been having a minimalist Christmas for almost 20 years. Your description of the pre-Christmas Day stressors brought back unpleasant memories 🙂 My husband and I have 4 children and like so many families were sucked into the commercialism of the season. When our youngest son was about 8 we had a particularly stressful Christmas, things had not gone so well that year and those pre-Christmas stressors you describe, really made for a less than enjoyable Christmas Day. My husband and I sat down and discussed how ridiculous it was that every year we spent thousands of dollars on one day of the year that had taken on a completely different meaning from its true intention. New Year’s Day we sat down with our children and shared our realisation. Our children were very mature and came up with excellent ideas for our next Christmas. Gifts were capped at $10 each and if they wanted to buy someone something that cost more, they had to pool their money to buy it. We continued our tradition of donating toys to the Salvaton Army and KMart wishing tree and extended this to volunteering at the homeless shelter’s lunch on the Gold Coast. Now the children are adults and we have 2 grandchildren, we don’t buy Christmas gifts for the adults and limit what we spend on the grandchildren. We attend church at Christmas and enjoy a rowdy family day. Thank you again for your article. Have a wonderful Christmas and and an even more spectacular New Year.

    1. Masa Ofei says:

      Hi Debbie,

      Thanks so much for sharing your story with me! Love it 🙂 It’s nice to hear that you have been implementing these principals for years. Sounds like you have a wonderful Christmas. Thank you, wishing you too a wonderful festive season and an amazing 2018! Masa