With Christmas right around the corner, I wanted to take a minute and talk about gift giving. For those of you, like me – and probably for the guy reading this – you might not have started shopping for the holidays yet. Christmas has certainly evolved over the years in terms of ‘gift giving’ and we as an Affirming Committee wanted to share with you some ways to bring back those simple yet ever so meaningful gift ideas. An article on CBC back in 2014 quoted: “For centuries, there has been some form of gift-giving throughout the Advent season, but for most people these gifts were traditionally small, homemade or edible — such as needlework, wooden toys or baked goods — and played nowhere near as big a role as they do today in the modern Christmas.”
We have up here on the screen this morning, some ideas that we jotted down together as the Affirming Committee, things that we do or have done in the past for gift giving. From purchasing through Gifts with Vision, giving a gift of experience such as a family dinner together or horseback riding, to a games night and even the gift of time, these are just a few of the items that came to mind.
Next week, I will be here to continue this Affirming Moment. At the coffee and conversation table, there are blank pieces of paper and we would love it if you could take a minute and jot down, before you leave today, something that you have done or observed being done for Christmas that isn’t buying the newest toy from your favourite toy store, the latest tech gadget from your favourite tech store, or anything else along those lines. I will gather those… well let’s be real, my dad will gather those and give them to me and I will put them up on the slide next Sunday for more ideas on how we can take a step back from the consumer side of Christmas and connect more with people.
Ideas collected from the congregation…
