This episode is for anyone who wants to find a way to give a different gift this holiday season. To focus on time and experiences over gifts, and to learn how to get back to the true reason for the season — hope, joy, peace, and love. We delve into why it may be more significant to give your presence than a present. 

Question Why: Why do we focus so much on giving presents and not our presence? Why do we continue to forget the true reason for the season?

My insight on how I navigate this season as someone who is not a gift-giver, but instead someone whose love language is quality time. 

Three Points on Why This Matters

1. Since the pandemic, people have been feeling more overwhelmed and lonely than before. Giving your time and attention to people you care about may be more valuable than a physical gift.
2. Time is the one thing that you can’t make more of. Your wisdom, insight, care, and compassion can’t be replicated or placed on a shelf for someone to buy. It is the one gift that only you can give. 
3. The Christmas season is about the birth of Christ and the sacrifice that he would make to save humanity. The true gift was God giving the gift of his son — and the love, joy, peace, and hope that that gift represents.

Three Tips on How to Do the Thing

1. Check your motivation when giving a gift to someone — is it about you or is it about them? Have you considered what they would want? Would your time be a better present than the actual present?
2. Think about the ways you receive love. What are the things that matter most to you? Were they things or were they memories and experiences with people you love? Consider creating new holiday traditions that are about time together rather than physical things. 
3. During this holiday season, ask the people you love what they value from you. Is it the things you give or the time you spend?

Pour the Glass

The challenge is when the gift is a replacement for something else. Is this me compensating for something that I know that I’m not able or willing to give? What would happen if we got back the heart of it — giving yourself rather than a physical gift?

Homework 

Focus on giving your time and energy to someone you love this holiday season. You are the present that they want to receive. And if you do give a physical gift — let it be something truly special, something that only you can give and that the person will truly value and appreciate. 

Encouraging Word

Things are disposable, but you are irreplaceable. You are the gift that keeps on giving. So enjoy the experiences of this holiday season and the memories that you will make with those you love —— they will last a lifetime.