December Preview: Celebrations

It’s the month of December and this month at beruly.com is all about celebrations!  Many people are running a bit ragged this time of year trying to fit in all the “errands of the season” as my mother-in-law likes to call them.  Ruly will be here for you with ideas to organize your time during the holidays as well as inspiration to help you get through when you are feeling overwhelmed.

There are many people around the world celebrating different types of holidays this month and while Christmas is the tradition that our family celebrates, Ruly will try to generalize advice for a variety of holidays.  If you feel your tradition has needs that are not represented here, please post a comment and give us all the opportunity to learn!  My research shows that “the holidays” this year include:

• Sundown on December 11 – December 19     Hanukkah (the Jewish “Festival of Lights”)
• December 13     St. Lucy’s Day (Christian feast day dedicated to St. Lucy)
• December 18     Al-Hijira (the Islamic New Year)
• December 25     Christmas           
• December 26     Boxing Day
• December 26 – January 1      Kwanzaa (celebration of African life and culture)
• December 27     Ashura  (an Islamic holy day of fasting)
• December 31    New Year’s Eve
• January 1    New Year’s Day

Already, the holiday marketing machinery is at work and this year there seems to be extra pressure to get your shopping done now.  Two days after Thanksgiving, I received a catalog in the mail with “Last-Minute Gift Ideas.”  Last-minute?  Already?  On Cyber Monday, email messages came flooding in with “Hurry!” and “Last Chance.”  Unfortunately for these marketers, I am immovable.  To me, “last-minute” is the week before Christmas (or, in a particularly busy year, Christmas Eve).  Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, I am starting to get schizophrenic messages advising me to “Hurry! There is still time!”  So, my first message is to say to you and the marketers, “Relax.  There is still plenty of time.  Don’t be in too much of a rush.  Sometimes the last-minute bustle is part of the fun  too.” 

While the holiday season is truly not about shopping, it seems many people are taking the urgency of these marketing messages to heart.  There are so many holiday events front-loaded in December this year for me and, for the first year, the schedule gets lighter the closer to Christmas.  If this holds true, I am actually looking forward to some quiet evenings making cookies or crafts with my children.

This year, many people are struggling with the holidays due to their economic situation.  I have already met several people who are either not exchanging gifts of any kind or are already preparing their families that there will be fewer presents this year than in years past.  If you fall in this situation, please know first that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes taking a step away from the frenzy of giving allows you to have a more meaningful holiday. We will talk about this on Ruly this month.  Also, we will discuss ways to creatively stretch a budget for the holidays. 

There are some exciting new features to announce at Ruly too.   The first one is very cool and is coming this Friday so be sure to check back!   Enjoy your Wednesday!