OPINION: Maybe too much giving

Christmastime is often called the season of giving, and that’s something my family has always taken to heart.

No, I’m not saying we’re these wonderful human beings who spend hours upon hours volunteering or donating thousands of dollars worth of money or goods to important organizations. Sure, there’s a little bit of these things, but really, we just love to go overboard in giving gifts.

As long as I can remember, we’ve piled presents under the tree to probably extreme proportions. It doesn’t take long for my poor cat, who loves to sit under the tree, to give up on trying to find space once we start wrapping.

Giving presents has always been an important thing to me, sometimes to my own detriment. I remember saving any money I received from my November birthday to buy gifts for everyone.

The first year I spent any of my own money on gifts for others, I was in elementary school and begged my mom to go to the dollar store so I could pick something out for everyone. I even got something for myself that year, wrapping it up and throwing it under the tree to open at Christmas.

I remember the first time a significant other was brought to our Christmas celebration, and they were slightly horrified. Apparently some families just do one or two presents per person.

In my defense, I often wrap everything separately. Last year, each candle I got my mom was wrapped on its own rather than stuffed into one bag together.

Sometimes I’ll buy something pretty early in the season and then simply forget and buy more gifts, resulting in more presents than I originally planned. Other times, new ideas just keep popping up and I can’t help myself. And then there’s the immature thought in my head that everyone should have a similar number of presents, even if the one with less presents is receiving a pricey gift.

For example, and Mandy, if you’re reading my column, please stop. I won’t get into specifics because we haven’t exchanged gifts at the office yet, but Cheyenne and I went in together to get something pretty expensive for Mandy. This means instead of two or three wrapped gifts from each of us for Mandy, she’ll have a single gift. Logically, I know this is fine, but I also have that voice in the back of my head saying, “no! You can’t give her only one gift, that will make it look like you like her less than the others!”

So, despite spending as much on one gift as I normally spend on three or four, I decided I must get another small gift for Mandy so there’s more under the tree for her. It’s just a bunch of small stocking stuffers, but I feel better that there’s at least one more thing for her under the tree.

I know, that’s ridiculous. Even I know I’m being stupid. I’m in a similar situation with my sister right now. Next year when we got to Disney, I have a big surprise for her that was going to just be her birthday gift. However, upon further research, I’ve realized it’s a bit more expensive than I thought, so I told her she’s not getting much for Christmas either. She was totally fine with this and insisted I still keep the present a surprise and not tell her at Christmas.

Well, I’ve kind of followed through on this. Did I get her as much as I normally do? No, but I still got her more than I probably should have. Me not getting her much as turned into still three full gifts, along with another stocking stuffer. Oops.

This is wonderful, aside from the whole overconsumption thing, because giving gifts is truly one of my favorite things. I pride myself in being a pretty good gift giver, something others have confirmed - not because I give a lot, but because I think probably way too hard about what to get them.

Unfortunately, that also means that this is the first month this year I’ve gone over my budget... and by quite a bit. I guess it’s a good thing I’ve been good the rest of the year!

My family as a whole is trying to do a little less in the future, more focus on family time than gifts, but I do find that hard simply because it brings me so much joy to see someone excited about what I got them. I’ve never done the love languages test, but I assume mine is gift giving.

Whether you give physical presents, time or simply your own presence, I hope the holiday season is wonderful to you. Merry Christmas!