It is beginning to feel a little more holiday-like around our house. We experienced the first real snow of the year this past Saturday, our city held its local Christmas parade and I had the pleasure of accompanying my eldest daughter to a local performance of the Nutcracker.

I made a huge dent in my shopping this weekend too, spending hours agonizing over gifts that hopefully will be appreciated but, honestly, are just as likely to be disappointing in some regard to the recipients. For me, shopping is kind of a fun end in itself. I like to see what is out there for sale, imagine how I or someone on my gift list would use a particular object, and delight in a good bargain. My husband is the polar opposite. He shops with a mission and a list. In and out in five minutes is perfect for him (unless it is the Apple store, the Lego store, or a good bookstore). We have learned to compromise on our shopping expeditions. We try to pick shopping destinations where there is a good “hang-out” spot for him to read or surf the web while I am let loose in a store with my girls.

Holiday shopping is stressful for many people. For some, the financial stress of trying to purchase things for others when one is having difficulty meeting one’s own basic needs is unwanted. For most, the stress of realizing that you don’t know your friends or relatives well enough to select a good gift is the biggest problem. As I was thinking about all these issues, I was reminded of a book I heard mentioned a few years back and decided to give it a read.

Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben is a quick, non-stressful 92 page read about the history of Christmas and suggestions for how to change the current celebration of Christmas based on ideas popular in the 1840’s to better fit the needs of modern day life.

“I have no ready-made set of directions for how to have a “proper” simple holiday, only the notion . . . that setting a limit on how much you spend may help. . . The goal, however, is . . . to have as much fun as possible.”

–Bill McKibben, Hundred Dollar Holiday

There are three sections to the book. The first is a fascinating, quick history of Christmas, from Saturnalia to the commercial shopping extravaganza of the present. The second section examines how our needs as people have changed since the 1840’s and why the traditions of the 1840’s don’t address those needs. The last section provides some brief examples of alternative or handmade gift-giving and celebration strategies.

While the book is obviously religiously oriented, the religious themes are relatively subtle. The book is not so jam-packed with Christianity that someone from a different religious tradition or an atheist cannot appreciate its insight. Mr. McKibben packs an impressive amount of research into the book and he weaves interesting tidbits of history, environmentalism and economics into his discussion.

The book itself makes a great gift. I purchased my copy used and I believe I have the first printing edition of the book, which comes with a beautiful brown paper dustjacket with gold leaf accents. The Acknowledgements note that the covers for the first printing were made “on a century-old hand-fed press that has been converted to use solar power . . . each copy is, in some sense, an original piece of handwork.”

Some of my favorite quotes from the book are:

“[T]he point is not to stop giving; the point is to give things that matter.”

“A hundred dollars spent on soup for hungry people goes into the economy as surely as a hundred dollars spent on Sport Utility Vehicle Barbie.”

“Since we live with relative abandon year-round, it’s no wonder that the abandon of Christmas doesn’t excite us . . . We are- in nearly every sense of the word-stuffed. Saturated. Trying to cram in a little more on December 25 seems kind of pointless.”

“[T]ime is in many ways our most valued commodity . . . . Our strategy with Christmas, then, has gone slightly awry. We’ve gotten used to spending more money to make it special. But if money’s no longer as valuable as time, we’re offering each other a devalued currency.”

If you need some other more recent voices in support of the “less is more” Christmas, check out the following websites:

• Adbuster’s “Buy Nothing Christmas” campaign
• Amazon.com page for Joel Waldfogel’s new book “Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays.”
• Reverend Billy and The Church of Life After Shopping. You can watch the trailer for his “What Would Jesus Buy?” documentary below:

I like the concept of Hundred Dollar Holiday and I think that this year in particular with all of the bargain sales abounding, you can easily give great gifts for not much money, whether handmade or store bought.  Unfortunately, the shopping train left the station months ago in our families and going back now and asking for a $100 total limit is not going to happen. It might be a good challenge for next year, though. We’ll have to take a poll this year and see.

I hope that Hundred Dollar Holiday challenges your holiday thinking a bit whether you support the concept or not. You can easily apply the concept yourself when visiting your favorite blogs. A comment costs you nothing but time and is a treasured present indeed.  😉

WIshing you a great week!