{"id":1931,"date":"2018-12-21T09:43:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T15:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/?p=1931"},"modified":"2019-05-17T13:05:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T18:05:42","slug":"the-good-will-christmas-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Photo by monicore\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg\" alt=\"christmas gifts photo\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, I gave up on gift giving&#8211;at least the spend-wads-of-money kind of giving. No matter how hard I tried or how much money I spent, I couldn\u2019t find the \u201cperfect\u201d gift for every family member.\u00a0 So one year, I announced to our family that \u201cSanta\u201d was going to keep filling the stockings, and would give everyone some money, but any other gifts would be coming from a thrift store.<\/p>\n<p>Thus began the Floren Good Will Christmas Tradition.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Having a ball<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It has been awesome. All year long I have a ball \u201cfinding\u201d gifts at thrift shops and garage sales. At the holidays, I still fill everyone\u2019s stocking but all (well, most) the wrapped gifts by the stockings are from Good Will. The rule is that if anyone doesn\u2019t want their gift (no hurt feelings) they set it in the middle of the coffee table for someone else to claim. Whatever doesn\u2019t get scarfed up goes back to the thrift store.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a win-win. Each person had some presents to open, and I don\u2019t have to feel like I wasted tons of time and money on gifts people didn\u2019t like and would have to take back anyway.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago the kids added their own touch to our Good Will Christmases. After they all fly into town, they go out together (often to Good Will \ud83d\ude0a) to find stuff to fill <u>my<\/u> stocking. Instead of giving presents to each other, they decided they would each give each other $20 and a card, with the understanding that after Christmas we would all go out shopping together.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know how long this tradition will last, but we have been doing it several years and no one wants to go back! Instead of stressing about gift-giving, we spend a lot more time laughing about mom\u2019s quirky presents and enjoying each other\u2019s company. And singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>What ideas have you found to de-stress Christmas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, I gave up on gift giving&#8211;at least the spend-wads-of-money kind of giving. No matter how hard I tried or how much money I spent, I couldn\u2019t find the \u201cperfect\u201d gift for every family member.\u00a0 So one year, I announced to our family that \u201cSanta\u201d was going to keep filling the stockings, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[467,146],"tags":[310],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-direction","category-time-management","tag-time-management"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas - Belovedlove<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas - Belovedlove\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, I gave up on gift giving&#8211;at least the spend-wads-of-money kind of giving. No matter how hard I tried or how much money I spent, I couldn\u2019t find the \u201cperfect\u201d gift for every family member.\u00a0 So one year, I announced to our family that \u201cSanta\u201d was going to keep filling the stockings, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belovedlove\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/belovedlove.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-21T15:43:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-05-17T18:05:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lydia Floren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lydia Floren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/\",\"name\":\"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas - Belovedlove\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-21T15:43:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-17T18:05:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#\/schema\/person\/1105f11928cd7dac66c63a7376b13fe9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":820},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/\",\"name\":\"Belovedlove\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#\/schema\/person\/1105f11928cd7dac66c63a7376b13fe9\",\"name\":\"Lydia Floren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31ebd28eee6873bf6e78f48ea495570295dd36da3c7c776cbbdfdfc5a17e7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31ebd28eee6873bf6e78f48ea495570295dd36da3c7c776cbbdfdfc5a17e7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lydia Floren\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/belovedlove.org\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/bebelovedlove\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/author\/lydiaflorenclan-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas - Belovedlove","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas - Belovedlove","og_description":"A few years ago, I gave up on gift giving&#8211;at least the spend-wads-of-money kind of giving. No matter how hard I tried or how much money I spent, I couldn\u2019t find the \u201cperfect\u201d gift for every family member.\u00a0 So one year, I announced to our family that \u201cSanta\u201d was going to keep filling the stockings, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/","og_site_name":"Belovedlove","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/belovedlove.org","article_published_time":"2018-12-21T15:43:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-05-17T18:05:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Lydia Floren","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lydia Floren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/","url":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/","name":"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas - Belovedlove","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg","datePublished":"2018-12-21T15:43:32+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-17T18:05:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#\/schema\/person\/1105f11928cd7dac66c63a7376b13fe9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ea3db4062df1033ecd0b470de7444e90fe76e7d11cb5114792f0c4_1280_christmas-gifts.jpg","width":1280,"height":820},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2018\/12\/21\/the-good-will-christmas-tradition\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Good Will Christmas Tradition\u2014De-stressing Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#website","url":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/","name":"Belovedlove","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#\/schema\/person\/1105f11928cd7dac66c63a7376b13fe9","name":"Lydia Floren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31ebd28eee6873bf6e78f48ea495570295dd36da3c7c776cbbdfdfc5a17e7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d31ebd28eee6873bf6e78f48ea495570295dd36da3c7c776cbbdfdfc5a17e7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lydia Floren"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/belovedlove.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/belovedlove.org","https:\/\/x.com\/bebelovedlove"],"url":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/author\/lydiaflorenclan-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1934,"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}