Simple Holidays

What is the purpose of the holidays?
Prioritize with that purpose in mind and the holidays will be simpler

Come closer to Christ and celebrate his birth
Come closer to friends and family and celebrate life

Here's some other thoughts.....
This year I'm making gift sacks for our gift wrap (if it works for Santa it can work for us) in my search for ideas I found a site called Living Simply on bella online that has several suggestions on making the holidays more simple, lighter on the wallet and the planet.

Make Earth Friendly Gift Wrap

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art25408.asp

I thought I'd use different colors for different sized bags. You could get cheap solid fabric and then sponge paint it with Christmas themed designs or you can use cookie cutters to paint.

Simple Holidays

http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/7281.asp

I really liked the article about used gifts. Used is great! I'm an especially huge fan of used books.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art25720.asp