Last Christmas, with Covid, with restrictions on travel, for a great many of us, it wasn’t possible to get together with family and friends as we normally do, it was different. This Christmas, it may be different again. With rising food and energy prices, mortgage interest rates, some of us may be concerned about money.

How to deal with this? The trick is to stop and think about what matters to you and find a way to celebrate Christmas… in your way. So often we’re influenced by the media’s portrayal of how the perfect Christmas should look, the glamour of it, and when it comes to our personal reality, we can end up feeling disappointed. Not everyone has family events where carols are merrily sung around a piano with a mountain of gifts under the tree.

You might decide on no gifts. Not only does that take away any stress of shopping, of getting the ‘right’ gift, any worries about budget, it reduces waste. It allows you to give quality time, experiences instead….and teaches children that life doesn’t have to be materially-driven and one where we always want more.

The moments, the experience, we share with friends and loved ones can create bonds worth more than any gift.