With Christmas lights, songs and celebrations swirling around us, one theme runs through many of the festivities: the theme of giving; the season of giving.
Yet this year, with the cost of living and business operating costs continuing to rise, the act of giving will, for many, land somewhere between stressful and impossible. So maybe this is where we step in.
Creating sparkle out of dust, that's exactly what we do. Gourmet dinners out of old saucepans and mud, inspiring art out of leaves and shells, whole cities out of cardboard boxes. We’re expert at this. Let's take our creativity and our magic-making and apply it to Christmas giving. Let's work with our families and show them all the ways they can make cards, wrapping, gifts out of their everyday. Ditching the credit for craft, the bills for baking. Let's gift our teams with our time and our words of authentic thanks and recognition. Let's show the children how they can gift in their community. With their voices, singing carols, with their actions, helping others. Let's bring people together and organise toy swaps, clothes swaps, bake-offs. This is what we do so well. Let's give ourselves and each other the real gifts, of understanding, compassion, belief.
Now, of course, our skill at delivering something from nothing doesn't have the most comfortable roots. We truly have been creating Champagne provision out of lemonade funding. That good will has undeniably been exploited by those in power. After all, until it crumbles, there is seemingly no incentive for policy-makers to make meaningful change. So, in the new year, we’ll start again. We’ll find a different way to tackle that challenge, because if it's not different then nothing will be different. But for now, for Christmas, let's use our skills to create and give.
The thought of giving always acts as a reminder to me of the infamous love languages. A theory many of you will have heard of – that there are five different ways that people tend to show their love, and five ways people tend to like to receive love. The key, the theory will tell you, is showing love in the way that specific person wants to receive love. The theory, while initially developed for romantic relationships, has been revisited repeatedly over the years, and has been applied to parenting, friendships and workplaces. That underlining message of showing up for someone, of giving to someone in the way that they want to receive, is a powerful message and perhaps the most useful one that we can weave into our gifting this Christmas.