Are you all ready for my Holiday ‘musings’?  Well, too bad.  I’m doing it anyway.

The commercialization of the “holidays“ is something that people struggle with.  Well, I guess not everyone, but I definitely do, and that’s kind of tough to admit, given that I own a store that SELLS things.  This admission should not be misinterpreted as me saying ‘don’t shop at Lola & Emily over the holidays’, because that’s OBVIOUSLY not what I’m saying.  By all means, SHOP here during the holidays and all other non-holiday times… because, you know, we are a business.  BUT the point here is that there is a balance, and this time of year is a time of giving back, and so I thought I would share a couple of stories about some relatively ‘small’ things that my friends do, that make me want to do more…

Amanda and I have been involved with making Christmas boxes for women at the Auberge Madeleine (a shelter for women in difficulty) for a few years now.  Our friend Liz and her Mom organize it, and the concept is pretty simple but ultimately really meaningful.  They ask people to put together a personalized box, valued at around $50, (although realistically you could spend a bit more or less) and wrap it up.  The boxes are distributed to individual women at the shelter, giving them their own personal package to open and enjoy.  The holidays are a hard time for a lot of people, for a lot of different reasons, but I imagine that women who find themselves at the Auberge Madeleine, more than most, deserve a little something to brighten up this time of year.

Here’s a pic of the box that I put together. 

Ok… from this pic, it really looks like I just threw in some chocolates… which I obviously did… but other items that I included are gloves, hat, scarf, nail polish, earrings, scented candles, hand cream, eyeliner, a makeup bag, a brush, more chocolate, a scratch and win bingo card, soap, cookies, a little sewing kit, a manicure set, and more chocolate. 

The total cost was about $60.  About a week’s worth of cappucinos, really.  Seems like a really small price to pay to give someone a little something for themselves over the holidays, right?

On a similar note, my friend Jen, who is a teacher at a high school in the Eastern Townships, sent out a simple message on FB to about 30 of her friends.  She works with ‘special needs’ kids at the school.  She has a class that she has grown particularly fond of, and in her FB message, she described that some live in group homes or foster homes or just plain homes that we would never want to see a kid have to live in.  They will not be getting anything for the holidays.  She wanted to do something special for them, because, as she described it “I cannot stress enough that these teenagers (between 15-18), make me laugh and feel welcome everyday, even though they are dealing with things in their lives that we would not wish on our worst enemies”.  She was asking for donations of $5 or $10 so that she could have a pizza party for them, and try and get them each some small token gift.

I think she was surprised by people’s willingness to contribute.  And I think most far exceeded her request for $5.  I know that I gave $50 as did my sister and some of my other friends.  Although, the point is not really how much you give at all… it’s the ‘collective’ thought and effort that makes this type of giving SO successful.   I’m not sure how much money she ended up raising, but she thought she might have enough to get something for each student, and have a kickass pizza party for the kids.  I can’t wait to see what kind of stuff she came up with, because she is nothing if not an incredibly thoughtful gift giver, so I’m sure each of those kids will get something he or she will love and appreciate.  

As it happens, she sent us all a note yesterday, and she said that she had asked the kids to make a list of what they would like for Christmas under the guise of practicing their spelling (which might not be a bad idea for ME, as I just had to google whether it is ‘practising’ or ‘practicing’… and it turns out that it can be either… also as it turns out,  neither of them even looks like a real word to me now… )  Anyhow, at a time when you would expect every teenager to have iPod, xBox, PS3, or something similar at the top of their list, the majority of her kids put “winter clothes” as their number one wish.  I almost cried when I read that….

Anyhow, I just felt like sharing these holiday giving  ideas.  It’s something pretty simple but it’s kind of personal and will hopefully make someone’s holidays better.  Do you guys have any similar ‘giving’ stories?  Is there a reason that we have to limit ‘giving’ to the holiday season?  I don’t think so, right?  I think that we need to develop a Lola & Emily Giving Plan.  And I hope that when we do come up with that, you guys will help us.  Because like the above examples, the ‘collective’ effort really does work.  So, yeah.  Keep giving.  But also keep shopping, because the more you shop, the more we can give.   That’s the circle of life, right there.

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Holidays by Marnie