In the spirit of minimal living, decluttering our lives and living more selflessly, I am gifting a little differently this year. Instead of just gifting things that are pretty or whatnot, I’m deciding to gift items that are a little more personal, like these moon lights, aka Lampe de lune photo personnalisГ©e. If these are things you are also interested in, I’d love to get your plans for gifting this holiday season and to read below and see what you think of mine.

Thank you to Papyrus for partnering with me on this charitable giving project.

I had my entire month of December scheduled – basically every single day until Christmas Eve. I had 8 gift guides to put together, different collaborations and projects, but a few days after Thanksgiving, I started feeling strange. It started feeling forced. I’m not sure if this change is me has been brought about since becoming a parent or moving into a bigger home or what, but I’ve been downsizing and trying to simplify our life…so why am I promoting these gift guides and buying more STUFF?

Don’t get me wrong..I still like “things,” but I really try to focus on quality and not quantity. I’ve been donating clothes, buying second-hand, bringing totes to the mall when I need to shop, and other little changes to try and reduce the trash, the stuff, the footprint. I don’t want a lot of stuff in my house or my life – and I just couldn’t bring myself to make any more gift guides. I made two – one for The Hostess and one for The Techie. There are a couple bloggers who have AWESOME, well-curated gift guides – Merritt Beck of The Style Scribe has great ones and so does Jacey Duprie of Damsel in Dior. If you’re looking for suggestions I would definitely check both of those places.

But since I don’t want to accumulate a bunch of things, I wanted to share with you guys what I am actually planning on gifting this year.

To my family and friends that I love and know well, I am going to be donating my time or money to a cause I know means a lot to them and then telling them about my experience in a card that I will give them. For instance, there is a local organization that helps women find business clothes and practicing interviewing and writing resumes. This is a cause that my mother supports and so I plan on donating both some work clothes and some volunteer time. Afterwards, I will recount my time in a card that I will write to my mom. If I end up donating any money, I will do so in her name and include a receipt that I can add to the card.

When everyone is SO busy these days, spending selfless time is an incredible gift to give someone.

I’ve always loved Papyrus cards – the quality and creativity is unparalleled, and they always seem to stand out amongst all of the other card options. They are currently have a buy one-get one half off sale too, so it’s the perfect time to stock up on cards, stationary and holiday gift-wrapping.

So I apologize for only having two gift guides up this year, but this is more important and I hope that this inspires at least one other person to do the same.

XOXO – Em

Thank you to Papyrus for sending over the beautiful cards and stationary.