Challenge Toolkit: Simplify Your Holidays

Below are some inspiration and ideas to help you complete the Community in Action: Simplify Your Holidays challenge.

For additional resources, check out the updated Simplify the Holidays program at the Population and Sustainability Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, guided by the leadership of Kelley Dennings, former New Dream fellow and Advisory Council member.

INSPIRATION: Why Simplify Your Holidays?

For many of us, the holidays seem to exhaust rather than uplift us. We feel trapped by the shopping, spending, and frenzied preparations. This year, why not increase your personal fulfillment and wrap your holidays more in meaning—and less in stuff?

Watch this 5-minute video – and share it with your loved ones to kickstart a conversation

Avoid Consumerism:

Have More Fun and Joy:

Embrace Meaning and Connection:

Keep It Simple for Your Kids:

POLL: New Dream Holiday Poll 2005

Reflecting on the Holidays

IDEAS: Things YOU Can Do to Simplify Your Holidays

Here are some ideas for things you can do to simplify your holidays, in the three areas of our challenge:

INDIVIDUAL Challenge: Create a Holiday WishList and/or GiveList on SoKind
What do you have that you can give (gently loved items, a cooking lesson, an hour of babysitting help a week)? What non-material gift would you really love (museum membership, dance class, help painting a room)? Revolutionize how you give and receive gifts by creating a WishList and GiveList on our “alternative” gift registry, SoKind.

Bring Meaning Back to Gift Giving

Give What Matters—Your Loved Ones Will Appreciate It

Create a Holiday WishList on SoKind:

Create a Holiday GiveList on SoKind:

Browse Our Lists of100s More Fun and Creative Gift Ideas:

GROUP Challenge: Make a Pact with Friends & Family to Give Only Gifts of Experience
Ask your loved ones to join you in skipping the stores (and stress!) this holiday season, and instead agree to give gifts of time and experience. Instead of another scarf, how about giving your best friend a “coupon” for an afternoon of your organizing services? Or give your kids a coupon to stay up an hour past bedtime.

Give "Experiences" to Increase Happiness and Well-Being

Shift Your Gifting Away from "Stuff"

Check Out Some Fun Experiential Gift Ideas

Pledge to Give at Least One Experiential Gift This Holiday Season

Use Tools, Tips, and Technology to Give and Receive Experiential Gifts

Give Customized Coupons to Family and Friends, Using Our FREE Template

Help Your Kids Give Back Through Fun Holiday Service Projects

EXTRA Challenge: Host an Alternative Gift Fair or Holiday Share Faire
Promote the gift-giving tradition of the holiday season while building community—and leave out all the waste and commercialization of conventional shopping. Host an Alternative Gift Fair or Holiday Share Faire to enable your community to give gifts of service or charity, trade secondhand goods, share skills, and more.

Start a Holiday Share Faire:

How We Started a Holiday Share Faire to Build Local Resilience and Create Community

Host an Alternative Gift Fair:

Additional Resources

GUIDE: Simplify the Holidays – practical tips for having a holiday with more joy and less stuff

CALENDAR: Simplify the Holiday – count down to the holidays with more joy and less stress

Top 6 Ways to Simplify and Enjoy Your Holidays

Reader Submissions: How I Simplify the Holidays

Photo Slideshow: How Do You #SimplifyHolidays?

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify: Tips for Avoiding Holiday Stress

Want to Give ONE Holiday Gift That Keeps on Giving?