Simplify the Holidays

Rather than making a typical wish list of items to receive this holiday, why not create a list of gifts you want to give to your family and friends? We've made it easy for you to create your own "GiveList" on SoKind, our alternative gift registry!

New Dream Youth Fellow Sarah Allison shares her experience and faith-based values around keeping the Christmas holiday focused on transformation and healing.

New Dreamer Moira Silva shares the experience of creating a truly meaningful gift for her family: the gift of interviewing her great aunt.

New Dream Youth Fellow Isaiah Johnson details the true costs of holiday consumerism and outlines five things you can do to avoid its traps.

If you want to make this year’s holidays more meaningful, memorable, and rejuvenating for your family, these 15 tips will help you opt out of the commercial hype and create a truly special celebration for your kids. 

Simplify the Holidays offers practical tips for having a holiday with more joy and less stuff. The booklet contains guidance to help you set a budget, relieve stress, come up with new gift ideas, and make your holiday season more meaningful.

We've created a set of pre-packaged slides that you can use to make presentations in your community. This comprehensive slideshow offers tips and ideas for celebrating the year-end holidays in a less-stressful, more meaningful, and simpler way.

An alternative gift catalog for those who want to wrap their holidays in more of what matters—meaning, connection, and joy—and less of what doesn’t (stuff, stress, and waste). Categories include gifts for kids, spouses/partners, parents/grandparents, young adults, new parents, and the whole family.

SoKind allows you to create fully customizable wish lists focused less on "stuff" and more on family, fun, and friends. Or, create a GiveList—rather than requesting gifts, you can offer loved ones meaningful gifts that align with your values and skills!

Give gifts of time, experience, and memories—not more stuff! New Dream's Printable Coupon Book is an easy-to-use template that you can print out, customize, and give to family and friends of all ages.

Looking for a friendly way to express your desire to simplify the holidays? Share this video with your loved ones to kickstart a conversation that doesn't leave you feeling like the Grinch.  

Our online six-week calendar provides practical tips, interactive quizzes, real stories, and personal inspiration to help you simplify the holidays.

We asked our readers for their ideas for simplifying the holidays, and the response was overwhelming! Here are some of our favorite tips.

Alternative Gift Fairs are a way to promote the gift-giving tradition of the holiday season without the wastefulness and commercialization of conventional shopping. Our resources include a step-by-step guide (including a timeline) to hosting a meaningful event that celebrates your values and supports important charities this holiday season.

Our newest guide provides inspiration and practical tips for you to plan special celebrations that reduce waste and expense, emphasize meaning over material goods, and strengthen relationships. With specific sections on: The Year-End Holidays, Birthday Parties, Baby Showers, and Community-Building Celebrations.

Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben discusses the "Hundred Dollar Holiday" program he started through local churches in the late-1990s, and why we need to reclaim the true joy of Christmas in our lives.