Remember when your biggest holiday challenge was coming up with the perfect present for your boyfriend? Well, it was that and picking up a Kris Kringle gift for the guy with the sweater vest in the cubicle by the washroom. THOSE WERE THE DAYS!
Christmas is a whole other ball of wax when you have kids, isn’t it? Suddenly, it’s all about them and everybody else is just an after thought. And the older they get and the more you have, the harder it gets. Colum is five now and every year I look back on the previous year and think,” Oh, that was easy. I wish it could be like that again!” I should have realized that a two-year-old would be happy with a chocolate bar and a tennis ball — that Santa would be just as amazing having spent $20 or less. But I didn’t and now I’m really going to have to spend some money and source some actual, cool gifts to make the holiday magic happen. God knows what I’ll have to do next year. And, of course, I get to multiply that stress times three.
That’s right, triple the stress for my three kids and then add the anxiety of shopping for their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. It starts to get a little ridiculous. And I’m pretty sure ridiculous levels of stress and anxiety aren’t what the holidays are truly supposed to be about. (They’re really about gorging yourself so full of food that you can’t get your Spanx back up after using the toilet, right?) So if there’s any way to make shopping easier, I’m all over it.
I know there are people out there who don’t believe in gift cards, but they’re just wrong. Gift cards are easy, fit any budget and people can use them for something they really want. My favourite are the ones that actually buy you a night out. (Can you tell I have three kids? I can’t even tell you when I last went to see a movie!)
Right now is sweetening the pot even more by throwing in $30 worth of coupons for every $30 in gift cards purchased. You can bundle those discounts at the snack bar and at the door with your gift card or keep them for yourself. Buy an Empire Gift Tin for an extra buck, you won’t even have to worry about wrapping it and that dollar will be donated to the Kids Help Phone. Get your gift cards in theatres until December 24 or online by December 18th.
Disclosure – I am participating in the Empire Theatre Gift Card Holiday Campaign by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation for my participation in this campaign. The opinions on this blog are my own.