What can and can’t be bought this Black Friday

This weekend, you’re bound to start receiving a flurry of emails tempting you with discounts as we approach Black Friday. The Christmas ads are out, so we’re also being bombarded with festive imagery, and you might be starting to feel some serious pressure to plan the ‘perfect’ Christmas. 

But before you open a thousand tabs offering deals, can we stop you for a minute? It might be worth taking some time to have a think about what’s motivating you. 

As parents, we all want the best for our children, and when the advertising industry is screaming from every available ad space that the best for your child looks like a tower of beautifully wrapped presents under a lushly decorated tree, with delicious food and drink artfully laid out on dinner party-perfect tables under twinkling fairy lights, normal life can start to feel a bit too, well, normal.  

In reality, your perfect Christmas will be whatever makes it perfect for you. There will be mess, your child might still not want to eat the food you have prepared (but may still happily eat something beige!), and there will still be washing to be done. None of that means Christmas can’t be perfect, but your perfect can’t be bought! 

So instead of chasing the perfect festive celebration via Black Friday deals, why not write down the things that would actually make your Christmas feel good? Then you could write out a list of items that you either need (new gloves?) or would like to give as presents (perhaps a new book, for example).  

This will help separate items you might actually need or want to buy from the feelings you want to have. For example, the Christmassy feeling my children get after a walk in the dark to see houses decorated for Christmas followed by hot chocolates can’t be bought. However, my daughter has outgrown her woollen hat which would make a lovely Christmas gift, so looking for one while there happens to be an offer on means it can go on the list. 

It’s worth remembering that it’s often the simple pleasures that children enjoy the most. Spending time with loved ones really is the best gift we can give them, and is where lasting memories are made. 

So, give yourself permission to think beyond what can be bought when you’re planning this year, safe in the knowledge that maybe what you can’t buy is actually the very best we can give our children.