My Holiday Wishlist for 2010

I was watching Good Morning America the other morning (as I do every day before work) and there was an author being interviewed during a segment by the name of Dan Buettner, who has recently written a book called Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way.

Description from the author's website:

In THRIVE, New York Times bestselling author and explorer, Dan Buettner, reports on the surprising findings from his five-year global study on the keys to personal happiness. In addition to sharing his extraordinary accounts of the happiest people on the planet, Buettner examines how their unique lifestyles correlate to their extraordinary well-being. Finally — and most important — Buettner details how to incorporate these powerful characteristics into our daily routine so that we, too, can THRIVE.

This book is not typically something I personally would seek out to read, but I found his interview very interesting and may end up reading the book. During the interview, he made a good point about holiday gift giving, which I am in complete agreement with. They were discussing the different types of gifts that people exchange and Mr. Buettner said that instead of exchanging tangible items, its so much more meaningful and longer lasting to buy an "experience" for those you care about rather than buying items that will merely clutter up your home or life.

You can view the interview below. The part about holiday gift giving starts around 2 min 12 sec.



That being said, what do you prefer to give for gifts? To receive?

My personal feeling is that unless you know for a fact someone wants / needs a specific item, an experience gift is the way to go. That or something to consume, which would still be in the "experience" realm.

Over Thanksgiving, my mother asked me what sweet hubs and I wanted for Christmas and I honestly couldn't think of a single thing that I NEED at the moment. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things I want, but they're just that - THINGS.

So my holiday wish list is short. This is what I have so far:

- A Barnes & Noble Nook - I'd really like a Nook because I'm an avid library user. Living in NYC, I have access to one of the best library systems in the country and my tax dollars have definitely been spent by my utilization of the system. The Nook (as far as I've been able to tell from my research) is one of the few e-readers that work with the library system. I read every day on my way to and from work on the subway, so this would definitely be a well used gift for my purposes.

- Financial contribution to a future vacation - Sweet hubs and I love to travel and we're always looking for our next vacation, which currently we're thinking of attending the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender in April with some friends, so this would be in the experience grouping.

Image courtesy of the Viva Las Vegas website.

Yep, my list has two items. Like I said, short, but sweet. I'm going to give it some more thought, but I sort of like the fact that I don't need anything. It feels very uncomplicated and simple.

What do YOU want to receive this holiday season?