My family used to make fun of me because I'd start thinking of Christmas crafts and gifts I wanted to make for people in July. And I'd seriously get started on the tasks.
There were hand-sewn canvas duffel bags and crocheted afghans. There were cakes and cookies. There was a homemade Star Wars landing pad -- fashioned from Styrofoam and spacey-looking film wrap -- for my son's starfighters and Xwings of the day.
It wasn't so much that I wanted to be Martha Stewart; it was that the adults in my house both worked for a newspaper -- a recipe for near-poverty.
In more recent years we've been more blessed, and we've graduated to real gift buying for loved ones. But this year -- due to circumstances beyond our control -- all our days since Thanksgiving have flown by and here we are on the cusp of the big day, empty-handed, save for our gratitude at being alive.
Can we say Amazon gift cards? You bet. But perhaps more importantly we can say, "We love you." And the best gifts are love and friendship -- the stuff that comes from our hearts and minds.
So if you, like us, have last minute gift-giving to attend to, put your hearts and minds to work.
Here's my new crafty idea. Give an experience, one that will create a sweet memory.
Perhaps it will be concert tickets to shows at the Tivoli or Memorial Auditorium. Maybe it's season tickets to the Lookouts. Maybe it's a yoga course. Perhaps it's as simple -- and loving -- as two days of babysitting. Or a drive in the countryside.
It could be as easy as exchanging a few clicks. You click on MasterClass and PayPal, then later your son clicks himself into a computer video class with someone he's recently told you he really admires -- like Carlos Santana or Dr. Jane Goodall or Spike Lee.
There are plenty of local classes and activities, too. Browse the websites of Southern Lit Alliance or Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center, just to name two.
Maybe someone you know loves to garden. Gift her a year's membership in the Tennessee Valley Wild Ones organization, a laid-back group of gardeners whose motto is "Healing the Earth one yard at a time." Or pay your green-thumbed brother's way through four months of classes to become one of the Master Gardeners of Hamilton County.
Does your spouse get misty-eyed every time one of those animal rescue commercials comes on TV? Make a donation in his name and give him the cup or the stuffed animal or whatever it is they're giving away to remind you, and them, that you're helping. Better yet, make it local at Chattanooga's Humane Educational Society or the McKamey Animal Center.
Do you have a history buff on your list? Opportunities abound at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park -- from walks and programs about Native American villages on Moccasin Bend to slavery's underground railroad to local Civil War battles and Reconstruction.
And did we say ancestors? Chattanoogans love genealogy. To find help and ideas, start at the Chattanooga Public Library in the Local History Department on the third floor.
Might your grandkids -- or your granddad -- like some piano or guitar lessons? They're available at big box music stores, but if you're really serious, give UTC's music department a call.
Do you know someone who needs a new light fixture installed or a beat-up door replaced? Spring for a new one and hire a local handyman to do the install. This is a two-fer -- you'll make your favorite aunt happy and give a local worker more grocery money.
Finally, give yourself a gift -- one that will keep on giving. Get involved in your community -- and not just in its volunteerism or recreation. Get involved in its politics. Get involved in moving politicians. Don't get mad, get active.
If you still bought some junk to put under the tree, don't buy wrapping paper. (Did you know Christmas brings an avalanche of consumer waste -- at least a million tons of bows, bags and other holiday trash headed for landfills?) Use old newspapers or brown paper bags. Recycle gift boxes to kill grass where you're planning a new garden bed.
Speaking of the newspaper, it's another super gift. Give an e-subscription that lets your friend or loved one stay up to the minute with an iPad, computer or cellphone.
This gift is good for the environment too, because we aren't printing Monday through Saturday papers anymore -- only a Sunday print edition. Still, the news and more is there every day, electronically. Let's talk about hearts and minds saving some trees and landfill space!
Give and be merry.
Staff file photo / Pam Sohn