Call for Submissions/ Upcycled Decoration Contest You have two ways to participate in Simplify the Holidays for 2009: Submit a tip or story for our new minimum-waste, maxiumum fun version of Simplify the Holidays! Submit an entry to our Upcycled Decoration Contest for a chance to win a Kleen Kanteen reusable water bottle. Do you have wisdom to share about the holidays? Contact us at newdream@newdream.org.

If you were asked to describe the ideal holiday season, what would you say?

Perhaps you would include the company of loved ones, good food, fun and relaxation… maybe an inch or two of snow. Aiming higher in our holiday daydreams, we might even envision a feeling of tranquility and peace blanketing our homes, our community, the wide world.

Whatever you imagined, contrast it now with the typical mid-December scene at the mall, where countless holiday shoppers weave between traffic, oscillating between oppressed weariness and panic, as they search for non-existent parking spaces and that perfect gift that says “I had no earthly idea what to get you, but chose this particular item because, um, it is shiny and appears to cost what I could reasonably be expected to spend.”

Not so lofty, is it? It seems simple, but the holidays, meant to be a time of peace, reflection, and celebration, too often exhaust rather than uplift us. If you sometimes feel trapped by the shopping, spending, crass displays, and frenzied preparations, you aren’t alone. Our national surveys consistently show that Americans feel put upon by the commercialization of the season and want more of what matters… not just more stuff.