Hopefully, if you are undergoing or recovering from treatment for leukemia or lymphoma, you are not worrying about holiday shopping. Please rest assured that nobody is going to judge you for not buying presents when you are focused on beating cancer! However, you might be feeling in the mood to join “real life” holiday hustle and bustle, or feel that there are “just a few things” to get.
Why to Avoid the Mall
As you have probably already been instructed by your healthcare provider, if you have a suppressed immune system as a result of your blood cancer or the treatment for it, you should be avoiding crowds to prevent getting sick. Shops and malls at this time of the year are packed full of busy shoppers, and many of them trying to push through cold and flu season to get their gifts purchased.
Also, you might be feeling more tired than usual lately and holiday shopping in the mall can often mean distant parking spaces, long line ups, and few places to sit and rejuvenate.
Home- Made Gifts
If you are the crafty type, feeling up to it, and have the time on your hands, home made gifts are always a treasure. What about small needle projects, tree ornaments, or paper crafts? These can be small and portable projects that you may even be able to work on at appointments to get your mind off things. Also, if the pattern is simple and something you can produce in a short period of time, it can be very gratifying to complete.
Here are some suggestions from other About.com sites:
Cyber Shopping
On line shopping may be the best way to go. You can do it from home or anywhere that there is a computer, and companies often do wrapping and ship the package right to the recipient. Easy, easy! On “Cyber Monday” which is the first Monday after “Black Friday” or Thanksgiving weekend, there are often super sales on shopping websites and there is really something for everyone.
Here are some suggestions for online shopping by other About.com guides:
- The Ultimate Guide To Online Shopping
- The Best Shopping Sites and Shopping Search Engines
- Cyber Monday Shopping Tips: How to Get the Best Deals
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is, keep it simple. You may not get cards, shopping, baking, cooking, entertaining, volunteering, and celebrating all done this year- and that is okay. Take it easy on yourself! Maybe you won’t get it all done next year either, so what?
Whatever it is you decide to do this holiday season, keep it simple and easy on yourself. Want to send out cards? Pick a few key people to send them to, and skip the two page newsletter in favor of a short message. Feeling the need to get gifts? Again, pick only a few close loved ones or relatives to gift, and send a simple home made present, or order online. Save the energy that you do have on what is important, spending time with people that you love and getting healthy.
