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Few people, it seems, enjoy the holidays anymore. So many souls seem to go on auto-pilot, pulling out the credit card for gifts that will collect clutter in someone else's home or gifts that have no meaning but sure look impressive to the Jone's. Holiday gatherings are done out of obligation and not cosy tradition. No one has time, they say, to invest in real moments, real giving, and real smiles.

I don't think it takes time, I think it just takes some stepping back, a huge breath, and lots of simple thoughts (after all, if it's truly the thought that counts, shouldn't the thought count?).

For me, this means that to keep my love of the holiday season I only give one of three gifts; the gift of time, food or books.

I'm especially prone to giving the gift of food, particularly cookies as I find it soothing, comforting and fun to make a trip to market, load up on ingredients and bake like a mad woman whilst the Charlie Brown Christmas CD plays in the background. I'm a mess while baking; flour all over myself, bowls all over the counter and fingers covered in mix. But I enjoy the day that I set aside for this because it's something rather fun, as is the end result. (I must confess, if pressed for time I resort to the ready bake sugar cookies but take ten minutes to paint the buggers like a five year old).

Once I bake the cookies (from sugar cookies decorated badly with icing and colouring, my infamous chocolate chips with green and red MnM's added, the perennial favourite Coconut Jam Thumbprints, and any others I can think of adding) I arrange them carefully in a box, tie it with ribbon and deliver. It's one gift I know gets used and people have come to wait for them. Simple, inexpensive and terribly fun to do. It's an event for me and not just a gift for someone else.

As I've said on several occasions, I'm not good at baking but that's so not the point. There's something so comforting and sweet about making something for someone, I think. Yes, the mall might have fabulous gadgets and the latest gear but sometimes I think when we purchase gifts like that we're just going through the motion. There's no meaning behind the gift, no importance. I like to make people feel a little important and them knowing that baking isn't easy for me and that I most likely wasted a lot of ingredients on burned cookies somehow means something.

If I can't bake for someone (they're too far away or I won't see them), then I offer two other things; the gift of time or a fabulous book. I like to search for titles that I think would appeal to someone and generally scour my little local bookstore for something unique. Books, I find, always make good gifts, especially if you package them up nicely and add some tea, candles or bubble bath alongside it.

Despite giving the same kinds of gifts all the time, they've never bored people or myself. It helps me to look forward to the holidays instead of fearing it. It's simple, easy and terribly charming, I think, to do little things instead of plunking down the credit card for reasons unknown.

I would like to add that for me, one of the nicest things is to receive a card that has a little written message in it and not simply someone's signed name. It shows that they took two seconds to think of me and that is just one of the most wonderful feelings. Everyone is so busy but the clock won't expand so we have to figure out how to use what time we have and where it matters. If, perhaps, baking, giving the gift of time or searching for something meaningful eludes you this season, take ten minutes, grab a mocha and sit and write a little note to attach to each gift. That itself, can sometimes can sometimes be the ultimate present.