The nights are shorter, the weather is colder, and the kids are saying “Daddy, its only a few more days to Christmas.” Parents everywhere are beginning to panic about the food, the gifts, and the decorations. There is always so much to consider and so many people to keep happy. But do you ever think what people really want at Christmas?
What do people want?
Christmas, like most other important times of the year, is about connections. Making and keeping those connections. Let’s take a little time to look at the important connections that could make this Christmas one of the best ones for your family and friends. Connecting with loved ones at special times in your life creates the memories that keep people happy during the challenging times. People remember connections.
Travel Connections
If you are travelling for Christmas, you need to make your connections. Missing a connecting flight, train, bus or taxi can be the difference between arriving on time or being late. How do you book and monitor these connections?
In the past you would book in advance through your local travel agency, print off the documents and carry them with you in your document bag, along with your other travel essentials. Spare money, Passports, ID and essential travel items.
Today you book online, you download an app to follow the transport provider and keep abreast of the latest changes to your favoured mode of travel. We all monitor it on our phones and get up to date text message, phone calls or emails saying where we are, when the flight will arrive and how we are doing on our schedule.
Connecting with your children
The best way to connect with your children is simply to give them what they really want. It might be a game console, the latest fashion, but it is more likely to be the latest phone. Children as young as 7 years old want a mobile phone. They see others with one, and they want the same connections with their friends, their family, and their games. Over 50% of children in the UK and USA aged 7 and above have a mobile phone. Over 90% of children aged 11 and above have a mobile phone. Of these how many could live without it for a day? Well, that statistic is too scary to put here. Children are Mobile.
Connecting with Partners
Couples must surprise each other for Christmas. It is beautiful to see the look of joy and surprise on your loved one’s face when you get them the perfect gift, and they were not expecting it. But how do you surprise your partner?
In the past we might have put catalogues in front of them, we might have gone for a walk down the high street and seen which window they stop at for the longest time. Having shared accounts on e-Commerce sites is not quite the same as walking in the cold, hand in hand, down a high street with a Christmas tree at one end and Christmas lights shining and shimmering along the sides. and see what they are looking at.
More Christmas shopping will be done online this year than in any previous year, and it is a constantly growing trend. More than 60% of us will do most of our Christmas shopping online through our phones. What do we need to complete our shopping? Our phones.
Connecting with Parents
What do parents want for Christmas? They probably have enough earrings, books and scarfs. Do they have enough time with their children and grandchildren?
That phone call, video call or message can mean so much to parents that don’t see enough of their children. Just taking some time to speak to your parents, no matter what age you are, could make them happier than any gift voucher or day out at a beauty spa ever could. That connection is priceless.
Connecting with Food and Drink
The Christmas dinner used to start at 6am, with the pealing of sprouts and potatoes, the stuffing of the turkey and the chilling of the wine.
These days we can download new recipes and use our phone as a cookbook, with Gordon Ramsey streamed live via YouTube and Mobile phones into every kitchen shouting at us how to cook the best, and the fastest Christmas dinner.
Finding the perfect wine from expert sommeliers is now just a touch of a button thanks to the connections made in your phone.
Connecting with yourself
This Christmas connect with someone who you have been meaning to speak to all year but never got round to it. Phone calls on special days make those days even more special. There could be people who you have been meaning to talk to but never got round to, or people who you speak to all the time but never say what you mean. Call someone and speak to them can connect you to them and make your day even better.
Christmas is about Connections, and how do people connect. Go on, say it with me…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
…Through phones.
