As publisher of Curating Los Angeles, I receive countless emails promoting events around the southland. Many of the messages at this time of year are holiday related and of those, a significant number extol the virtues of one gift or another offered up by a bevy of local businesses, museums, and schools.

This year my family agreed to limit holiday gift giving to the children in our lives. The adults just want to spend time together and enjoy the season in a less commercial fashion. That decision has greatly reduced the amount of time we’ll all need to spend searching for just the right gifts, as well as save everyone money.