My Opera
Against Gift Giving
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 2:59:11 PM
I won’t be the first person you’ve heard say that the holiday season sucks. Because it does. Suicide statistics and the smoked salmon inside Dan Akroyd’s Santa costume and the music being piped into the fluorescent-bright aisles of Rite Aids all around the nation at this very moment say it better than words ever could anyway. It’s definitely the least wonderful time of year for a lot of people, full of all sorts of pressure and accounting and reminders of how we’re not doing as well at the job of being a human being as we’d like to be doing. The last thing any of us need is the added stress and extra shopping that this barbaric ritual entails. Let’s give ourselves a break.
-- Dave Bry, Against Gift Giving
I don't go out of my way to watch TV, but even I couldn't help but notice television advertisements this year for (if I recall) American mega-retailers Best Buy and Target that enticed viewers with the possibility of getting an entire season's Christmas shopping done in a single day, on a single trip to a single store. That feat filled the depicted shoppers with satisfaction, glee, and relief. What does it mean that the major beneficiaries of our materialistic ways aren't afraid to acknowledge that many of us secretly dread the traditions that earn them their profits? How trapped do they think we are? Could they be right?
Yesterday I told my wife that if we could just nix the present thing, Christmas would be more like a second Thanksgiving, and we could thoroughly enjoy it again. And to my surprise, she more-or-less agreed with me.
So maybe this is the year to end it, for me at least. I haven't bought any presents this year, and I don't really plan to. I will give a few people some cash. I'm going to bake a lot of cookies. I'm going to try to show people I've been thinking of them without loading them up with stuff they don't really want. (Unless they hate cookies, I guess.) I won't mind a bit if they return the favor.
Pineas2 # Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:37:22 AM
Nigel CliffCaptainPenguin # Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:19:39 AM
Lagged2Death # Thursday, December 22, 2011 12:06:25 PM
Originally posted by Pineas2:
Amazon hasn't worked so well for me, because I tend to put the shopping off, so shipping becomes a big scheduling problem. I think capping the value of the presents is a good idea, I used to do that. But the dollar isn't worth what it used to be.
Originally posted by CaptainPenguin:
Commendable. The point of diminishing returns sets in faster than some of us realize.
My family gathering is just large enough that doing a round-robin type gift drawing system would probably make sense. The problem isn't that any one person goes over the top; the problem is everyone winds up with presents from a dozen people.
I enjoy the time of year, I enjoy the gathering of friends and family and so forth. I just don't seem to enjoy the gift exchanging any more.
hungryghost # Friday, December 23, 2011 7:20:42 PM
Our solution was to go to Oxfam.ca or Heifer.org and give each other sheep, cows or goats. The animals go to a family or village in need, and the recipients get the support to start some small cottage industry (e.g. making wool, dairy products) from the animal for their own needs, and eventually for sale.
Doesn't work so well for kids though....
SmoothP # Saturday, December 24, 2011 1:28:49 AM
We're switching more and more of our giving to charitable things like heifer.org and www.nrdcgreengifts.org, particularly for people for whom we'd normally get a "gift" kind of gift like a smelly candle.
Can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day, walkin' in, not giving each other presents, and walkin' out. My friends, they might think it's a movement...
Lagged2Death # Sunday, December 25, 2011 12:29:45 AM
Not that they're opposed to the charity bit. They're just really attached to the idea of tearing up gift wrap.
Baby steps. That's what it will take.
Unregistered user # Tuesday, December 27, 2011 12:57:09 AM