Oi! So, today is Friday, and my mind is tossed on the upcoming Holiday season. Being a non-Christmas kind of girl, the gift-giving thing always perplexes me. Also, being a no-money-having girl also impacts my approach to this most delicate topic.
It's not that I don't WANT to give gifts...in fact, quite the contrary is true. However, the way I see it, most of my friends have everything that they NEED. There is nothing I can provide them that they can't provide for themselves. Then again, as CJ pointed out, if someone needs it, it's not really a gift. A gift should be a quiet statement between people that attests to their friendship and private moments.
I am a big, big fan of finding one amazingly unique item and buying it for everyone, kind of like a collector's item. Last year, it was a Yodelling Pickle. I think it's hilarious and would LOVE to get it for a gift. This year, I am considering this for my work friends, these (amonst many Nick and Nora designs that I just LOVE) and this book for my good friends, and maybe a few of these for assorted others. If I try to go out and buy something unique for everyone, I spend too much, make weird leaps in judgement when pressured, like, "Oh, well, Charity is going to school this semester, so let's see...school....school....school....fish travel in schools. What about tuna steaks?" and then, overjoyed at having thought of something so personal, I immediately order and pay for it, and then think, "Um...wait. Did I just buy tuna steaks for my vegetarian best friend? Well done." And the tuna steaks go to someone who a. doesn't deserve that expensive a gift from me and b. has no idea why I would have gotten them tuna steaks when everyone else got inflatable toast. AND I don't have anything for Charity yet. Then there's the issue of this awesome Obama poster from moveon.org, and I can have three of them for an $85 donation, but I have five people that would love it and I absolutely do NOT have that much money to spend on posters. Fathead.com does not make a giant Paul Newman wall stickie, I am not a fan in any way of gift cards (here's some money, essentially, I'm just dictating where you are allowed to spend it), and the exclusive vanilla beans I wanted for a few of my favorite people have been embargoed by the government of Myanmar or something.
Which brings me to the Polar Bears. Surely they need $20 more than any of my friends need more stuff? Surely it's a good and worthy cause...have you seen those horrifying tv ads with the mom and baby floating away on a chunk of icy doom? Good LORD! The polar bears need it. As do the people of Darfur, poor kids right here in Escanaba, the Animal Shelter...can I just give $200 to someone and get a stack of cards? And can everyone just appreciate that as much as they would this?
I propose a holiday season where we all make food for each other as gifts and have wonderful times together, throw all of our gift money into a bowl and then draw charities from another bowl to send it to. And maybe play charades with the nominees. I will entertain a motion to adopt this into policy. Any discussion?
4 comments:
Discussion: I have all the same quirks about gift giving and the holiday(s) and let's not EVEN get into the Christian VS. non-Christian thing because I can do more loops while trying to figure that out than Ms. Fix can in her entire lifetime of knitting. That being said, here is food for thought (literally). Last year I proposed, to my siblings Nick (25), Phil (15), Mike (14), and Emalie (10) that we each pitch in $10 dollars of our own hard earned money and buy food to donate to an organization of the three youngest's picking. They (and my parents) flipped out. They loved the idea. Oh, AND, my parents ended up matching our donation so we had even more money to shop with. We siblings did it as a group. We actually decided to do it between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so as to not bombard anyone with an over abundance (hope-hope) of donations. The kids chose the Spouse Abuse Shelter. The five of us went out together grocery shopping, bagged the goods up ourselves, and drove over to the shelter. It was the absolute coolest thing. When the volunteer opened the door on a black and bitter winter night, we had a half dozen grocery bags sitting on their door step. When she asked if we needed a receipt, we said "Nope." When she asked if we wanted to leave a message who it was from, we said "From the Shields Kids." It was amazing.
Now, why can't we, us, our group, our friends, do something like THAT. Why not? Why not 86 the whole present thing and do something like this? That way, we can leave the gift giving to the way you so eloquently described it in your blog, "a quiet statement between people that attests to their friendship and private moments." And that can happen throughout the year, NOT at a designated time, like "Jesus' Birthday"... or whatever.
:)
That's a cool idea, Steph. I'm totally in on it, but will still probably buy everyone on my list a Sham-WOW and a Bacon Chocolate Bar from Zingerman's.
Well, you know... a little "trinket" never hurt anyone. BTW, Ms. Fix, I have been making you something you've always wanted, so I know you are still getting "that" from me. :)
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