Holidays are a great time of year to practice your fake smile and insincere thank-you note writing skills. They’re also a great time to buy useless junk for people you don’t really know all that well and to receive a bunch of useless junk from other people you don’t really know all that well.
Holidays, and Christmas in particular, come with some seriously crazed consumerism. I will be the first to admit that crazed consumerism is boatloads of fun; it can be wildly entertaining to buy stuff for other people that you would never buy for yourself. And it’s always satisfying to get loved ones something they really wanted. That’s holiday gift giving at its best.
However, not all gift exchanges are so satisfying. Many are really quite pointless and result in money spent on something that will stay in the box until you donate it to the Salvation Army because you never could figure out what its intended purpose was in the first place. Either that, or you sneakily regift it at the next birthday or wedding shower.
Christmas is a time of year when we are told to think about others and share what we have. However, if you apply this blanket attitude of selflessness to everyone, and tell them that you are having a selfless Christmas, you will miss out on the good presents. Thus I propose a win-win solution. A little Mother Theresa and a little crazed consumer all rolled into one.
Everyone should narrow their gift-giving circle down to just the people they really, really care for. That way, you won’t need to buy ten random gadgets for people you don’t really know all that well and you won’t end up with a bunch of stuff you’ll never use but will feel really guilty about never using all year long. Furthermore, if everyone reduces the number of people for whom they buy gifts, they can make the gifts they actually do buy a lot more thoughtful. Crazed consumerism is great, but if we just streamlined it a little bit, it could be so much better.
I don’t want to give up presents, but there are some instances when it may be for the best. For example, I would prefer not to own ten calendars. I don’t even use a paper calendar. I also don’t need twelve boxes of chocolates. Seven would surely suffice.
This type of gift-giving seems to be based on obligation rather than a true desire to give the people we care about something they would love. These situations would benefit from a little Mother Theresa attitude. For all those to whom we feel obligated to give a gift and therefore end up buying something useless, like an expensive key chain, we should just make a donation in their name. This way, the obligation list still gets their Christmas presents, you don’t have to spend several hours at Best Buy or the calendar booth in the mall, and you look like a really great person.
In return, you can suggest donations to all of the people that buy you gifts out of obligation. Then, rest assured that you really are a great person while continuing to give and receive great gifts to a select few. And then we will achieve world peace, obviously.
