Thanks and Giving
Posted on December 11, 2007
Filed Under kids, parenting, bitching and moaning, christmas, holiday fun |
This may come off as supremely unthankful. And I’m aware that having too many people intent on buying us useful gifts is a good problem to have, but I’m tired of putting on Christmas. About the 1st of December each year, the phone begins to ring, the e-mails begin to pour in. The extended family is in full panic mode about what to buy this holiday season. And I am expected to come up with thoughtful and appropriate gift ideas for my children and my husband. I am expected to be the hero, to do the thinking, the ordering and often the wrapping for my mother and my mother-in-law and my sister in-law and my aunt in-law and all the great grandparents.
It would seem that everyone has forgotten the spirit of giving. The holidays used to be, at least a little bit, about selecting thoughtful gifts for people you love - not necessarily things these people on your list need, like socks or new winter boots or a mortgage payment. You read a book and think, well, Aunt Ivy would really like that, I think I’ll get it for her. You see a sweater in a faded blue that reminds you of the color of your grand daughter’s eyes and purchase it on the spot. Never mind if Aunt Ivy hates to read or your grand daughter doesn’t need another sweater. It’s the thought that really, really counts. Now more than ever,the whole point of giving at Christmas has been lost in the shuffle of gift certificates and Amazon wish lists. Next year, let’s all just exchange twenty dollar bills, drink some nog and call it day.
Or, better yet, l will dole out the household bills. My Mom will pay the gas and write in on the check in the Memo section, For my grandson on X-mas. My sister in-law will cover cable and write in O and G’s names on that same memo-line. It might as well get totally pointed and practical. It’s just a hair away from it now -joyless and perfunctory.
The only people still doing their own holiday shopping for people in my family are the single males, the unmarried uncles and great uncles, who should, by definition, be the individuals who find it most difficult to buy for my children, having no kids of their own. But it is these packages, selected with no help from me, that O and G find most exciting. On Christmas Eve when they area allowed to choose just one present to open before bed, I guarantee they will select a gift from Uncle Ben or Uncle James, an inexpertly wrapped parcel that represents a thoughtful surprise… one of the few things that is truly given with sincere thoughts of them in mind. The spirit of Christmas can’t be faked. It is transparent. Even to a child.
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