Christmas Redefined: How I learned to stop buying and love gift-wrapped socks
Letter from the Editor
Matt Dodge
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Perspectives
As I sunk into the couch after a heavy Thanksgiving dinner, my eyelids heavy and unable to concentrate on the one-sided NFL offering, the family elders gathered mischievously over their wine glasses in the kitchen, scheming to end Christmas as I know it.
With the youngest of my cousins now entering high school, the extended family gift-giving regimen had lost the wild-, eyed, wrapping paper tearing frenzy of Christmas pass.
Gone were deafening squeals of glee; these days, it was a polite "thank you", and smile. Maybe it's the guilt of being the oldest of the seven, and still receiving quite a haul, but I worried that if I wasn't the adorable, toy-hungry picture of gratitude, I wasn't doing enough to earn those presents.
So when the new plan was rolled-out, I took it in stride. Pretending to understand the current economic downturn helped me drum up sympathy for aunts and uncles who had to purchase six of everything to work through the Christmas list.
A similar desire to reassess Christmas had been stirring inside me for a while. Well beyond the age of yearning desperately for the year's hot gift, I had - to my own shock and disgust - learned to appreciate the practical.
When a particularly weighty gift under last year's tree turned out to be a pair of jumper cables, I remember a strange new sense of appreciation for something I actually needed.
My friends were not going to want to come over to play with my new Bean boots or car accessories, but they also wouldn't lose pieces, or my interest, like the gizmo's and fads of previous holidays.
The decision seemed to mark an important maturation, both in our age, and way of thinking. For a busy family who rarely can coordinate schedules to arrange gatherings, just seeing each other around the holidays a treat in itself.
This might all seem candy-cane sickly sweet, but not having to spend money to show someone your appreciation is a refreshing change, and one that firmly separates matters of the heart from those of the wallet. Despite what the commercial onslaught between now and late December might lead you to believe, we don't just have to rely on the retailers of the world to express ourselves.
With the youngest of my cousins now entering high school, the extended family gift-giving regimen had lost the wild-, eyed, wrapping paper tearing frenzy of Christmas pass.
Gone were deafening squeals of glee; these days, it was a polite "thank you", and smile. Maybe it's the guilt of being the oldest of the seven, and still receiving quite a haul, but I worried that if I wasn't the adorable, toy-hungry picture of gratitude, I wasn't doing enough to earn those presents.
So when the new plan was rolled-out, I took it in stride. Pretending to understand the current economic downturn helped me drum up sympathy for aunts and uncles who had to purchase six of everything to work through the Christmas list.
A similar desire to reassess Christmas had been stirring inside me for a while. Well beyond the age of yearning desperately for the year's hot gift, I had - to my own shock and disgust - learned to appreciate the practical.
When a particularly weighty gift under last year's tree turned out to be a pair of jumper cables, I remember a strange new sense of appreciation for something I actually needed.
My friends were not going to want to come over to play with my new Bean boots or car accessories, but they also wouldn't lose pieces, or my interest, like the gizmo's and fads of previous holidays.
The decision seemed to mark an important maturation, both in our age, and way of thinking. For a busy family who rarely can coordinate schedules to arrange gatherings, just seeing each other around the holidays a treat in itself.
This might all seem candy-cane sickly sweet, but not having to spend money to show someone your appreciation is a refreshing change, and one that firmly separates matters of the heart from those of the wallet. Despite what the commercial onslaught between now and late December might lead you to believe, we don't just have to rely on the retailers of the world to express ourselves.
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