Show Me the Money...
I watched "The Office" for the first time ever last night. Funny show. In it, the main character...oh, the whats-his-name guy from "The 40-year-old Virgin"...blows a secret Santa party by giving someone a video iPod rather than sticking to the whole $20 spending limit. Totally spoiled the party. Made everyone else feel inadequate compared to the standard he set by turning the whole thing into a competition. But it made for a pretty funny show.
I hate money. I hate needing it. I hate spending it. Sure, I love the stuff money can buy...like...electricity for my house, clothes for my kids, and wonderful bits of technology like a Sony PSP. But I hate money, nonetheless.
I shouldn't complain, I guess. Other than some lingering debt that still hangs on to our lives like the cough that hangs out after the chest cold has passed (though significantly smaller than it was years ago) , we're better off financially than we have been in years. But...
Yes, but...
Take this Christmas-thing. Christmas is becoming a bigger and bigger expense. Stacey and I have to shop now for each other, for TWO kids (now), my brother, her sister, my brother's girlfriend, my parents, and her parents. On top of this, there's the inevitable gift purchases for co-workers and still others I don't want to leave out. Boohoo...
Every year, I understand more and more why many people LOATHE Christmas. The "excess." Granted, we've tried to stick to the same budget no matter how much larger our Christmas gift 'collective' has grown, but it's tough.
I had a cousin years ago request to not have to buy Christmas presents for everyone that year, since he simply couldn't afford to do so. He asked that the whole family kinda play our own version of Secret Santa, and only buy gifts for one or two people of names drawn out of a hat.
I remember his mother (my aunt), got pretty pi$$ed off at that idea. If memory serves, we were all irritated by that. AS IF he was the only one strapped by the holiday expense.
In reality, he really was more strapped than any of us. And he was trying to set a boundary that holiday so that he didn't have to turn a stressful time of year more stressful by piling huge bills on top of everything.
So maybe the rest of my family was inconsiderate. Maybe not - after all, we did accommodate him. But people don't like having tradition altered. In the end, I remember it being a sucky year for gifts 'cause my brother an dI didn't get near as much as we normally did. So much for tradition.
Spoiled, materialistic brats we were, I guess. Not really...my parents didn't raise us that way at all. But still...the materialistic mindset that dominates the holiday in our culture (if not in my familiy) seemed inseparable from our celebration of the birth of Christ.
Maybe that's the problem. All the spendage that seems so necessary...and to risk changing it is to 'spoil' the tradition, even if that tradition keeps people bound to things like debt and shopping stress and even the stress that comes with 'choosing the right gift.'
I dunno. Maybe I'm just blabbling about all this because I spent a large portion of my day shopping for my kids and others online. I spent a lot of money, too.
So maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood.
...
How do I make Christmas a happy time of giving to my kids without indoctrinating them with the materialism of the holiday?
It's something worth thinking about...
I hate money. I hate needing it. I hate spending it. Sure, I love the stuff money can buy...like...electricity for my house, clothes for my kids, and wonderful bits of technology like a Sony PSP. But I hate money, nonetheless.
I shouldn't complain, I guess. Other than some lingering debt that still hangs on to our lives like the cough that hangs out after the chest cold has passed (though significantly smaller than it was years ago) , we're better off financially than we have been in years. But...
Yes, but...
Take this Christmas-thing. Christmas is becoming a bigger and bigger expense. Stacey and I have to shop now for each other, for TWO kids (now), my brother, her sister, my brother's girlfriend, my parents, and her parents. On top of this, there's the inevitable gift purchases for co-workers and still others I don't want to leave out. Boohoo...
Every year, I understand more and more why many people LOATHE Christmas. The "excess." Granted, we've tried to stick to the same budget no matter how much larger our Christmas gift 'collective' has grown, but it's tough.
I had a cousin years ago request to not have to buy Christmas presents for everyone that year, since he simply couldn't afford to do so. He asked that the whole family kinda play our own version of Secret Santa, and only buy gifts for one or two people of names drawn out of a hat.
I remember his mother (my aunt), got pretty pi$$ed off at that idea. If memory serves, we were all irritated by that. AS IF he was the only one strapped by the holiday expense.
In reality, he really was more strapped than any of us. And he was trying to set a boundary that holiday so that he didn't have to turn a stressful time of year more stressful by piling huge bills on top of everything.
So maybe the rest of my family was inconsiderate. Maybe not - after all, we did accommodate him. But people don't like having tradition altered. In the end, I remember it being a sucky year for gifts 'cause my brother an dI didn't get near as much as we normally did. So much for tradition.
Spoiled, materialistic brats we were, I guess. Not really...my parents didn't raise us that way at all. But still...the materialistic mindset that dominates the holiday in our culture (if not in my familiy) seemed inseparable from our celebration of the birth of Christ.
Maybe that's the problem. All the spendage that seems so necessary...and to risk changing it is to 'spoil' the tradition, even if that tradition keeps people bound to things like debt and shopping stress and even the stress that comes with 'choosing the right gift.'
I dunno. Maybe I'm just blabbling about all this because I spent a large portion of my day shopping for my kids and others online. I spent a lot of money, too.
So maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood.
...
How do I make Christmas a happy time of giving to my kids without indoctrinating them with the materialism of the holiday?
It's something worth thinking about...
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home