The Best Things in Life Are Free....

[shanmonster]

When I read the lists of loot people scored for Christmas, I'm astonished at the sheer quantity and price of items received. People are getting expensive computers, games, books, clothing, and jewellery. I can't imagine ever receiving half that much stuff. And when I spend time with my in-laws, I'm equally astonished at how much shopping they do. Their home is filled with Martha Stewart magazines and Martha Stewart-style décor, expensive toys for the granddaughters, brochures for the new car they're planning on buying, and box upon box of candy. f00's mother took me to a gift boutique she habituates. She saw some pretty cardboard gift boxes and was going to buy some, but I told her that dollar stores sell boxes just as nice for much less. Any time I'd pick something up to admire, she'd say, "I'll buy it for you!" I wouldn't let her do it, though. Although I thought the hot chocolate-scented candles were neat, I have no need of them. But she bought a bunch of snowman-motif bibelots and then we left.

My sister is the same way, except that she makes less money. But she's always buying stuff: DVDs, video tapes, computer games, romance books, remote controlled cars, etc.

When I was a little girl, one of my absolute favourite things to do was go shopping with my mother and grandmother. We'd go to the K-Mart and look for sales. A direct quotation from my early years is this: "Mommy! Mommy! I don't know what it is, but it's on sale! Let's get one!"

Now I hate the mall. But while I can look with distaste at the extreme importance placed upon consumerism by friends and family, there's also an undeniable kernel of envy. Why didn't I get a new computer for Christmas? How come I didn't get any of the books on my wish list?

I may never rise above my gimme-gimme roots. Being too poor to buy stuff for myself can make me pretend to be saintlike, though. Heh....

Comments

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Not so long ago, I was barely able to afford the roof over my head (a situation I was well accustomed to, having grown up not exactly well-to-do). The emptiness of my wallet was my protection against the appalling consumerism that has overtaken the holidays. (I use the lower-case "h" because I mean all of them: I think the only federal holiday in the US that has yet to be assimilated by Hallmark is MLK Day. Christmas is naturally the worst in that regard, though.)

Now that I could, theoretically, afford some Christmas extravagance, I still avoid it. Decorating was my largest expense this year (mostly owing to the fact that my ex had all the ornaments and most of the lights!) and I actually felt guilty cashing the $100 check my mother sent me. The only other gift I received was a pair of ornaments for next year's tree, which in my opinion is a fine gift.

I can relate to the touch of envy, though. I'd feel terribly guilty receiving the kind and amount of gifts some of my friends rake in...but I probably wouldn't refuse them! :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Christmas is still quite new to me, as are gift-giving and gift-receiving. I celebrated my first Christmas around 1991, so that makes me the equivalent of a 12-year-old, holidayically speaking. I've still never had a Christmas tree, but I have had one birthday party and two birthday cakes.

Is Veterans' Day a big consumer holiday in the States? The only thing people buy here are poppies from veterans and maybe a poppy cross to place on a cenotaph.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

I don't believe I've ever met someone who's "new" to Christmas (and birthday parties, for that matter). That's interesting. I'm curious how that comes about.

Veterans' Day is a big consumer holiday in the sense that there are countless sales, which mostly serve to jump-start the Christmas season shopping, really.

Columbus Day and Presidents' Day are similar in that regard. Memorial Day and Labor Day serve to get people buying summer and fall wardrobes and outdoorsy stuff.

Basically any day that people aren't working, and where there's no traditional gift-giving, has been turned into an excuse to shop the sales.

It's all a huge scam, I say. But it does keep the economy humming along (usually).

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Holidays are relatively new to me because I grew up in a Jehovah's Witness (JW) household. JWs don't celebrate any holiday* aside from The Memorial, which is a once-a-year occasion similar to Catholic Mass, only no one eats the bread or wine. No gifts are exchanged. The only way this day is at all festive is because all the JWs dress up in their absolute best clothes, although theoretically, they're not supposed to. It's a big yawn, and is led up to by JWs reading (or pretending to read) Scripture pertaining to Jesus' execution and apotheosis.

*Most JWs do celebrate wedding anniversaries, although it's officially looked down upon, somewhat. Celebrating birthdays are considered an act that will make God hate you and the higher-up JWs kick you out of the religion, though.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

It occurred to me after I posted the comment that that might be the reason. The birthdays should have been my first clue.

Pursuant to my other, equally uninformed comments below, then, I presume you left the JW's in 1991? And yet, I still fail to see the connection to giving up TV...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I don't see how she can grow up without the galloping gimmes. This little girl is spoiled rotten, and is already developing quite an attitude. It might be cute at this age, but it will rapidly lose its charm.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see! Yes, I hope she comes out more even-keeled. I think children's television will try to foil your plans, though. Cartoons are little more than advertisements for expensive cheap toys.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Cool! I got rid of my tv in 1991. I would like to have one now, just to watch movies on, because my old computer monitor is dying. I've had that hooked to a VHS for a long time. We don't even get local channels, here, but I have the internet to fill in the time-wasting gap supplied by lack of boob tube.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Oh, and now you've got me very curious: you gave up your TV the same year that you first celebrated Christmas? Is there some connection? It sounds like 1991 was a very eventful year (as it was for me, though for entirely different reasons).

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

It's mostly coincidental. 1991 is when I got my own apartment and was able to completely stop going to the Kingdom Hall. At my parents' place, I had a nice, big colour tv to watch. At my apartment, I had a really shitty b&w tv that was so bad to watch that I just got rid of it. That's all.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Forgive me asking so many questions in rapid-fire manner, without waiting for your answers :) Blame the chocolate-covered nuts in conjunction with my usual Monday excess of caffeine. I'm quite wired and impatient at the moment!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

No problem! I like questions, anyhow.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

I have satellite TV, at $60 for roughly 200 channels. A much better deal per channel, but who has time for that much garbage anyway? I've estimated that my TV viewing costs me roughly $5/hour. But heaven forbid I miss a football game!

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I certainly have a dose of all that that myself. This year we're on a tighter-than-usual-still-not-tight-enough budget. Which helps.

Plus I see us running about house to house on Christmas day. (Our various parents/siblings don't live sufficiently far enough to *require* spearate days, but are not sufficiently friendly or close to plop them all in one house, nor are they sufficiently mellow yet to be good about taking time between visits, but I'm working on it). There's barely time to open things and share meals, then off to the next place, no time to browse each others' books or try the other's art or play in the snow (and this year, we got some five feet falling in the 10 days before Christmas, yargh, doesn't my back know it...). Fewer presents would help (and be healthy for us! *@@#&^&S() storage unit industry...).

Plot: Be even better about a skinny budget next year. (Involves taking more time off work in advance and making odds'n'happy ends.) Utterly refuse to go to multiple relatives on Christmas Day. Celebrate the people, dammit, not the stuff.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Every Christmas, I go to see the inlaws. My family don't celebrate Christmas, so it's a familial obligation to go the the Miramichi and be embroiled in smalltown soap operas for a few days.

Next year, it should be a bit better. We're planning on having a variety show for everyone's enjoyment. I'll dance, one of the cousins will do acrobatics, another will juggle, another will tapdance, and another shall play guitar/accordian. It could be quite fun!

[balthcat.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain I'm firmly ensconced into the big xmas haul category, but shy of ridiculous, of course. I've received Computers, gaming systems, etc. Hundreds of dollars worth of gifts each year. I highly doubt I've ever come through a year without at least $200 in gifts from my parents alone, and that's only one. I'd wager standard is $350+

My mother recently admitted she just learned how much more than most she did for Christmas, referring to a survey showing that Atlantic Canadians (us welfare types) spend more on the holiday than anywhere else in Canada. She read the number they quoted as average and realised she was well over that.

It's something that, once you start, you can't really stop. I mean, you could...but what parent is going to want to go "Sorry, this year Santa's gonna bring less."

I'm kinda surprised I'm still getting PS2s actually. It might be because they're not paying for my groceries anymore.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

what parent is going to want to go "Sorry, this year Santa's gonna bring less."

I think it happens more often than you suspect, and not just with the newly-baptized JW families.

[balthcat.livejournal.com]

For budget reasons you mean? I wasn't so much missing that as referring to those families who remain in a situation to continue providing the bounty. Unless you do mean otherwise.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

There are people who cut back because they are disgusted by consumerism. Have you heard of Buy Nothing Day? I'm willing to bet the AdBusters crowd would be the sort of people who choose to give less at Christmas, and not just out of a need to hoard money.

[balthcat.livejournal.com]

Sure, but they are not really going to ENJOY the change. They will do it because of principles, and will probably worry that their child will notice, or be unhappy.

And you've got to admit that the AdBusters crowd are in the distinct minority.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Of course they're in the minority. But I wouldn't be so sure they don't enjoy the change. I know I enjoy not going to the malls.