He’s making a list
Checking it twice
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice…
Most families in America, it seems to me, are resigned to celebrating Christmas on December 25… or a similar holiday, on a date close to December 25, such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Jumada al-Akhirah, Boxing Day, Winter Solstice, Festivus, or perhaps National Christmas Movie Marathon Day.
My favorite celebration, as some Daily Post readers might suspect, is Humbug Day, which fell this year on December 21.
From a story by Abha Bhattarai in The Washington Post, December 22:
Americans with annual household incomes of $40,000 to $100,000 say they expect to spend 20 percent less on holiday gifts than they did last year, Gallup data shows, even as average household spending is expected to rise.
Higher-income families, by comparison, plan to spend an all-time high of $1,578 on gifts, a 6 percent increase from last year.
That split is part of a growing divide between higher-income families who are spending big and lower- and middle-income households that are straining to cover basics such as groceries, gas and housing. For many, this holiday season — a time of unbridled spending on nonessentials — has become a tipping point, highlighting just how little they have left over to splurge.
I’ve long felt that the Christmas season is a totally unnecessary and highly-commercialized frenzy of shopping and gift-giving that typically leaves children feeling unsatisfied and confused about our materialistic culture… and typically leaves adults feeling guilty, drained, and deeper in credit card debt.
But feeling as I do about the holidays, I seem to be part of a very small minority. Every year, most children look eagerly forward to Christmas morning (or other gift-giving event?) with fresh expectations, and most adults charge ahead with decorating, cookie-making, shopping, wrapping, and all the other required holiday activities.
On the brighter side, December holidays are also a time for families to gather, assuming we are on speaking terms with each other.
My family has gathered in Pagosa Springs this year. My daughter Lily flew down from Alaska with her five kids; my son Kahlil drove up from Santa Fe with wife Miki and their two kids; and we plan to share our traditional Christmas morning breakfast here at the Loma Street house where I live with daughter Ursala, her husband Chris and their two kids.
And then, we will break out the Christmas Box.
Many years ago — suffering from guilty feelings over my dislike of the whole list-checking, gift-giving frenzy — I decided to initiate my own personal compromise with the commercialization of Christmas.
I set myself some rules. No gift could cost more than $5. I would avoid gifts suitable for a traditional Christmas stocking. ‘Stupid’ and ‘silly’ was preferable, but ‘useful’ was permissible. (Due to inflation, the price limit is now $10.)
When the box was brought out, we took turns choosing one item each, starting the youngest person. Then we went around again, starting from the oldest. If I happened to buy enough items, we’d do a third and maybe a fourth round. So everyone ended up with two or three gifts that they didn’t know they wanted.
The first year, everything I bought fit in a small cardboard box. But over the years, other members of the family began to contribute items, thereby adding to the fun. So the Box became a big plastic tote.
Each year, there are a few items left over that no one wanted. So I include them in the Christmas Box the following year. You never know when something useless and silly will come back in fashion.
Here’s the Box as it looked when I brought it down from the attic last weekend, still containing the “leftovers”.
We typically avoid purchasing items that won’t fit in a suitcase or reusable grocery bag. But the $10 price limit usually takes care of that problem.
I think what I enjoy most about the Christmas Box is: no one is disappointed that they didn’t get what they expected. They didn’t expect anything in the first place, so whatever they end up with is gravy.
A handful of friends will be joining us for the breakfast and the Christmas Box this year, so I think we will have about 20 people partaking.
Here’s how this year’s Christmas Box looked this morning — December 24.
We’re still expecting a few more items to be contributed by other family members.
But no use getting hung up on expectations.