1 post tagged “materialism”

I'm really not a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas. I absolutely love Christmas. It's more than the lights and pretty decorations. It's the feeling you get when you've found the perfect gift for someone, the anticipation of seeing the look on someone's face when it gets unwrapped, the satisfaction of knowing you've spread some cheer. And, for the second year, anyway, I'll have the joy of knowing that everything I've bought has been paid for outright, and not on credit. Which only means that January's credit card bill will be a happy one, indeed. (Well, not exactly happy. Happy would be a non-existent balance. But it will be happier.)

So why do I feel like such a Scrooge right now?

I submit the list of one of the needy families my workplace adopted this year:

Kid #1 (20 yrs old):

Best Buy gift card

Bible - travel size approx 5 x 8 - The Message

Sports Authority gift card

American Eagle gift card

 

Kid #2 (17 yrs old):

i Tunes gift card

Boss DD3 Digital Delay Guitar Effects pedal

Boss RC-2 Loop Station Guitar Effects pedal

3 packs of Elixir Polyweb Electric Guitar strings .10 gauge

Fallout 3- Video game for X Box 360

Season 1 of -Chuck- TV series

Season 1 or 2 of -Psych- TV series

Season 4 of - The Office- TV series

Monty Python Flying Circus TV series on DVD

Best Buy Gift Card

 

Kid #3 (14 yrs old):

One year of X-Box live for X-Box 360

The Dark Knight DVD special edition

Hancock DVD special edition

Mercenaries 2 video game for X Box 360

007 Quantum of Solace video game for X Box 360

Planet Hulk - Marvel Graphic Novel

24 - Season 2 TV series

Best Buy gift card

Gamestop gift card

 

Mom:

Blender

Gift Card for clothes - Kohl's - Coldwater Creek - Sears - Walmart

Perfume - Sensational, Green Tea Lotus, or Red Door

Black or brown leather pocketbook

 

Dad:

Christmas tree

Cordless electric drill (Ryobi, Makita, Hitachi, etc)

25 ft pro measuring tape

After shave - Brut

I have serious misgivings about giving anything to this family. I asked about them and got a bit of backstory, namely that the parents used to own and operate a once lucrative CD store, which they recently had to close because it was losing money. The father could only find a job in maintenance (despite the myriad retail management jobs I see posted each week in the employment section) and recently became ill; the mother (who used to help run the business) doesn't work. They've since foreclosed on their house and are living in an apartment, and the parents are getting ready to file for bankruptcy.

So, yeah, things suck right now for them. But it still doesn't make me want to run out and buy something off their list. I'm not spending $50 on kids I know this Christmas, let alone kids I don't know. (Full disclosure: I've spent $44 on The Boy's Christmas presents. That includes his gift from Santa, too.)

The other family's list is very basic: winter clothes for the 3 kids (ages 6 months to 4 years), diapers & formula for the baby, puzzles, board games, basic toys, books, clothes for the mom. It's the kind of list you expect to receive from a family in need. It's not a list that you look at and think, "How is this a family in need?" Half of my coworkers have remarked they don't even have an XBox, let alone need games for it.

I know families who are far needier, families with medical bills that are only manageable because they're fortunate enough to have insurance. I have friends raising kids on single incomes, friends who have foreclosed on their homes and filed for bankruptcy, friends who have to decide which bills to pay and which to let slide, friends who are struggling each month to keep roofs over their heads and food in their bellies. And I have Vox neighbors who are barely making ends meet, neighbors whose words make me want to cry as I look at the wealth surrounding me and offer up prayers of thanks for all that I do have.

These are the people I want to help, people who don't own much but still feel so blessed for what they have, people who aren't wrapped up in the materialism of the season but recognize the gifts they've already been given. But the amazing thing is that the people I want to help are the ones who are too humble to ask for anything - because they, too, know of people far needier than they.

So, I'm not getting anything for the above family this Christmas (I've already purchased Chutes and Ladders for the other family). I will leave their wish list to more sympathetic people in the building and focus my efforts, instead, on surprising the people I know with unexpected niceties. And if that makes me a Scrooge, so be it.

Bah! Humbug!