I hate gift exchanges. I hate giving and recieving gifts.
I think we can all agree that the day has become to commercialized. Many people go in hock to buy stuff for other people. Just about everyone laments about the money they spent. And for what? Nobody really knows what another person wants, any way.
I have proposed a solution, and my family is starting to come around. It’s simple. We abolish gift exchanges.
Instead, we each use our own money and buy ourselves that one thing that we really want. Then we get together on Christmas Day and show off what we got ourselves.
Think of it. You spend less money. You have less worry. You don’t need to exchange anything. You know it’s your style and it’s gonna fit! Everybody wins!!! Except Wal-mart.
This plan excludes children, of course. They don’t have jobs, so no means to make purchases. Plus,their taste is suspect. So they still get ‘gifts’.
My family has an even better tradition: we only buy gifts for other grownups if we really feel like it. So every year one or two people happen to feel like buying presents for one or two other people, and it’s no big deal.
Of course, we’re all perfectly well-adjusted, so nobody gets his feelings hurt that he didn’t get a Billy Bass…
My folks and I have been doing this for a few years now, since we seem to have the same habit of just buying something if we want it, leaving nothing for anyone to get us for the “Holiday.”
This year, for instance, I’m buying a subwoofer for my surround sound (my old one broke in one of my moves) and handing them the bill. They, meanwhile, are buying a laptop or digital camera and handing me the bill.
I don’t think anyone would be happy with my bill for a European vacation during the holidays.
I once had a boss who had a novel idea for an xmas gift exchange at work. After drawing names, we could only bring a gift that was a recycled thing, say from the garage or attic that we wanted to get rid of. Then we gathered and watched each person open their gift. It was fun & hilarious.
