blue moon (2)

Monday, November 28, 2005

What I Want For Christmas ©

T’is the season
T’is the season to go fucken nuts
This is the time of year that we go out to spend loads of money on things we don’t get to use or play with.
When I was a kid I use to go out and by my parents something for Christmas.
For my father it was usually Old Spice and for my Mother it was usually a scarf, exept that one year when I wrapped up a box of Kotex for my mother.
Stop laughing.
I said I was a kid and had no idea what she used the damn things for at that age.
After that, I was sent out to by a present from the store every time she ran out and by that time I knew what they were for.
Presents have changed over time also.
Let’s look at the evolution of The Present.

In my grandparent’s time, toys were usually made by hand and rarely bought.
There was love put into the carvings and the paintings (First posters) that were put together fro kids and love ones.
Scarves where knitted, dresses made
Pets were goats, calves and dogs.
Father and sons got together and went out to cut a tree.
Mother and daughters would clean house and hang decorations.
It was a family thing.
Christmas dinner was grand and everyone after would hangout together opening gifts and showing others what they got and everyone was happy to get something.
Yes they were happy JUST to get something.
Then everyone sat around the fireplace telling stories of Christmases gone by and having a great time.

When I was a kid we used to get clothes and some toys.
My parents weren’t that well off and we were happy that they got us something at all.
We would get toy robots, ray guns, socks and shirts.
There was the occasional jacket to wear to church with some new loafers.
There was this one time my father went all out to get us something.
He paid a lot of money for it and had locked himself in the living room for hours and we were not allowed to go any where near the room.
We knew he was in there wrapping gifts, so we just played in our room.
He was in there for ever and we ended up going to bed before he finished what he was doing.
In the middle of the night he woke me up and brought me to the room.
He was having a problem with the gift he bought.
I was about 8 at the time.
I walked into the room and spread all over the floor was this huge train set.
You know the ones with all the buildings and the city.
It covered a big part of the room.
My father doesn’t read English as was trying to set it up but failed due to the lack of reading the instructions.
He had me take a crack at it and I couldn’t do it either.
Let’s face it.
It was meant for grown ups.
There had to be 1000 pieces to it.
After about an hour of trying he sent me to bed.
The next day he brought it back and got 2 small sets; One for me and one for my brother which was even better for us because we put both together and sent the trains down the opposite ends of the track and had some GREAT crashes.

As I became a father myself, the toy industry was changing with micro chips and computers and the gifts being craved changed too.
The kids were not asking for dolls and ray guns that made cool lights and noises. No robots or socks were wanted.
Here this is what I bought one Christmas so you can see what I mean.
These are the gifts for 4 kids in 2001.
3 PlayStation systems
6 PlayStation games
1 computer
20 inch TV
8 Barbie dolls
2 Walkmans
Nike running shoes
Clothes, clothes, clothes from stores like the Gap.
Totaling almost $3000

Now, these gifts were bought because this is what the kids put on their wish lists.
Wish lists
Who invented those?
Probably some department store owner
I would think a gift is something that you want to buy for someone as a surprise and would be a memento of the season, something special that you wouldn’t buy at any other time.
Something YOU want to buy someone, NOT what someone else wants you to buy them.
Where is the surprise if they tell you what to buy?
And why wrap them up if they know what they are getting?
I think the spirit of giving has gotten to distorted and commercial and don’t forget a growing cause of stress and anxiety.
Is love measured by how expensive the gift is?
If I give you an orange for Christmas instead of a computer, does it mean I love you less?
As the years go by I have been looking at my Xmas shopping habits and have toned them down to the point where I only buy what I want to give you and if you don’t like it then I guess you can go and buy what you really wanted.
So this year for Christmas everyone is getting a surprise from me.


This is the last call for Christmas cards.
Tomorrow night I am mailing the lot out, so if you want a card from Canada email me at
walkerwalker@sympatico.ca


Walker

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