The Holidays and Gift Giving

by DiDi LeMay

Holiday shopping has begun. In the last few weeks I have started to fret about what to buy my friends and family members for the holidays, how much to spend for each one and how to stay within my budget –or at least try.

I also got caught up with the turmoil of shopping, shopping, and more shopping and started to make lists of gifts to buy. I sometimes worry about forgetting someone, because it has become an obligation to give to everyone. It has become expected.

Buying gifts has become a show of how much love one has for another. The thought of “The more I spend on my loved-ones, the more I love them,” has crept in. Then worries about money creep in: have I spent too much on this person? Or maybe not enough! What if the gift isn’t big enough?

I fuss about my husband, brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces. Will they appreciate their gifts or will they just be piled into a corner in a week or so?

The frenzy of buying, buying, and more buying has crept into the minds of consumers.

I watched a news segment about the Black Friday Sales in the States. It looked like a war zone, frantic people milling about. Pepper spray was used and items were ripped out of other people’s hands. My goodness, has it come to this point? With the frenzy, has humanity forgotten the spirit of giving? 

Has civilization become so shallow that our love for friends and families is measured by the amount of dollars that is spent for them? 

The history of giving gifts goes a long way back. In ancient times, the holidays were celebrated with gift giving as well.  A mother would knit a sweater for her son; a sister would embroider a handkerchief for her brother; a father would whittle a whistle for his son or a doll for his daughter.  Those were gifts from the heart.

In the consumer society that has emerged, monetary value has crept into the true meaning of a celebration that was meant to be heartfelt. Is that something forgotten?  There’s got to be another way!

To find out if there were other ways, and to see how my friends coped with the stress of gift-giving, I asked a few friends about what they were doing for gift-giving this year.

My friends gave me lots of wonderful ideas. One told me they give small gifts that they make. Another friend told me that the family had put a limit to the dollars allowed to be spent on gifts. Yet another friend told me that they had decided to not give each other gifts but have a big family dinner at a nice restaurant so mom didn’t have to cook and clean. My friends actually put some thought into gift giving this year.

I hear more and more that people want to get back to the true sense of giving. There are those who are unhappy with the spending frenzy that came from corporate advertising campaigns. 

These thoughts kept going through my mind. My enthusiasm for shopping was waning. I too want to give gifts from my heart for. I started to enjoy the anticipation of my gifts.

This year, like many others, I am going to look for meaning in my gift-giving. I’m not going to get caught up in the mass marketing of the corporations to come in and buy the biggest, the best, the most expensive gift I can find to show my love and respect for my friends and family. This year, I am going to give meaning to my gifts, even if I have to make them myself!

Happy Holidays!

DiDi LeMay is a children’s book author. She has written “A Winter Solstice Celebration” because of her concerns for nature and the ecosystem and wants to share her concerns with the children. DiDi hopes to inspire the children to take care of the environment. You can visit DiDi’s web-site at www.didilemay.com