December 16, 2003

• Thanks for this. I know it might seem a little humbuggy to people, but this "cheaper! cheaper! more! more!" world we're making frightens me. It's not just about lower wages overseas. We abuse overseas countries with lax labour laws (or in the case of China's Special Economic Zones, just about no labour laws), and we abuse ourselves. We have no jobs, and we have lots of junk that, thanks to planned obsolescence, isn't worth a tenth of value of what our poor suffering ancestors had. Face it, no one will ever collect our furniture as antiques. There are solutions. I'm not going to suggest that giving Christms gifts is immoral - if it makes you feel good to only donate to charities instead, great, but, for my family, like a lot of poor North Americans, Christmas is just about the only time that we give each other nice things, and that's special. But instead of buying bargains, you can shop for crafts from local galleries, artisans and craft shows - they are often much cheaper than you would think. My mother once found beautiful handblown glass Christmas balls for $5 each, and she had cheap presents for her sisters-in-law. International crafts bought at fair prices are available at places like Ten Thousand Villages. For kids, you can find quality toys made by artisans, books, or even make them a sock monkey. Making gifts isn't a cop-out, in fact, if you have the time, it shows much more thought and caring. I know that I have people for whom I would like to show how I care, and yet, being older and more established than me, there is nothing they really need. But maybe I can make them Christmas cookies that they might not have time to. My mother always makes my grandmother a gingerbread house. She doesn't eat it, she just thinks it is beautiful, and it is.
• I quite agree with jb and would be interested in her thoughts two years later. You might look at the Dickens' A Christmas Carol and judge that not much has changed in the century plus since then. Heck, you might see the original Miracle on 34th Street and conclude the same thing. But I would argue that while the selfish avarice in Carol and thoughtless consumerism in Miracle certainly still exist, the scale of both is dangerously larger due to the increased efficiency with which they can operate, a rather ruthless efficiency at that. Making gifts isn't a cop-out. Now this is rather scary that this is something needing to be said. Though I know I was all agog of some of the Star Wars toys growing up, I also had a toy rifle my dad carved out of wood--and that was right up there on the cool scale. I could go on, but I figure it's better to recommend everymonkey just take some time to sit back and relax apart from the commercialist rush. Oh, and do check out Miracle. It's still quite good.