The Christmas spirit
No CommentsIt has been a while since my last post, which was mainly due to a couple of friends visiting me and to a vigorous influenza that got my family all together. This not only kept me from writing on this blog, but incredibly kept me away from the busy Xmas shopping. I have to admit I am not so sorry for that. Going around in the city, trying to find my way through shoppers carrying numerous huge bags is not exactly my idea of a relaxing day. Looking at it as an outsiders can give some interesting thoughts. Why do we buy all of this? Is there a real need for giving or rather a sense of guilt for not spending enough? We have been reading alarming articles on the newspaper about analysts predicting people would not buy as much Christmas gifts this year, due to the financial crisis. Shop owners have been worrying not to be able to sell all their products ( or was it that their sell would not grow as expected compared to last year? ). So we started panicking that the children will not have enough under the tree. I really did not want to save money on the presents to my three years old son. Crisis or not, he is going to get a good Christmas! I took him to the store to play. I often do that, and he knows that that does not mean we are going to buy anything. We go, look around, check here and there, and then back home. I thought I would pay close attention to what he was looking at mostly, to get him a nice present for Christmas. As we have no TV, he is not conditioned by advertisements (yet!), so I consider him a sort of fresh mind, able to choose on his own. Obviously I was not the only parent that had this idea. While at the store my attention was caught by a child, probably 5 or 6 years old, who was closely followed by his parents along the shelves. They kept asking him what was it that he liked, and he wasn’t quite sure what to answer. He kept checking out all the police cars, the fire fighters, the airplane models, pressed by his parents “Isn’t this nice? Look, this makes a sound when you push here!”. He seemed mainly bored. Finally, in what appeared to me more an attempt to stop the torture rather than excitement about the toy, he exclaimed: “this! I want this one”. Pointing to an average size model airplane. The father took the lead. Examined seriously the toy for a few seconds, and said:”but this does not do anything! Why don’t we buy this one instead” pointing to a far more expensive one, that could switch on the light, made noise simulating the reactors, had speakers saying to fasten seat belts and announcing they were ready for departure, and even had a remote control! The son examined closely the option for a while, but it was quite obvious he did not want that. He timidly tried asking again for the cheap simple model. The parents looked at each other rolling eyes up to the sky. The mother then took the bigger, expensive toy, the child did not want, from the shelf. Put it in her sons hands and said:”here. We are going to get you this one.” The child made no protests. We watched them going out buying that airplane.
As for our son, he is getting only one simple present: a small set of play dough we will be delighted to play with together in the long dark Swedish winter. Then, we are taking some extra days of vacation to spend with him in some more meaningful way.
Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!
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