Your time is money, too. I urge you to think of this the second you delude yourself into thinking that camping out on the sidewalk in front of Best Buy or wherever for their Black Friday Deals is in any way going to “Make Your Christmas.” It won’t, and I’m absolutely DELIGHTED to tell you why; IT’S NOT ABOUT THE STUFF… and I can prove it.
A couple of years ago, I decided to conduct an impromptu (and probably not very scientific) poll/social experiment in which I asked my three children to name, in 45 seconds, five things they had gotten for Christmas the year before. Not one of them made it past three. Of the three things they recalled, I could immediately tell from the tone of their voice which one of the three was actually THE wish gift. Last year it was the bass guitar (15 year old daughter), the I-Touch (12 year old son), and Rock Band World Tour (7 year old son). The rest of the chaff fell away next to these Holy Grails of holiday haul, and they are all still in heavy use today. My daughter has mastered the base line to Pink Floyd’s “Money.” My older son proudly used the GPS app on his I-Touch to help us find our way to a lacrosse tournament in South Bend , IN
I managed to obtain these things through some creative budgeting, thrifty use of Amex Rewards Points and online canoodling on places like Amazon.com (you’re not generally going to find a better price). I don’t mind telling you that nothing will kill your holiday spirit faster than thinking you have to provide this limitless wonderland of gifts for your children, all the while knowing that you: A: Need that money for something else (like brakes for your car, a down payment for braces for one of your kids, a replacement washing machine for your family of five) or B: Can’t find that cash anyway after the beating you’ve taken in this past year’s economy. I have some advice and I truly hope some of you see the hard earned wisdom in this: Your kids are dreaming of MAYBE two or three things. After that, they just want to open the boxes that those particular items came in, kiss them repeatedly, and go have some pancakes and orange juice. If you don’t believe me, you need to watch the movie “A Christmas Story” and realize the power of just one childhood wish granted.
Have I ever succumbed to the Black Friday nonsense? Yes- ONCE. Last year, Old Navy was offering a FREE Lego Rock Band for XBOX 360, Wii, or Playstation, (retail value a cool 50 bucks). The catch was that you had to be one of the first 15 people in line when they opened their Black Friday doors at 2am.
TWO.
A. (I’ll let that sink in…)
M. (M stands for MY it’s cold out here)
THAT’S EARLY. (Aside: Was this kid REALLY good?)
I made a few Line Buddies (those of us in the Black Friday madness refer to one another as Line Buddies… yeah, I know…)
Had I not been after the whole Rock Band thing, I never would have done this (actually, I was still a little tipsy from dinner and that probably had a bit to do with it, too.) BUT, it was fun for about forty minutes until someone tried to steal someone else’s Black Friday grabs in Old Navy and I sort of soured on the whole thing.
While we are not particularly religious people, my family is definitely very spiritual. For us, the spirit that fills us at the end of the year is the feeling that we managed to get everything we needed, wound up with a bit extra, shared a bit, and indulged a bit with our family, friends, and community. These days, one can hardly ask for much more. I see many, many people with much less.
