December And The Trees Are Stripped Bare
4 December, 2007You know how things go in communist countries, don’t you: since we are all equal, it is normal for people to give presents that resemble the ones they have also bought/will buy/could buy for themselves. Another possibility is to give things that are less valuable and too … aesthetically challenged to be really desired by anyone, including the giver. Additionally, people who seem to get more out of life than others deserve smaller and … meaner stuff, with as little sense and sensibility as possible.
The other scenario I have to offer, before I proceed by telling you what this is actually all about, concerns a married couple who both have their birthdays in the second half of December. Can you imagine the smugness of ex-communist outlaws when they pack and send one box of presents to serve as a gift for both birthdays, Christmas and all (St. Nicholas?)? I wonder what it feels like: this sensation of having thus gained a fistful of Euros to be spent at Tchibo or Lidl. Probably priceless.
Yes, your assumption is correct: as a modern down-to-earth woman I prefer to buy my own presents or whisper my wishes to my hubby. And, I don’t care much for presents ever since I can afford the good stuff all by myself. I don’t even want to think about the pathology of giving in our society, since I am sure there is a terribly depressing background to it.
But who I do think and care about a lot, is people who can’t afford to smirk at their relatives’ choice of presents because they aren’t going to get any. Most of all, I am quite disturbed at the thought of all those children around me (yep, I am talking Germany this time) who can’t really decently celebrate the fact that someone says that someone was born, but not conceived in any known earthly way two thousand and some years ago and there was a wandering star to prove it.
So, apart from a new vacuum cleaner and some energy-saving electric bulbs from this year’s birthday list, I think I am going to try to find out how to give a present to a hungry (yes!) German child or two. And since I don’t believe in the motto “Be charitable and talk about it”, this is all you are ever going to read about it…
(navdih za pisanje sem tokrat dobila pri Saši Gerčar)
Bravo!
Actually I didn’t want to write anything more because I don’t know which language I should use here ..especially because I was “navdih”.
Saša: first of all thank you for being navdih. Drugače pa pri meni lahko pod katerim koli postom uporabljaš katerega koli od treh jezikov, ki jih uporabljam sama, ostale pa prosim s prevodom
(ho dimenticato molto Italiano)
I love giving gifts to people. Not necessarily on a birthday, either. There is special satisfaction is finding JUST the right thing to give at JUST the right time
It has nothing to do with the gift’s financial value.
I’d much rather receive something considered inexpensive that shows the person actually thought about the recepient of the gift and about his or her thoughts, feelings…
That said, coming from the tradition of all kids getting basically similar gifts, I detest the current state of affairs where at company events, some kids get a block of chocolate and others a new PC.
Anyway, have fun spreading Xmas spirit… because that’s basically what you write about above………. Cheers!
Right, I thought you would, so do I… Love giving exactly the right thing I mean. I also used to love making presents myself but then I grew up and started thinking some people may not like my hobby gifts… Maybe they did, don’t know
When one really starts thinking things all over one often bans the passion out of them and then it’s all over.
But I was actually writing about getting all the wrong things, above, and most of all getting fed up with one’s own expectations, which have nothing to do with money, either, but much with taste and attentiveness.
Yeah, I guess I’ll do Christmas most of the time, somehow I like it a lot