Christmas Present Perspectives

I will warn you right now that I will probably upset someone with this post. I'm not sure how to avoid making someone upset with it. So, if you are easily upset just stop reading now and shoot me an IM or e-mail to talk about it.

All right, now that my friendly service warning is out there, I'll continue.

After Christmas I love to find out what other people got from their friends and family for presents. Sure, the season is about Christ and celebrating his life. But I'd be stupid to think presents didn't come in there as well. And besides, everyone loves to talk about what they got and stories from around the tree.

My friend Amber was one of the first people who I was able to talk to about Christmas. She got everything she hoped for this Christmas, and more. She got to go shopping Monday for some clothes and a purse, and under the tree she received candles, Golden girls and Everybody Loves Raymond DVD sets, books, a calendar and an iPod Shuffle.

Not bad at all if you ask me. It was wonderful to hear her talk about how excited and happy she was.

I couldn't help but think about the teenagers around this area though, and how they would have reacted to those gifts. If you think about it these gifts probably came to about $200. One teenager from our group got a slew of presents which may come to around $600. For this teenager this Christmas "haul" is about average (slightly above maybe) for her, with similar gifts for her birthday.

I know without a doubt that some of our youth would not be very thankful if they received an iPod Shuffle. In fact they'd be upset and it would be on the immediate return list. Why you ask? Because it's not cool enough, something everyone else has. The iPod Nano is "in". Heck, one of my kids was hoping to get an iPod Nano to replace her iPod Mini. $200 to replace a $200 gift they received a year earlier, how insane is that? How crazy is it that some parents find that an acceptable request?

When I think about it I know I would never buy such expensive gifts for Rachel. I'd also insist no one else spend so much on her. There's something to be said for not getting everything on your list.

Where am I going with all this you ask? I'm simply trying to wake us to the realities of the world. In my Northern Virginia area we have such an insane perspective on what's acceptable. There's just so much money flying around everywhere that buying extravagant things is common place.

I even started falling into this trap this season. Before Christmas I was 90% sure I was going to buy a new Buick Rendezvous. This was because I'm kind of unhappy with my Nissan Quest, the doors stick (a design flaw) it doesn't have AWD and the interior feels cheap.

After Christmas I really started thinking about it and realized I don't need to start another huge car payment when so many people are driving cars far worse off than I am. But in an area where Lexus, Mercedes and high end SUV's are the norm it's hard to think it's ok having something that's less than the top of the line. I'll have to stick with Erin's AWD I guess.

We need to watch what our lives are teaching one another. Outside Northern Virginia it's almost unheard of to have your parents spend more than $300 on their kids. Why do we think it's ok here? Why aren't we teaching our kids and one-another that it's better to go without. That we actually will need to learn to compromise in this life?

I look at my friends Amber and Abby and my mom and brother in Iowa. None of them have the same expectations that we seem to have here. They don't have everything they want, but they are mostly content with the lives they have. These are the people I really try to look to when keeping perspective. I thank God for bringing them into my life to keep it real. I only hope I can be a better example to tohers.

Peace,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 9:36 AM