Well, thus ends Christmas 2007. For us it was the Christmas of no gifts and boy, did I learn a lot from doing that. We did not do the 'no gifts' thing by choice (we are just so well and true broke) and, in reality, it is not fair to say -no- gifts. At the end of November we got cold, hard cash from both of our parents as a Christmas gift and that was so kind and generous, but because we needed all of that and much more to move, it felt far distant on Christmas Day. We also got an early Christmas gift at Thanksgiving from Paul's godmother, a cute little Christmas platter. Other than that, though, nothing. What seemed almost the hardest was the tradition that wasn't there...the whole procedure of opening the gifts. We already have few traditions as a couple since this was only our third Christmas together and this eliminated a big one.
It was also plain hard not to get stuff. You have no idea how many times people say to you 'so, what did you get?!' Its hard to answer that with a 'nothing' without sounding either martyr-like or sorry for yourself. I'm pretty sure I managed to sound sorry for myself - cause I was! Isn't that sad? A 35 year old woman with a place to live and a loving husband and enough food to eat and I felt sorry for myself for having no gifts to open!
I learned that I need an attitude adjustment too. I started to begrudge other people and the gifts that they bought for each other. 'Some people have SO much', I would moan, 'why can't they spread a tiny bit of that wealth around?' And then I'd have to remind myself that there are plenty of people in the world who feel the same way about people like me.
I also learned, though, that Paul and I have the right spirit...sometimes, anyway. Both of us found it harder not to -give- gifts to each other, than to -receive- gifts from the other. And I learned, too, that I didn't begrudge the gifts we gave to our families. No matter how poor we are, we managed to give a gift to every single member of our families - 17 people! Many of the gifts were handmade with a lot of care and they were all selected for each person with love and affection and we got them to their various destinations on time. We were proud of ourselves for that.
So, it was rough, I'm not going to lie, and we will hopefully and probably never do it again. But hey, rather than having it forced upon you, why not try it some year? You'll learn a whole lot about yourself.
One last Merry Christmas from me to you, folks. Jesus was born just for you.
2 comments:
Come on! Haven't you read "The Gift of the Magi!?!" It's time to cut off your hair or something!
;)
17 gifts!? SHeesh!
When I am very broke (often), I usually have an "agreement" with family members that only certain ones should expect from and give presents to me. It's basically the very closest relatives - those who raised me and gave birth to me. People are pretty understanding about this.
Also, I found, if you are low on cash, many people are just as happy if you only give gifts to their children and leave them out. Parents are so selfless :)
To be fair, it wasn't 17 gifts - but 17 people. 6/17 were kids and one single adult and 5 couples who got a gift together, so 12 gifts really. Sometime I'll email you, J, about why this gets done...
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