Black Friday Mania

Some stores here in the Atlanta area were open at midnight on Thanksgiving eve to usher in the holiday shopping frenzy. The evening news showed people already lined up at the doors. I wasn’t one of them.

I know that in this bad economy, people spending money for Christmas is a good thing for the retail businesses. My question is, however, where are people getting the money to spend in these stores? If they are using credit cards, it will probably take them till next year and beau coup interest to pay it off. Then they will undoubtedly start the process all over again. How does this practice figure into a boost in the economy? Broke people are still broke people. By the way, whatever happened to Christmas club accounts at your bank? Remember them? My mother paid into hers religiously every week.

I haven’t shopped or been to a mall during the Christmas buying season in years. I don’t have the money to pay those prices and I refuse to go into debt for a few presents. I prefer to buy things not found in a mall, like a magazine subscription of interest to the recipient. If I go into debt, it’s only for the short haul, and only for one or two special gifts. You can call me a Grinch if you want to, but I think this present-buying frenzy is getting way out of hand.

Whatever happened to home-made and home-crafted Christmas presents anyway? Where are the home-knit sweaters, scarves and mittens? Where have our imaginations gone? We all have special talents we can share with others at this time of year. I have given a gift of my writing on a few occasions when I could offer nothing else. Some people are good seamstresses or cooks. Use those skills for your Christmas giving. I always enjoy getting a gift like this because I know the gift giver made a special effort to make something especially for me.

The Christmas trees we gathered around in the South End always had gaily wrapped presents stacked in piles around it. Everyone was the recipient of special gifts just for them. My sister and I usually got one or two special toys or other things we had asked for; but the rest of the gifts were usually practical things like socks and clothes we needed for the winter. My mother was good at supplying everyone with those essentials. She also had a good memory. If someone mentioned something they wished they had during the course of the year, she would store that information somewhere in the Christmas present file in her brain; and come Christmas Day that person would be surprised to open that gift.

This year I will be doing what shopping I’m going to do online. Maybe I’ll be missing out on all the Christmas cheer and ambience offered at the big malls; but I try to remember what the season is supposed to be about and count my blessings instead. I hope you all don’t go overboard in your spending this year.

(All this being said, please read my Cyber Monday piece from the list on the right.)

I’ll get off my soapbox now and wish you all a safe and happy Christmas season. Thanks for listening.