529 Having Less This Christmas
I grew up in a third world country – in a jippo-logger’s home in northern Idaho in the 50’s and 60’s. Moving up for us wasn’t a two bathroom home; it was a bathroom in our home instead of an outhouse in back. Having little money to spend on Christmas wasn’t any different than having little money to spend on food, clothing and housing. An inexpensive Christmas was as natural to us as wearing patched, secondhand blue jeans and using old socks as mittens.
Needless to say, I don’t find all of this hullabaloo about people having less money to spend on Christmas this year very disturbing. It’s ridiculous to think that we have to spend lots of money at Christmas in order to have peace and joy. What makes Jimmy Stewart’s “White Christmas” a holiday classic if not that a community came together at Christmas to overcome a grave financial crisis?
I’ve had the honor of visiting with lots of folks facing the immanent end of their life. Not one of them has ever told me they wished they had bought more stuff during their life. Nearly all wished they had spent more time with their loved ones. Those with the least regrets seem to be folks who spent more time with family and friends then money on them.
I loved Christmas when Clothgirl and Clothboy were little. We didn’t have much money in those days but it took little to make them happy. They could have cared less if a toy was new or second hand. I fight back a little guilt when I remember giving them a few used toys; but I fight back tears when I reflect upon the presents they gave me back then.
Of course, their entire Christmas budget would barely buy a McDonald’s Value Meal, so they had to be highly creative. They’d spend hours sifting through their most valuable possessions thinking of which they could give away. They also dreamed up acts of selfless service they could do as a gift.
When she was only ten, Clothgirl gave me a coupon that read, “I will bake you one pie a month for six months.” She spent hours proudly, and deliciously, fulfilling that gift in the months that followed. Clothboy, then six, gave me his prized World War II, P66 Vanguard piggy bank. (See column #362 in my Clothfiles.)
I suppose the greatest example of selfless, low budget giving comes from God himself. The most famous verse in the Bible reads like a Hallmark Christmas card: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). What a present! No wonder we celebrate Christmas around such a selfless gift that required no shopping and no financial transaction.
I see a brilliantly shining silver lining in this terrible economic downturn. Less Christmas money can lead to more selfless acts of love …more creative, thoughtful gifts …more time with one another …more joy.
So, as the popular Christmas carol says, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas.”
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