A Modest Proposal

This is just me thinking out loud on this one...

On Friday I had the dubious honor of dropping my wife off at her sales job...at five in the morning. Her place of work was already swarming with eager shoppers, and was such a notable event that the television camera crews were already filming it for the evening news. Thus began "Black Friday", the day of frenzied shopping resembling ever so much a school of sharks around fresh meat. Economic sources indicate that this day of mayhem is likely to be matched in sales on "Cyber Monday" (when apparently millions of slackers use their companies' internet connections to purchase Christmas presents) and the last Saturday before Christmas (which is generally when slackers like me - men? - go shopping).

All this leads me to wonder: are people overdoing this Christmas (sorry, Holiday) shopping/giftgiving thing? I wonder because the fact that everyone does it at the same time makes me feel like ultimately it is a meaningless gesture. Everyone gets so many purchased presents from everyone else that they know that I think it's lost all point. I long ago stopped telling people "what I want for Christmas".

Here is my modest proposal: people should get back to enjoying Christmas, or whichever other Solstice-themed religious holiday will stand in. Feast and be merry. If you want to give people presents, give your family and friends gifts in January or February, which is the bleaker, more un-festive part of winter that needs some cheer. And the after-Christmas sales of surplus mean that the shopping will be cheaper. Or you could *gasp* make something special for your loved ones, rather than purchase various goods made in factories in China as a means to symbolize your love and generousity. Of course, some people would be offended that you are not giving them presents specifically ON Christmas, but if so those people obviously aren't that close to you and do not deserve presents anyway.

I would like to put this modest proposal into practice, but something tells me I will give in to the herd mentality, like everyone else.