Holiday's Schmoliday's: Guest Blogger Jimnotmike

I've been think a lot about your post concerning the upcoming Holiday Season. I agree (I know...imagine that!) with pretty much all of it. I hate what the Christmas Season has become. I hate that expectations have become so high in terms of gift giving. I hate that people suddenly go crazy in stores over a stuffed animal. I hate that kids who used to be happy with a doll or action figure now require $100 sneakers or a $300 iPod. I hate having to get lists from people of what they want, and simply can't live without.

So I've made a decision. This year I vow to buy nothing as a gift that is packaged or complete in any way, shape, or form. This is going to be my year of the "created" present. I've done bits and pieces of this in the past, but never in it's entirety. No one will receive a gift from me in a blister pack, nothing that I had to fight tooth and nail over in a toy store. I am determined to not even step foot into a mall or shopping center. I'm a creative person with skills. Certainly I can come up with something to satisfy the folks on my gift list. If not, if they aren't satisfied I don't care. The way I see it, giving a gift isn't about satisfying the recipients needs, wants and desires. It's about satisfying my desire to give. If people don't like what I've given, they can smile, say "thank you" and trash it if they want. Heck, they can turn around and regift it if it offends them so much. I believe, and have been given enough sucky presents to know that it is the thought that counts.

I know the first thing everyone is going to say is, "But I have children!" Well, that's great and all...but what message does it send to our youth, and how can one expect the Holiday to ever mean something if we don't start with the children to change it. Otherwise it becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy that the Christmas Season will always be the horribly commercialized piece of crap that it's become.

So, I dare everyone who is reading this to follow me. Throw out the wish lists and the shopping lists. Corral your talents. Find what it is you do well and find a way to turn that into a gift. Food, crafts, chore coupons, I don't know a mother on this planet that wouldn't love to get a chore coupon book to redeem from her children whenever the mood strikes her. I don't know a single person who can't bake, or cook or isn't crafty in some way. (Ok, my friend Scott...but even he has skills of some kind, I'm sure). Your children won't hate you, your relatives won't think less of you, you aren't going to be stoned in the town square. In fact, you might find a few people who are quite envious of what you have managed to accomplish. That is my hope. I hope that if I can do this, if I can pull this off, that more and more people will make the effort. Don't get me wrong, I'm not stupid enough to think that my decision and challenge is going to change the world. All I can hope is that it changes my world...for the better. Or at the very least, for the not so holiday crappy.