For years, we have followed the four gift rule - Something they want, something they need, something to play with, something to read. I have heard that it is an old Victorian poem, but I'm not sure if that is true. It makes for a nice story, so that is what I tell people. We also give each kid a stocking and ornament.
This article was posted to a message board I frequent, and although it is slightly left leaning, but a good read. (Emphasis is mine.)
Christmas shopping no excuse for debt
Nicholas Pappas, 11/19/07
It's midnight. Children lie in their beds and dream about their favorite things -- not moonbeams or kitten whiskers, but Xbox 360s, cell phones and Hannah Montana merchandise.
Their mothers don't want to disappoint them. Christmas is a month away. Making sure their children aren't blue is worth going in the red. They put on their helmets and shoulder pads. The gatherers become the hunters.
Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving, is Black Friday. It sounds like a horror movie -- and it could be. Lines of hopeful, desperate mothers wait outside shopping malls and Wal-Marts for the deals of the day. When the doors open, the feeding frenzy begins. It's a modern-day Lord of the Flies.
Kill the pig. Spill its blood. Do you take Discover?
According to a 2006 Consumer Reports survey, 23 percent of Americans will not pay off their holiday debts until March. This amounts to $14.6 billion thrown away on interest alone.
Recent Visa commercials are hilarious and frightening. Buyers move like a machine, spinning in a debt-riddled dance. One blundering idiot pays with cash. This causes a total breakdown and shameful looks.
Visa is making us feel guilty for not going into debt.
No one likes feeling guilty, so we oblige. During the holidays, $63.6 billion will be charged on credit cards. Some might have the money. Most don't. Instead of saving beforehand to wish the family a Merry Christmas, society works in four easy steps: see, want, borrow and buy.
Is this what we've been reduced to? Is love measured in dollar signs? Parents continue to focus on temporary happiness -- a toy that is thrown aside in a month or a video game that is conquered in a week. Girls grow out of their Bratz-doll phase faster than overpriced jewelry and clothing.
Now more than ever, it's time for society to switch its focus. Gas prices will continue to skyrocket and with them the national debt, as old habits die hard.
A recent Gallup poll shows that for the first time in recent history, Americans are more worried about the economy than the war in Iraq.
Politicians aren't doing anything to help the trend. The Republican candidates, in their usual way, are touting the benefit of tax cuts as a solution to all of life's problems. It's the Bush brand of economic policy -- less regulation and trade molded and manipulated by business interests.
The Democrats are no better. With the upcoming election, one of the most important in history, they've stopped talking about war, debt, death and taxes. Debate has amounted to bickering and a front-runner fistfight. Barack Obama and John Edwards have digressed into a Lord of the Flies of their own -- kill Hillary. Spill her blood. Policy and intelligent conversation be damned.
Do your children a favor. After you eat your Thanksgiving turkey, lie back and let the dopamine take effect. Relax. Don't get caught up in Black Fridays. Set a budget, stick to it and put the rest aside in a college fund. The kids might hate you now, but they'll thank you later.
The only power we have left is our checkbook. Put it away and watch corporate America scramble. Sucks to their "asmar" -- and profit margin.
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