Dec 26 2008
Kids Are Greedy These Days
Here it is, the day after Christmas and man do I have a mess on my hands! My kids and my granddaughter were here yesterday and the dishes are in the sink to prove it! We really had fun watching my granddaughter opening all of her gifts from us and Santa (This year, “Santa” was courtesy of the employees of the railroad my husband works for-see my previous post regarding this), but I couldn’t help but notice how greedy she seemed. It didn’t seem to matter at all to her what she got, just how fast she could open the packages! Her eyes did get big when she opened the little box with the toy dog in it, she had seen a pink one like it in the toy store a few weeks ago at the mall. The dog barks, walks forward a little then does a back flip. haha… When she saw Santa at the mall, she told him she wants a pink doggy and I knew that this was the dog she was talking about. We searched a couple of stores to find a pink one with no luck, so we got her a fluffy white one with black spots. She loved it, and it didn’t seem to matter that it wasn’t pink.
Is it me or have things changed so much since I was a kid? Getting Christmas gifts was a treat, we didn’t get new things very often because my family was poor. Has Christmas lost it’s magic? Is it all about how many gifts one receives now? I had so much fun as a child anticipating what I would get, but I had just as much fun buying gifts for everyone else, still do. My parents would take us up to the mountains and we would climb oak trees and get mistletoe and then my mom would package it in little plastic bags and we would take it to the post office up the road and sell it to people as they went inside, for 10 cents each bag. This is how I, my sisters and brother made money to buy gifts for each other and for mom, my step dad and grandma and grandpa. It wasn’t much, but it was money worked for so it made it special. Maybe that’s the secret, not having much and having to work to get the money to buy the gifts. It seems that it’s all so expected these days, everyone seems to expect the most expensive, stylish, popular gifts. We didn’t care if we got something cheap from the dime store back then, just that someone thought enough of us to give us a gift. When I look back, the things we gave each other were pretty kitchy but still in our hearts, they were just as good as the expensive things that kids get these days, because they meant so much more. I hope that if the recession that we are in teaches us one thing, it will, if nothing else that we should appreciate the little things. Just a thought.
Sadly, but that’s the same impression I had. Getting all the presents for the Grandchild was the most fun of Christmas. And, even it does not show, we put a lot of thought and love getting the presents. You ‘expect’ the kids will love it and when they don’t it’s very disappointing. That’s maybe one of the reasons we buy a lot of toys so there is a good to get a ‘high’ from it.
Getting presents as a child is also a memory flashback for me. Thinking of all the wonderful Christmas I had - I want that back and I want that for my Grandkids, too. So, besides being selfish and having fun and giving fun, that’s what giving presents is about.
I must say I never returned a gift in my whole life - because inside me, it feels like I would be hurting the person who gave it to me, hoping he put the same thoughts and effort into it.
Now I am happy and thankful for the Christmas I had in my past as a child, hoping everybody had it like I did.
Christmas is wonderful and great and I hope it will never and ever change!
The key word here is expect. Children expect so much these days that when their expectations are not met, they are upset. I see it all the time. No one really sees the true spirit of Christmas anymore.