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IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE writing about gifts when the perfect essay on the topic already exists. I can’t improve on Emerson’s sentiment that expensive but impersonal presents are not gifts but “apologies for gifts” or that the true gift is “a portion of thyself.”
Still, I’m dismayed by the reaction to news that supply chain woes may negatively affect gift availability this holiday season. Naturally, retailers are worried. Some media outlets are reporting the lack of toys and other gifts in apocalyptic fashion, as though the absence of gifts could spoil, ruin or even completely derail the holiday celebrations.
Consumerism is nothing new when it comes to holidays. But it seems that many now feel that gifts are the most important element of the holidays and perhaps the sole reason we come together. It’s as if many folks imagine the holidays were first created for gift exchange, rather than a commemoration from which gift-giving then evolved.
For all of us, there’s one gift that’s always available to give: expressing appreciation for family and friends. For many of us, we already have the good fortune to possess the greatest of material goods: enough. That’s a crucial notion to keep in mind, especially if we celebrate the holidays with children, who will eagerly consume the values being served.
To that end, please allow me—ironically, of course—to suggest one more item for your shopping list: A book that would make a great gift this season. Enough Stuff is about a village that every year goes on a crazed shopping spree—until a visitor tells them that they can’t seem to get enough. Unfamiliar with the word or idea, the villagers go on a mad frenzy to find and get enough, whatever it is. The story is an early reader book for ages six to 10. It’s filled with wordplay that, I like to think, makes it a fun family read.
Yes, I’m the author. But let me assure you: I’m making nothing on this. All proceeds from 2021’s sales will go to an organization here in Dallas focused on refugee assistance and relief—in other words, helping those who don’t have enough.
No toys for the kids this Christmas? Don’t you love them anymore?The gift I would really like is all the hype-media chin-tuggers locked in one of those ocean containers spending the next few months bobbing offshore LA harbor unable to reach land.
Looks like a good gift idea for a few grandchildren.