Excerpted from a column by Kevin Huffman in the Washington Post:
As a country, we embarked on an extended holiday shopping season ó buying McMansions on adjustable-rate mortgages, embracing tax cuts with no corresponding spending restraint. Everyone was merry ó until the economy went south. Then we were engulfed with remorse. ….
As I contemplated gift ideas recently, I remembered a Christmas from several years ago. My then-5-year-old niece, the first grandchild, led an extended-family charge through a breathtaking array of gifts, strewing a mountain of paper and boxes in her wake. When it was all over, as I surveyed the damage, I saw my niece off in the corner, surrounded by every gift a child could want. The toys sat idle, and she was happily playing with an empty wrapping-paper tube and an old tennis ball.
It’s down to the wire, and my Christmas list awaits. I have purchased almost nothing, and, sadly, I can’t get away with giving empty wrapping-paper tubes. But in honor of my niece, I hereby resolve to tone down the madness. And to anyone thinking of giving me another sweater: Let’s go with an awkward hug, a Merry Christmas and, truly, a happy new year.