Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

Choices

By Jeni Meyers

By Elizabeth Appleyard

eaappleyard@vwc.edu

jlmeyers@vwc.edu

The holidays are here and the time has arrived to start thinking about what to get those special people in your life. If you are like the two of us you unfortunately are tapped out of cash, exhausted from classes, and the last thing you may be thinking about is traveling through crowded malls, dodging crazy moms and their kids, and standing in never-ending lines.

Thank God for the Internet!

Then again, how much can we really trust the Internet with our precious goodies? Is it really a better deal? The expense of delivery fees and relying on the company to deliver it on time: What if it comes late and Tiny Tim doesn’t receive his custom time traveling machine fit with MP3 player, 35” flat screen TV, stainless steel fridge/stove/oven combo?

Whatever shall we do?

Regardless of whether you decide to shop online or brave the stores you are given the choice every year to express just how much you love the people in your life. Unfortunately, the method of expression has diverted from what should be time well spent with family into who spent the most money on their kids and what kid got the best gift this year.

In order to keep your kid in the “popular” crowd, you better make sure that you blow three months’ salary on your Christmas shopping. Forget the fact that you may not be able to pay bills for the next three months. That’s OK because now “Tiny Tim” can travel back in time and steal money from Uncle Scrooge so you can at least eat for the next three months.

Christmas comes around every year, and every year we are slammed with more and more products that we “must have,” but do we really have to have them? What about those home-made gifts you used to give your parents when you were little. You know, the pine cone that looked like a reindeer or the homemade gingerbread houses. Why can’t hard work and a little creativity be more acceptable for holiday gifts instead of what it says on the price tag?

We love the people we shop for, but to accommodate everyone on our Christmas lists some people will have to either be forgotten or receive a gift of lesser value, because it’s not financially feasible to buy for everyone.

So instead of purchasing meaningless gifts why don’t we write a letter or send a card? Something of meaning with a little heart poured into it might just make someone’s year instead of breaking your bank account. We have the choice to tap out our accounts. But we also have the choice to preserve the true meaning of Christmas by expressing our gratitude, not through our pockets, but through our hearts and our minds. Maybe then the holidays wouldn’t be such an expensive and hectic time, but rather a warm, comfortable, relaxing time for people to spend together.