jaeleslie

I don't read newspapers all that often, but last Sunday I noticed the local paper has already started fattening itself with advertising supplements. Now I like reading catalogs. I watch a fair amount of television. I clip and file coupons. I am horribly susceptible to hypnotism and all those high-tech forms of mesmerization, and try to take notice when they are being practiced on me. And the big pressure to buy buy buy is already on. In Britain the department store Xmas trees were up in late October -- here they wait until after the candy and decoration sales of Halloween are over.

It only took a single morning with the Sunday supplements, though, to come a radical decision. My spouse has been putting up with my candles and angel chimes and presents and lights and menorahs and trees (I am kind of into it, the solstice season) for fifteen years. We've had a kid who would have looked upon it as a hardship to swear off, and has had the usual reflexive American overabundance lavished on him. But he has reached an age of discretion. This year is going to be different. So I proposed it to him, and he went along with it. We are all dissenters from the popular culture to some extent anyway, the Irony Family (where no one is ever really sure what any one else really means).

This year, for once his dad is going to get what he would really like: nothing. We already have everything we want anyway. We are not going to rack our brains for what anyone of us would like for presents. We will not have to quiz each other about it. Mr S went out and bought both of us new computers this year already, and got himself an insulated scubadiving suit when he wanted it last month to stand in freezing cold water all day taking in piers. I am not going to pout if I don't get some more scented soaps. And the boy has a birthday coming up in January -- not that he ever has to do without any CDs or dungeon master guides he gets to hankering for.

This doesn't even mean we have to do without Xmas. We seem to have plenty of it in storage. I have candles left over from last year. I have an assortment of cards on hand, and a lengthy mailing list. I enjoy the chance to mail greetings to people this time of year who any other time of year would say, Wha? haven't heard from her in how long? I have an assortment of cookie recipes to sort through as usual, and won't stop eating, or grocery shopping, or cooking big dinners from scratch. In the attic we have the ornaments, and the Tree In A Box, which we haven't used in years, in favor of real trees, while the kid thought that was essential. So all the important material trappings are ready and waiting.

My plan is that in response to the relentless pressure to take part in the holiday festivities by running up charges on our line of credit, we are not going to buy anything. Maybe not even any candy canes. It is going to be tough, with the economy in such bad shape, people out of work, and the merchants already starting in with the special sales. But we have done our patriotic duty already this year as far as supporting the economy.

It is even traditional: my mom has made it a practice to not celebrate Xmas for years now. She gives out some apologies for not buying presents, and usually goes out to a favorite Italian or Vietnamese restaurant.

They say there's no place like home for the holidays. We're not planning to go anywhere. We have a couple of friends we might drive down and see, that's all.

This is something we can do together, as a family.