Holiday Spending

back to the original link, put hot wheels in the t4t box, you also help poor suffering mattle

Marjorie Suddard wrote: Wally is probably the closest thing to a renaissance man we have on the board. Back on topic, this thread is very timely for me, because as usual I'm looking at another holiday gift season and wondering how to salvage some meaning and sense from the gift-giving. Any of you have some tips/stories to share of how you transitioned your family from a tradition of receiving to one of giving?

People usually call me something else, especially,when I sing along with the Taylor Swift songs on my ipod. I'll appologize to the rest of the train for my voice, but not for my choice of music.

As far as the gift giving, You probably won't meet much resistance at all. Unless you give the kids notes that their toys went to starving kids in Ethatelopia, in which case they will probably find a wonderful rest home for you later in life. I myself contribute to The Human Fund. It's money for people.

The only time I've seen anything negative was at my brother's wedding. He and his wife are far more conservative than me and very involved with their church. Instead of putting out dopey favors that noone wants to drag home the printed up bookmarks and gave money to children's home they support in India where a friend had gone to work. One relative whined about it because it was "Dishonest as republicans never give money to anyone, certainly not tan people overseas"

Wally wrote: One relative whined about it because it was "Dishonest as republicans never give money to anyone, certainly not tan people overseas"

Wow. People like that make you wish stupidity was painful.

Tim Baxter wrote:

Wally wrote: One relative whined about it because it was "Dishonest as republicans never give money to anyone, certainly not tan people overseas"

Wow. People like that make you wish stupidity was painful.

Indeed- with people like that around (and there are lots), no wonder our political process is broken. grr.

Anyway- back on topic. We adopted two kids off the angel tree at work. Our 3-year-old and one-year-old have everything they could conveivably ever want (and usually wind up playing with an old cardboard box anyway), so we're taking the opportunity to start this year with explaining to the older that Christmas is a holiday where you give to others. We're going to take him on a couple of shopping expeditions for the stuff, and let him help wrap it, etc.

It's fun.

mtn- don't sweat it. It's hard enough taking care of yourself at 18. Your heart's in the right place, and it's not about money anyway. Money makes a good deed portable, but you're giving in person. I challenge you to find anybody who'd find fault in that.

We always get a couple of Angel Tree kids - usually a boy and a girl, so that I can shop for toy cars and my wife can shop for dolls. We also throw a few toys at toys for tots each year.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: I'm asking because I always resolve in early November to send my large extended family cards explaining what contributions I made in their names, but chicken out in mid-December and end up mailing them something useless, like a cheese ball.

I'm gonna disagree with you on this one, at least partially. We had an extended relative do this, and while I certainly didn't need a chotchky from them, and also certianly didn't mind the chotchky money going for a better cause, the sentiment came across as one of self-righteousness. If you would rather donate to your favorite charity, just do it. Send them a nice Christmas card. Done. The two don't have to be connected IMO.

Also - I am offended to the core that you consider a cheese ball to be useless. It may be the best thing ever invented.