Holiday thoughts 2014
- By : Nat
- Category : Administrative
I do roughly this same message every year, so let me start with the too-long-didn’t-read version, and then we can get into the subsections:
- Gifts are good, but they’re rarely important, nor the best way to show that you care.
- Gifts of charitable donations are a very good form of gifts.
- Supporting local stores is a good thing.
- Ordering from Amazon can be very handy, particularly for gifts that are not going to your house..
- If you’re going to order from Amazon, getting there by clicking on an AAUGH.com link helps support the things I’m doing.
- Have happy holidays.
Gifts are good, but…
Gifts are good, they’re cool, they’re fun to give when you get them right, and as much as you aren’t allowed to admit, they’re fun to get when somebody gets them right. But they are rarely important. People know you care about them without you getting them a gift. Don’t skip gifts for the kids if you can avoid it, but don’t stress yourself emotionally or financially. With my siblings, if I see something that I think they’ll really like, I’m glad to buy it for them, and if it’s near a gift-giving holiday, will give it to them on that basis… but if there’s nothing special, no gift is fine. If the goal is to show someone you care, there are far better ways; give them your time, your attention, your forgiveness.
Give to people by giving to others
One great style of gift is to actually not to give the person anything but a notice that you gave to someone else. Tell them you gave money to their local food bank, because that helps them by improving the community in which they live. Tell them you gave money for an issue they care about. Tell them that you donated money to the fight to cure whatever killed a loved one of theirs. (And don’t just tell them you did these things, actually do them!) For some, particularly teens, a gift certificate from charitygiftcertificates.org might be a good choice – it lets the recipient pick what charity gets a donation, and for many it might introduce them to the practice of charitable giving.
Support your local shops
Err toward buying things locally, when they’re available. Sure, you may be comfortable just staying at home and ordering some item online, because you don’t need it right away… but buying things when you can at your local store helps make sure that the store will be there when you need to get something right away.
Buying from Amazon is handy
Amazon has a great depth. They have on hand far more books than any local shop can carry. They have a wide range of items that yu might not be able to find at a shop within any practical distance of your home. But there’s one time that I find ordering from Amazon particularly appealing, and that’s when the gift needs to be somewhere besides my home. Getting a DVD for my brother? Amazon can get it to him without me having to hit the lines at the post office. Some Christmases we spend at my in-laws half a nation away, and even though we are getting ourselves there, having the gifts sent out there means that much less that we’re carting onto the plane. And they know how to pack things for shipment a lot better than I do. (It does mean that we have to wrap things once we get there.)
If you’re going to shop at Amazon anyway…
To start your Amazon shopping experience, could you do me the favor of coming to AAUGH.com and clicking on any of the links in the store, or almost any of the book links in the blog. You’ll get the same prices as you would if you got onto Amazon any other way, but there’s one big difference: I get a small cut of the money you spend during that session, even if you don’t order the thing that you clicked on. That money isn’t huge, even added up over the course of the year, but it does much to cover the costs of running the website and blog, of ordering obscure Peanuts books and other items to cover and review and justifies some of the time I spend on this whole craziness.
Have happy holidays
Whatever holidays you are or aren’t celebrating this year, may your time between now and the end of the holiday season be filled with joy, comfort, hope, and satisfaction. And if you watch the calendar closely enough, it’s always a holiday! So whether you’re celebrating today as Pins & Needles Day, as part of World Vegan Month, or simply as Black Friday Eve, may it and every holiday to come be a wonderful one.
