Christmas commercials.
Not all of them. There are some really great ones out there that warm my heart and give me the fuzzies. But there is one particularly this year that drive me nuts.
I think its for Kay jewellers. You know the 'every kiss begins with kay' company? Well they have one this year and the wife pins an ad for a very expensive bracelet (like $1200) on the fridge as a "hint" for her husband. When the husband comes upon it, he simply laughs and says,"Gotta love a woman who knows what she wants!"
SERIOUSLY? Are there really people out there asking for $1200 Christmas presents? And are there people actually buying them? Maybe I was just brought up very differently then alot of people, but I didn't think that was normal. My family does gifts, but on a budget. A budget that no where nears $1200 for one person. Some of the things advertised on tv as 'Christmas' gifts just seem so unbelievably excessive to me.
Its fun to give and to recieve. And its fun to buy someone something theyve wanted for a while and wouldnt normally buy themselves. But for some reason I think the word Christmas sends people into a buying frenzy and causes them to forget reality. Thats not what Christmas means. Break it down people. The first part of the word: Christ. The whole reason for this holiday.
In all our Christmas excitment lets not forget the real reason for the season.
Well put, Carolyn. Haven't seen the commercial you mentioned, but lets hope that this season, the majority aren't drawn into the net of extravagant consumerism!
ReplyDeleteFuture Shop has a commercial out right now where a wife is being praised by her husband and his friends because she got her husband a new iPad and big 50" plasma TV screen (among other things). The commercial is cute, but seriously? A 50" TV screen is probably around $1000, an iPad is $500 (minimum)... There's another commercial out there advertising iPads as a Christmas present along with computers and surround sound systems.
ReplyDeleteBack when we were kids (me and Carolyn), our family didn't make much money so we had a limit of around $100 each. No more than $100 for my presents from my parents. No more than $100 for Carolyn's present from parents. Then when me and Carolyn started making money, we bought $10 to $25 gifts for each person. The idea was not to go into massive debt. If we couldn't afford it then we didn't get it. We wouldn't have ever dreamed of asking for an iPad, TV or Playstation 3 for Christmas. We still don't.
Matthew's going through a bit of jealousy phase at the moment hearing about all these presents some kids are asking for and things they get for free out of the blue simply because they want them. In our house, we had to earn such things ourselves. You want that game or CD? You save up your allowance, do extra chores for more money, and buy it yourself, unless it's your birthday or Christmas.
I think growing up this way has meant that we're a lot more careful with our money. A lot more aware of how valuable it really is and a lot more aware of what it means to go into debt. In our house, debt is a dirty word. You have to be very secure in how you're going to pay a debt off before jumping into it. Such an attitude makes you spend money much more wisely, I think.
Yep. Our Christmas gifts usually consist of books, movies and CDs haha.
ReplyDelete