Holiday Wishes meme goin' around

[shalanna]

There's a Holiday Wishes meme going around. Basically, you list your wants/desires and then anyone who reads your journal and is able/willing to fulfill one of those desires contacts you and . . . does that. It's a nice, warm, fuzzy concept. I'm looking forward to hearing that some good things happen. Maybe there'll be someone who needs a . . . something that I have.

What would *I* want? You already know, if you are a regular reader, but unfortunately there are no acquiring editors nor agents who would like to take on an unproven unknown reading this journal, and there's never any guarantee that if you *do* get someone to read the stuff, they're gonna think it's worthy. The standing orders include the family and pets staying healthy, safe, and alive . . . which isn't something you can put on a list, but which makes for extra gratitude at the upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving. I can't think of too much that I want/need in terms of material "gifts."

Still, though, there's something in me that wants something under the tree. Some mysterious boxes . . . a few little trinkets inside, but for the time of anticipation, they're thrilling. Since I was about eight or nine, my family hasn't really given big gifts . . . my in-laws had a gift exchange that broke down after the two of them were gone a few years ago. My husband doesn't really buy gifts. (This year, for our 20th wedding anniversary, he didn't even get me a card; that was a first, however, and I suppose since we did go out to lunch that day, he thought it was copacetic. Sigh.) My mother can't afford gifts. It's not that I *need* anything. This is kind of a toughie to explain except with a parable or metaphor (i. e., the tale of the kid looking under the tree every afternoon to see if he has a package, then going up to his room to hand-make little gifts for everyone he knows, y'know the drill. . . .) I really never got over Santa, I suppose.

Although my homemade/handmade gifts have never been much of a hit since I turned eighteen, I still like them because there's something of the giver invested in them. Now you can only get that at a craft mall, and even then, you don't know the person who made the item. Though you can always pretend. ("Grandma would have made me one of these. My friends would have made these if they'd existed when I was in school.") Remember in "Like Water for Chocolate," when the baker's emotions went into the wedding cake she was baking and made the reception into a nuthouse? It's kind of like that.

But now if I give a handmade card . . . people seem to feel that I was a cheapskate. My mother-in-law actually resorted to writing up a list of things her grandchildren (my niece and nephew) wanted that you could get at a store. Usually computer games, games for those standalone playstation things, etc. Those were what they wanted and expected. Why should Auntie give what she wants them to have? They definitely didn't appreciate my handmade soap or the hand-painted pink wooden stool and shelf I made when they were a couple of years old. The stool and shelf went into the family's next garage sale. They said the soap smelled funny.

When I was in school, I always had at least one and usually two special friends with whom I swapped small gifts. Usually these were handmade, such as a purse sewn out of denim (we used to sew in those ancient times, for the free-trade acts hadn't come into being yet, and store-bought stuff was more expensive) or a knitted scarf/gloves/house-socks set. Or maybe some little piece of art and a gift book or record. Gift books were a biggie with me. Remember those Holly Hobbie books? And the Peanuts hardcover gift books? And various others over the years, "a friend is" and so forth, or little "quiz" books. Yeah, books were always a biggie. My grandmother used to get me books. I especially remember an illustrated Peter Pan one year, but got Bobbsey Twins most years. Nobody gives those little gift-y books any more.

Or mix tapes! Remember mix tapes? Oh, well, maybe you didn't have a boyfriend or a special friend in jr hi/high school who used to record a lineup of songs as a mix tape. You'd probably do it with CDs now. The last time I had someone who'd do something like that was the last year of high school. Last time I did a mix CD, it was for my cousin, who's four years older than I am. She'd just gotten a CD thing in her computer and was busy with MP3 downloads. I decided to rip some tracks from CDs that I have with songs that are "the music of our lives," and made her a CD for her birthday. She unwrapped it and looked at it, confused, then laid it aside. Her hubby stuck it in his computer later on, while we were having cake (he's anti-social then because he doesn't eat sweets) and played each track for a quarter of a second and then ejected it. He was not impressed. I don't know what happened to it then, but she never mentioned it. I don't think it had the effect I (living up here on the pink/orange cloud of reverie) expected. I suppose I'm too old for stuff like that. I dunno . . . I suppose there's a reason I love "Peter Pan" so much.

Gifts are different now. Now, it's all electronics. Something shiny. Something needing batteries. Something that makes pretty pictures and sounds that we can all stare at. My concepts are outdated, old-fashioned.

Anyway, that's all nostalgia, probably not healthy for me to be musing about. Fact is, I don't need a thing this Christmas.

It's enough just to be here to experience it.

Comments

[straya.livejournal.com]

Egads, that's sad. People don't really appreciate that good old handmade stuff, anymore... Or well, I guess most don't. The thing is, people don't realize how important it is until you never hear from the gift giver again, whether they move away or pass away. I never thought much of the handmade stuffed animals and pillows my grandmother on my mother's side made for me when I was a lot younger (she was confined to a wheelchair so she spent much of her time doing cross-stitch and the like), but when she died in the months just before I left home for college, I was glad to have some of them to take with me. I still have and cherish the Christmas stocking she made for me as a baby, as well.

Anyway, I guess as I've grown and matured as an artist over the years, I've learned to appreciate that sort of thing. Nothing thrills me more than when someone sends me gift art of a favored character, for example (especially if it's one of my characters). I've also had people order commissions from me in the past as gifts for their friends or family. It's not real common, but it happens on the ocassion. My mother loves that kind of thing, as well. My brother met a girl in college last year about this time who made knitted scarves, so he paid her to make a scarf for my mother for Christmas, which she really liked.

So your ideas aren't too out of date. As I said, I still make art gifts, myself...whether I'm sending them to a friend or whether it's a friend ordering for another. I still send mix CD's, too. Although in that case, it helps to send to people who have the same musical interests. (I used to swap mix tapes with pen pals when I was younger, too.)

As for me... I think my best Christmas gift this year is getting to spend it at home with the roommies. This is the first Christmas in years I won't have to work. ^_^

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I read people's lists in case I have something they'd want, but I won't put one up as what I want no one can give me. Like you said, health for self and family, safety, quiet times...oh, and great wealth so I wouldn't have to work, and could afford a housekeeper!

[ladyjaguar.livejournal.com]

All the frenzy for "stuff" dismays me. Doesn't amaze me anymore; people are such sheep, and their values have become shallower. I think of that Paul McCartney song which says:

"Buy, buy," says the sign in the shop window.
"Why? Why?" says the junk in the yard."