What will you not buy this holiday season?

Walking around Ann Arbor late Friday night, I noticed that all of the shops on Main Street were open until midnight...Midnight Madness they call it. Just when we think have enough in our homes, the stores are open so that in our drunken stupor, we decide to buy something else we don't need. Madness it seems to be, for it is a continuation of the materialistic binge that so definitively marks this time of year.

My family doesn't celebrate Christmas; we're not Christian. And so, we haven't given gifts to each other...not only because we don't celebrate Christmas, but because we never really did. But that isn't to say that gift-giving is wrong or bad. Gift-giving can be emotionally rich and thoughtful. Giving a gift can be giving a part of yourself. It can signify lasting bonds and friendship and love, and the knowledge that someone is there for you, no matter what. Thoughtful gifts don't have to cost anything, but they mean an infinite amount.

But from what I have observed as an outsider to Black Friday and Christmas traditions, gift-giving is far from emotionally meaningful during the holiday season. Are the gifts that many give meaningful for more than a few days? Gift-giving seems to be focused on the new, which will quickly turn into the old and unwanted, instead of turning into the cherished and storied. What is the point of "gifts" then, other than to merely acknowledge your existence? Is there anything more to gift-giving other than appeasement to the cultural norms of gift-giving and shopping to turn the crank of this ecologically-degrading economy?

Maybe people can give more meaningful gifts this year. What about non-materialistic gifts? Maybe little arts and crafts and drawings and poems. Maybe home-made candy and hugs and kind words. What about community gifts? If the Christmas tree is the center-point of your home, your family, your community, why then focus on individual gifts? Why not cherish the communal gifts of family and community and kinship more fully?
 
(If I am incorrect in this assessment, please point it out.)

Guest blog #13: Jason Lai and The Joy of Waiting

I stand by the fountain, leaned against the elevator, watching kids toss pennies into the water, pausing every so often to crane their necks upward to marvel at the jets of water that shoot high above their heads. This is the Eaton Centre, the largest mall in Toronto, the day after Boxing Day, which means the mall is still overflowing with people looking for bargains. A woman walks by, weighed down by her spoils, that crash against other people as she wades through the crowd. Many, if not most, people in Toronto probably don’t celebrate Christmas; everyone, though, celebrates a day, now an entire week, devoted to hunting down a good deal.

People around me balance smartphones and shopping bags in their hands, standing still, killing time. Others are more adventurous as they walk around, their eyes only breaking focus on their phones to narrowly avoid collision. Briefly lamenting separation from my own phone, my mind drifts away towards recent events of the holidays: a high school pseudo-reunion; cooking Christmas dinner; a rum cake bake-off. These thoughts flutter away as quickly as they materialize, ever changing as I observe my surroundings. In a world of constant information bombardment, spending some quality time with my own thoughts is my new favourite past time.

There’s a certain serenity in this moment; worries about responsibilities and obligations melt away as I am singularly focused on anticipation, nothing else.

A young woman emerges out of the crowd and approaches me.

“Hey! Sorry to keep you waiting!”

“No problem,” I respond, “no better time spent than waiting on a pretty girl.”

~Jason