Ho, ho -- whoa! What am I buying?
Posted
Nov 03 2008, 01:32 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Black Friday won't happen for another 26 days, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Sure, some holiday merchandise had been lurking on the periphery since mid-October. But now stores are bristling with Christmas cards, wrapping paper, candy canes, gift sets of cologne and spa products, small appliances and, alas, fruitcakes.
I haven't yet encountered any Muzak versions of "O Holy Night" or "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." Bet I'll be hearing them by next weekend, though.
Yesterday's newspaper ad sections were all about pre-lit Christmas trees, holiday-themed fabrics, hot buys in tech and electronics, and toys, toys, toys. Ad copy included phrases like "more than 25,000 gifts for under $25," "great stocking stuffers!" and "affordable and fun."
Affordability is a big issue this year. According to the National Retail Federation, U.S. shoppers will spend only 2.2% more this year than they did last year. A press release quoted a federation economist as saying that "current financial pressures and a lack of confidence in the economy" are the reasons for conservative spending.
“We expect consumers to be frugal this season and less willing to splurge on discretionary items," she said.
Debt makes a holiday
Of course, "frugal" means different things to different people. The federation says the average shopper will spend $832 on holiday items, with $466 of that going for family gifts.
To me, that sounds like a lot. Then again, I don't have kids screaming for game systems or for cell phones that do everything but make pasta. If I did, then spending "only" $466 would probably seem miraculous.
Most of the Smart Spending message board readers who responded to a thread about shopping said they'll definitely spend less this year -- maybe a lot less. I mentioned this to my daughter but she didn't buy it, so to speak.
"People always say they're going to spend less," she said, "but they never do."
I know what she means. Quite a few people overdo it each holiday season. Certainly I've heard my share of rueful explanations or earnest rationalizations:
• It's been a tough year so they want to make the holidays "special."
• It's their first Christmas as a married couple.
• It's the baby's/grandbaby's first Christmas.
• It's the 22-year-old college senior's last Christmas at home. (Apparently these parents have never heard of boomerang kids.)
• The only things their children want are super-pricey, but you can't buy a kid just one gift, can you? (Well, yeah, you can. But you've been brainwashed into thinking you can't.)
• They got carried away with all the great Black Friday deals and neglected to do the math.
• They figure they're always going to be in debt anyway, so, darn it, their kids will get those new bikes/video game systems/high-end athletic shoes.
Is that all there is?
A few weeks ago I realized that I’m almost done with holiday shopping. Thanks to thrift stores, clearance tables and yard sales, I’d amassed a nice little stash of presents for family and friends. In early December I'll cash in points from a couple of rewards programs to get the last few items. And in mid-December my sister and I will spend an afternoon shopping for the family we "adopt" for the holidays.
I’d likely have predicted elation at the prospect of being finished so early. Instead, I felt oddly depressed -- which is silly, really, because I don't like malls. What I do like, I guess, is the excitement of finding the right gifts for the people I love. (There's also the corollary joy of doing it under budget.)
Some of the readers who posted on that message-board thread have all but finished shopping, too. Collectively, we're the folks shopkeepers love to hate: Since there's no need for us to be in the stores at this time of year, we won't fall into any of the overbuying traps noted above.
Yet I'm not completely immune, since I do shop on Black Friday. Those Muzak carols take me back to my own childhood memories of Christmases that were, in retrospect, fairly lean -- a few clothes, a few toys -- but immensely satisfying. I want to recreate that feeling for my great-nephews, at which point I'm just as likely as anyone else to overbuy.
Or I'll go into a drugstore to buy cough syrup, hear "Adeste Fidelis" and go instantly sentimental -- right in front of a rack of $5.99 DVDs. I'll be seized with a desire to buy some for my daughter and son-in-law. Never mind that the two of them rarely watch a film more than once, or that they already subscribe to a mail-order movie service. These DVDs are only $5.99!
Anytime they play a decent choral version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" over the next eight weeks, I think I'll just leave the store. It's not that I don't want to buy presents. It's that I want to buy mindfully, not mindlessly. How many stocking stuffers does a person need, anyway?
