1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Do your parents still buy you Christmas gifts?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Dick Whitman, Dec 23, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Tried that. They won't go for it. Also tried convincing them to do away with those lists. Also a no.
     
  2. Uncle Frosty

    Uncle Frosty Member

    We've scaled our family Xmas way, way back from what it used to be.

    But we still have lots of fun.

    A couple of years ago, I gave my brother-in-law a fake Rolex that I bought in an Irish pub in Manhattan.

    The look on his face was priceless, though I did eventually 'fess up and tell him it was a knock off.

    Occasionally, the elves in the family will put edible underwear or a dildo is someone's stocking.

    Hilarity inevitably ensues.
     
  3. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Why are adult humans still so attached to or concerned for their parents? We're more valuable to society. Keeping them alive is a drain on worthwhile resources.
     
  4. doubledown68

    doubledown68 Active Member

    Apropos of nothing, I spent last Christmas Eve with the family of my girlfriend's sister-in-law. They're nice people, and they own a very, very successful business... and/or have family money, or something.

    Anyway, grandma starts passing out checks to grandkids, husbands of the grandkids, great grandkids, etc. Everyone who is a member of the family or married into the family gets a check... even if they're 4, or whatever.

    My girlfriends mom says on the way home that this is the one night she wishes she was a member of the family. I ask why. She asks if I know what was in the envelopes grandma was distributing. I tell her I'm assuming it's money. She tells me I'm right... checks for 10K each. It took me a while to comprehend just how much money was handed out.

    So, yeah... Christmas is always merry around there.
     
  5. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    Spending the inheritance to avoid the heirs' future tax penalties, eh? ;)

    I, too, know a family where a big check is the traditional birthday gift. If it's the thought that counts, handing over that check requires none whatsoever.

    Sadly, there also seem to be strings attached to that sort of generosity. (Can you say no to visiting Grandma who writes the checks? I didn't think so.) Money can't buy happiness… or the love of those who receive the gifts.
     
  6. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    My 83-year-old father still sends me a $25 check every year to help defray the cost of buying Easter outfits for the kids. Never mind that the "kids" are 20 and 23 now and were never baptized. But his parents did that for him when we were kids, so the gesture means something to him. I get a kick out of it.
     
  7. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Only when its not Hanukah.
     
  8. sostartled

    sostartled Member

    My mom was here this past weekend and bought me, my wife, and my daughter a bunch of small gifts for Christmas (a book for me, some older books that I loved as a kid for my daughter), took my wife out shopping, and then left us a couple checks ($50 - $150) hidden around the house. Hiding money is a game she likes to play when she visits. As long as I don't find out she's having financial trouble, I won't protest too much. But I bet she'll be pissed when I start doing it when I visit her...
     
  9. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Nah...

    What a great, fun, even kind of poignant idea -- and it brooks no argument. She'll probably just realize then what a great idea it was, that it was worthy of being passed on/stolen. And she'll be right.

    As for Christmas gifts, my mom still gives some gifts to everyone, and she wouldn't have it any other way, even though she's struggling a bit financially more and more as the years go by.

    For her, if you don't do at least some minimal gift-giving, it doesn't even feel like Christmas. And I think she'd be right.

    We did the name-draw thing for all the adults for a lot of years, plus giving to all the kids separately. Now, we adults (except for my mom) just give to the kids, and my mom.

    And I have to admit that the cutting back and not gift-giving at all between the siblings has taken away more and more from the feeling of Christmas.

    It really is the thought that counts. It doesn't have to be big, expensive things, but stopping the gift-giving completely really does just start to feel like laziness, and a cop-out, and all about you and what you want (or don't want to do) after awhile. My sister and I have gotten to the point that we're arguing for bringing back the name drawing, or just going back to buying at least a little something for everyone -- because why shouldn't we be able to get something for somebody if that's what we want to do?

    One last thought: My mom's been struggling with some health problems this year and, at long last, decided, for the first time ever, not to bother putting up a Christmas tree. It has been another thing, the past couple of weeks, that she's just lamented, that it has taken away from making it even feel like Christmas, and again, and not seeing it in the window, and all lit up in the living room at nights, I have to agree with that sentiment.

    There are some things that, when you don't do them, it just doesn't seem like Christmas anymore.
     
  10. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I kind of wish my mother (my father died about 10 years ago) would give up the present-giving, mainly because it's a huge pain-in-the-ass for me. The calls start around October, and it's always the same thing (we gotta get this done, I could give X this but I don't know his size, for Y I am just going to send money, blah, blah, blah). I'd be fine with it if I thought it brought her some joy, but it seems as if she does it out of some sense of duty.
     
  11. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    I can't believe this is a problem.

    I send my parents a list of stuff I want. They buy it. I'm delighted. They are happy to make me happy.

    I'm in my 30s. No regrets.
     
  12. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    One of the great, liberating epiphanies is that time when you realize "No, absolutely nothing HAS to be done."
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page