How Much Should "Holiday Spirit" Really Cost?

With the holidays coming up, there is always the financial pressure to spend. We see it in the attention paid to Black Friday, an increase in the number of "discounted" deals-- to Broadway, from your favorite retail outlet, and holiday wish lists from your co-workers and family. And let's be honest, maybe even you caught the spirit. Maybe you have been hoping that Uncle Joe and Aunt Agnes got your not-so subtle hints about how a new laptop, laser printer, and suede leather jacket would make perfect accents to your wardrobe and home decor.

Holiday spirit and consumption have been mass marketed as one in the same. They, however, are not. They are mutually exclusive. The former is rooted primarily in a spiritual realm, with the belief that humanity should minister love, kindness, and goodness to the world in the same manner as Jesus Christ did, who Christians consider to be the human representation of God. The latter is big business hard at work trying to separate you from your hard-earned money with the rationale that spending money equates giving love.

Does this mean that I advocate that there should be no gift giving this holiday season? Not necessarily; some people genuinely get joy out of gift-giving, while others use this argument to mask their stinginess, selfishness, and thoughtlessness. I am, however, saying that there are several ways of showing love, kindness, and goodness to people in your immediate cypher that do not have to leave you indigent, financially resentful, and fiscally put-upon...

1. Some Thoughts Actually Do Count
Many of us lead thankless lives. As women, the burden of nurturing, attending to, sacrificing for the better good of the team, often is expected and overlooked. Often the best gifts for these "superwomen" are appreciation, recognition, and gratitude. During this holiday season, take a moment to write a letter, send a poem, produce a video journal, choreograph an interpretative dance, make an abstract drawing, take them to the pier to watch the sunset, or run a hot bath for these women in your life. The impact of these thoughtful acts will well be felt beyond the New Year.


2. Memories Are Priceless
The Adinkra symbol "sankofa", a bird looking backwards, while flying forward, serves as a mainstay in Ghanaian sculpture and art. It is also representative of a metaphysical understanding of the interconnectivity of the former self with the present self. The few times that we do stop to "smell the roses", do we also stop to reflect on our former selves, our journeys into this presentness? During this holiday season, give the gift of life: dig through the City archives to find your grandparents' birth certificates, honor the memories and histories that you have created by making a scrapbook, get your best friends together and take a group picture.

3. Give Time
We are living increasingly detached lives in this country--where technology and work have replaced human connection, conversation, and building. Often times, people that care for you the most, want YOU. Your time, your attention, your presence, your energy. As a gift, make time for those with whom you have lost contact. (phone call, card, visit). Reconnecting with those special people enriches your life way more than the newest, hottest, priciest thingamabob that mass media are peddling.

4. Reference the Bible

Remind greedy, gift-hungry folk that if Jesus, the Lord and Savior of millions, only got three gifts, from three different people, there is no reason why they, mere mortals, should expect much more.