Points Mean Prizes

[kingandy]

Is it just me, or are people spending more and more on their loved ones at Christmastime?

I realise that I am not wise in the ways of Inflation and such arcane accounting devices, but when I was young I was told that I could not expect such things as an Amiga Computer or Mega Drive to arrive under the tree; I would have to save my own monies (something I never quite managed to do for the Amiga, in fact, though I did acquire a Mega Drive from somewhere at some point). And, further, had I been wealthy enough to purchase a TV of my own, I would most certainly not have been allowed to keep it in my room until I became a legal adult. Maybe my mum was overly harsh, but it seems insane to me that nowadays people who are substantially less well-off than we were not only buy their children TVs and X-Box 360s but do it specifically to place in their room so they can stay the hell out of the way. Parents peer in the window of Dixons and pick iPods for their children based not on budget or product spec but rather on which case is most suited to their modern lifestyle. And you can bet those won't be their only present, either. People actually get themselves heavily into debt for these extravagant gestures and to my mind it does the child more harm than good, distorting their perceptions of value and money and encouraging the acquisition culture.

I have similar opinions on the subject of gifts for partners, though it is less Kids Today, They Do Not Know They Are Born and more of a sort of faint surprise. I see people stretching their pockets as far as they will go - and further - to buy flashy gadgetry for their other halves, to shower them with stuffed animals and trinkets, and I am bemused. I just don't get it. I am constantly reminded of the friend who, out of some deep-seated urge to demonstrate his love through cash money, spent a fortune on a Christmas scanner, only to find his beloved vastly more entertained by a small wooden turtle and a plastic squid.

Perhaps that makes me a bad partner. Potential suitors beware! I will not buy you the world.

Comments

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

No, you're right - more is being spent.

The biggest present I ever got when I was a kid was my train set. Somehow my parents managed to hide the base board (which was about the size of a single bed and which my dad had painted and laid with track himself. I had the baseboard still until we sold my childhood home - by which point we were on the second set of track (it rusts over time, and like REAL train tracks must be replaced during extended engineering works)). I still have all the other parts, albeit, due to current space restrictions it's in a box in my dad's loft - but it will be found a space in my house in the future. It is the BEST Christmas present I ever got, it was probably the most expensive (I dread to think of the cost of the engines alone), and I have now had it, roughly, 26 years. Show me a kid today who'll still have their xBox in 26 years time. Anyway, it was made clear that this was a BIG, BIG thing, and I was really overjoyed by it.

I had our old black and white TV in my bedroom from when I was about 13-ish. There were restrictions on when I could use it, which, bless me, I kept to until I was about 16! The first PC I owned was one Sam got for me out of a skip at his work. I still have it - but I think it's dead :(
I ummed and ahhed for ages over getting a PS2. I refuse to upgrade to a slimline just cos 'it's newer'. I refuse to spend a mortgage payment on a PS3 just cos it's the latest thing. I still have the video player I bought when 18 in a box upstairs in my bedroom. It is in it's original polystyrene stuff and box, which I have kept for safekeeping (and cos of the house moves, oh so many house moves - much easier with regular shaped boxes).

Paul has, after much cajoling, bought me next term in my flower arranging for Christmas. I have been very much skint recently, I really want to do it, and I really don't need more Stuff (TM). He's also insisting on getting me 'stuff to open', even though the flower course itself is over our prescribed budget.

So yeah, consumerism has gone rampant, and I'm considered odd for keeping onto stuff that still works, rather than replacing it with newer, shinier versions that cost more, just because they ARE newer. Apparently, there's something wrong with ME!

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

And you know what - whilst writing this entry I may have come up with a location in my house for the next gen. base board. Full steam ahead!

[kingandy]

I would look oddly at anyone who already had a PS2 and bought the slimline version. I personally am tempted, though, because I don't have the chunky version.

Aren't they cheaper?

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

God only knows, but presumably so, given that there is less actual product, and they're more recent, meaning the tech cost should have come down. You can't get the chunky one new now anyway.