‘Tis the season to be … extravagant?

‘Tis the season to be … extravagant

What did you get for Christmas last year? How about 10 years ago? Chances are, you can’t remember.

But I’m sure you have other memories of Christmases. Growing up, we had Christmas every year with our grandparents and they always set up a long slide made of brown cardboard on the steep back lawn. Even the adults had a go and it was always a source of great fun and happy memories.

Times have changed. Christmas has gone from being a good family get-together to a giant spending spree for many. I have it on good authority that New Zealand households spend an average of $900-$1000 every year on Christmas gifts and celebrations. Couple this with the Reserve Bank Governor’s warning about consumer debt, and the fact that December and January are epidemic months for relationship breakdown, domestic violence (Women’s Refuge have told me this is their busiest time of year) and demands on food banks. It’s clear that some families are headed for disaster.

Deck the halls with … colour-themed designer Christmas ornaments

Why do we have this need to spend so much on Christmas? Are we trying to buy affection? Or make up for time not spent with family during our busy year? Are some trying to fill a void in their lives by shopping to relieve a feeling of emptiness? Whatever the reason, you only have to watch pre-Christmas ads and glossy mailers to see that retailers are tripping over themselves to be bigger and brighter than the next, because they know that in a few short weeks they are likely to make more money than in the several preceding months.

Advertising pressure can have the effect of making us feel hard done by if we don’t have the latest “this” or “that”. Children fifty years ago were excited to receive an orange or a handful of nuts in their Christmas stockings. Today’s children are conditioned by advertisers who promote ipod minis, mp3 players and 18 carat gold jewellery as stocking stuffers. We are, on average, four and a half times better off than our great-grandparents were – but are we four and a half times happier?

You better watch out, you better not cry … The debt collector is coming to town!

What is the solution to this problem? Maybe Christmas has become more about stuff and less about the important things. Maybe we need to learn to say no when faced with advertising pressure or demands from TV-educated kids. Could it be that we need to spend less time filling our shopping trolleys to the brim and more time baking cookies with our children; less time scouring the malls and more time planning low-cost gifts that really mean something.

In our second year of marriage I remember loading our baby into our little hatchback with ten three-foot cherry tomato plants that we had grown ourselves in buckets – on our way to Auckland for Christmas. It looked like a travelling greenhouse! The gifts cost about $3 each but they were practical, unusual and most appreciated.

I have a special friend who lost her 4 � year old son to a brain tumour 9 years ago. We started making angel decorations for each other each Christmas in remembrance of her son and we both now have quite a collection. These are a gift from the heart and I don’t think anything expensive could be more meaningful.

A few days before Christmas we bake something special and make up gift parcels, which we deliver to our friends with a Christmas carol or two on the ukulele (played badly but no-one seems to mind). We also do something anonymously for a family or person in need. The children still talk about the “knock and run” cookie drops we did for an elderly lady in a retirement village four years ago.

There are lots of possibilities for making Christmas more meaningful and less expensive. Check out community Christmas craft displays, carol concerts and plays. Go on a Saturday night drive to look at Christmas lights and decorated houses. Make your own Nativity scene. Read the Christmas story to your children. Start traditions and the children will ask for them year after year. Even if you are on your own or don’t have children, start some traditions with friends.

Maybe we can focus our efforts more on spending time together and less on spending money. More things that create happy memories and fewer “things” that cost.

We wish you a … sensible Christmas and a debt-free New Year!

Kara Dawson is a mother of three and part time veterinarian. She recently won The Warehouse’s National Bargain Champion competition.

The judges described her as “utterly sensible” and someone who “knows how to get value out of everything without being stingy”. The judging panel observed that Kara had managed to give her family everything they could want despite living on a tight budget. Click here to read the story.

Kara and her husband Chris live near Hamilton on a country section with their children Joshua, Matthew and Hannah.