Tonight I decided that I would break with tradition and not leave things until the last second.

Instead of running around on the 22nd or 23rd of December and trying to get the few gifts I “need” to buy and dealing with burnt out sales staff, grumpy customers, massive lines and no parking like I usually do… I decided I’d make a quick stop on my way out for the evening at the local electronics megastore to pick up a gift for my brother.

While I was there I saw a display of behavior that makes me pause and wonder how parents stay sane.

In my wandering around the store I cruise by the display of iPods (I’m thinking of buying one for myself for my trip) just to check things out. There is a mother with her two children (one boy, one girl) and they are in front of the display. The mother is looking at them and the boy seems quite pleased that he will likely be getting one for Christmas, pointing to one model (8GB nano?) and saying with a smile “I’d like that one”. I’m fairly certain that the mother didn’t hear him, because she was trying to focus on what she was doing while Mount St. Helens erupted on the other side of her. The daughter was pitching a fit.

“NOOOOOO!!! I don’t WANT THAAAT one (nano)! I want THIS ONE(regular 80 or 160GB)!! NOOOOoooOOOooOOOO!!!!” (repeat x10)

While she is screaming, the daughter is punctuating her protests with little kid overhand punches to her mothers side. The whole time the mother seems almost oblivious to her daughters behavior, clearly trying to figure out the feature differences between the models that are causing her kid to have a meltdown. If cameras were rolling I’m sure she would have fit right in with this commercial.

Did I mention the kids looked like they might have been in Kindergarten / grade 1? I’m a terrible judge of age but if that girl was beyond Grade 3 I’ll eat my keyboard.

Not being a parent, I don’t really get the “need” to have a 6 to 10 year old with a cell phone, and for me it goes one step further into the realm of ridiculous when you start talking about buying them entertainment electronics like iPods or a PSP. I realize kids are alive now that don’t know there was a world without an internet, or that before DVD there were failed experiments called laserdisc and betaMAX. I understand that to some kids toys aren’t really cool unless they take batteries and make a shitload of noise. But an iPod for someone that young? seriously?

What the hell do they need an iPod for… the best of Raffi? baby Einstein?

If we were to time warp and replace this child with me at that age, not only would that display practically guarantee I wouldn’t be getting an iPod that day or one in the near to reasonably far future, it would undoubtedly be met with one of the two following phrases “Wait until we get home” or “wait until I tell your father”. Both guaranteed to make my blood turn cold and imagination run wild… (any time we heard that we knew we had pushed our misbehaving just a little bit too far and it was time to cut our losses)

The point of all this rambling is that I agree with most of what was said here in his Nov. 27 post about Christmas.

I do feel that people get caught up in the cycle of buy more, spend more, stress more… all you have to do is go wander a mall the week before Christmas to see evidence of this crazed compulsion on everyone’s face. In the past my family was a part of it, with a few financially good years being particularly over the top. It could have gone on a lot longer, but one year we all sat back and said “what the hell are we doing?” Now it is a simple draw of one name, a very reasonable price limit and next to no stress.

Everyone likes getting a present (expected or not), and I think the act of giving one is also high on the list of things that make you feel good (particularly when you get them that perfect gift)… but if you are in debt for the rest of the year because you “had” to buy presents for every family member, cousin, aunt, uncle and pet in your family tree that good feeling can quickly be replaced by a feeing of dread. “Oh shit, here comes Christmas again… I’m totally screwed!”

Now we buy a few things for whoever we drew, and it still feels good when you know you got them something they will really enjoy… but I’ve got to say that the highlight of last year was the homemade gift exchange and seeing what people could create for the $10 or $20 limit we set on materials.

At this stage in our lives the bought gifts are nice, but it isn’t really anything we couldn’t go get on our own when things go on sale. Christmas is more about spending time with the family, eating some fantastic food, having a lot of fun, and not feeling like you need a week to recover when it is all said and done. In time I hope that little girl grows to appreciate everything else about this time of year that lasts so much longer than the latest “it” gift, but (at least for this year) my mind goes back to that commercial and puts her in the role of the kid pulling the tree down because she hates what she saw after ripping off the paper.

Although I must admit that if there isn’t a mandarin orange, some sort of chocolate and an Archie comic in my Frosty the Snowman stocking come Christmas morning, there will definitely be hell to pay