All I Want for Christmas...

Posted by Dave on December 1, 2010

christmas-money.jpg

As I was growing up, my grandmother used to take me and my brothers out in the month leading up to Christmas.  She had a budget for the gifts that she would give to us: Twenty-five dollars each.  Now, back in the 1980's this was a good amount for a kid to be able to purchase whatever we desired, which ended up being mostly clothes.

At the end of the shopping trip, she would take the clothes back to her house and lovingly wrap them up.  Then, on Christmas Eve, she would bring those gifts to our house and place them under the Christmas Tree.  We would open them and feign surprise at how magnificently she was able to know our preferences when it came to gift giving.

She has since lost most of her sight and hearing; she can no longer drive.  So now, on Thanksgiving, she gives each one of us a card with $25 in it.  The expectation is that we purchase the gift, wrap it up, and place it under the tree for Christmas Eve.

The meaning of Christmas has changed for me since those trips to the Venture and K-Mart 25 years ago.  It used to be about getting as much as I could for the budgeted amount.  Now it is about giving; to my wife, my parents, my nieces and nephews.  And this year to some guy half way around the world with a strange name (Julie).

On Thanksgiving, when I got the card with the $25, I thought of all the things that I had been wanting to get.  I thought and thought; then realized that, oh yeah, when I want something, I generally just go and get it: Food, screws for the home improvement project, oil change, wireless card for the computer.  I really didn't need anything. 

'Okay', I thought, 'I could spend the money on something for my wife.'  No.  That's against the unwritten rules that have been passed down for decades.  So what to spend it on?

Then I remembered hearing a podcast about Kiva, a site that helps to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.  More simply, you can watch the 'How It Works' video:

So that's what I did.  I took the $25 that my grandmother gave to me and loaned it to Julie, half way around the world.  Twenty-five dollars is not much to me, but take that money, along with the money from 11 other people, and Julie can pay for the things he needs for his rice farm.

I think that really is the most that I can squeeze out of that Christmas money.  Thank you, Grandma, and Merry Christmas.

Comments:

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