Holiday Matters

As we all know, the holiday season is fast approaching. Allow me a little bit of time (really, this one will be short) to talk about two fairly recent holiday traditions that I’m not too enthused about.

1. Gift Cards

I don’t have that much of a problem with gift cards. I seldom give them out, and I can’t recall ever giving a card as a Christmas present. I’ve received plenty, though. I’m thankful for all gifts, but I have two issues with gift cards.

First, they tie you in to particular stores (as most people don’t get the Visa type cards). I got a gift card from Starbucks last year: haven’t set foot in a Starbucks since. I got two from Subway: only times I’ve gone to Subway were to use the cards. I still have a Macy’s card that I haven’t…long story short, I have a plethora of unused gift cards.

Second, gift cards benefit the stores more than anyone (unless you play it exactly right). Most people give some round figure via gift cards: $25, $50, and so on. Well, there’s this thing called tax that causes problems with that. Either the recipient has to come up off the tax or they have to buy something less expensive – and that’s where we get to the real problem.

Anyone care to imagine…okay, this might not be so short after all – but y’all read these enough to know better anyway…how much change is left over on gift cards? Let’s just speak hypothetically: if 100,000 people leave ten cents – which isn’t much at all – on a gift card, that’s a free $10,000 of profit a store gets…for doing absolutely nothing. People usually leave much more than that, so I’ll let y’all do the math.

“Spend everything that’s on it”…well, then you likely run over and give the store – you guessed it – more money.

I’m not a fan of companies making free money, as y’all could probably tell from the last month of entries. Gift cards are the stores’ greatest hustle.

And now, for the other recent tradition – which works my nerves much more than cards.

2. Mass Texts

Now, I know I’m not alone in this one. I don’t know anyone who likes receiving mass texts, so I’ll skip over the “what” and get into the “why”. As we all do, I spend my holidays doing one of two things: sleeping or spending time with family. I cannot stand having either activity interrupted, and the notification sound of a text usually does that because…well, it’s the holidays. You kind-of expect your phone to go off because perhaps a friend or relative calls.

If a friend or relative calls, or even leaves an authentic text (I’ll get to the definition in a minute), that’s passable. At least there’s a genuine sentiment there, and that’s part of my definition of an authentic text. An authentic text is basically a text in which 1) there is genuine emotion or information displayed; and 2) there is some identifying characteristic of the uniqueness of the conversation. Mass texts fall obviously fall short of that.

My simple rule of thumb is that it needs to have my name in it. If it doesn’t, I consider it a mass text (depending on the verbiage) and reserve the right to side-eye over Christmas dinner. I’d get into who usually perpetrates these crimes against technology (people who are new to texting, i.e. older folks), but I’m getting close to 600 so I’ll leave be.

I would rather – no, much rather – someone just not say anything at all than send a mass text. “It’s the thought that counts”…think of my time and what I likely stopped doing to read your lousy text that went to 300 people, not to mention the fact that you don’t think any more of me than person #300. Shoot, I may be person #300: and if I am, I don’t need you wishing me anything anyway.

If I sound mean…I just do. People can’t chinch their way into showing that they care about others. Problem with society now: always trying to take shortcuts. You’ll send good tidings and cheer to everyone on your VIP list of nature and memory. Don’t worry about anyone else.

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It all comes down to being considerate, which is something we don’t practice enough. A little bit of that goes a long way, and it pushes people up Christmas lists more often than we think or would care to admit.