Contents
Background
Principles
Membership
Some
Holiday Food for Thought
What's
in a Name
Paying for
the Other Guy's Christmas Presents
The
1998 Don't-Want-It-For-Christmas Item
SCROOGE
in the Political Arena
Help
From Another Source
A
Couple of Horrible Examples
Holiday
Poetry
Contact S.C.R.O.O.G.E.
SCROOGE was founded in 1979 to provide good-natured moral support for those who want to modify their holiday gift-giving practices -- to stop wasting large sums of money on gifts that don't seem to make anybody much happier for that much longer. We now have over 2000 members in the United States, Canada, and other countries.
- Try to avoid giving (and receiving extremely expensive gifts, particularly the heavily advertised fad/status symbol items that are often not very useful or practical.
- Make every effort to use cash rather than credit cards to pay for the items that you do purchase.
- Emphasize gifts that involve thought and originality, such as handicraft items that you make yourself.
- Celebrate and enjoy the holidays but remember that a Merry Christmas is not for sale in any story for any amount of money.
SCROOGE Memberships are available for $2.00, covering the costs of copying and mailing the annual newsletter.
The Schepens Eye Research Institute (www.eri.harvard.edu/default.html) in Boston recently published a thought-provoking item in its newsletter. Quoting figures from the Research America organization, the newsletter stated that just one day of Christmas shopping, or about $3.5 billion, would fund the Federal Centers for Desease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) for more than a year. We wonder how much vital medical research could be performed if every family bought one less awful necktie, bottle of foul-smelling after-shave lotion or perfume, or rancid fruitcake this holiday season and instead sent the money to organizations like the Schepens Institute (20 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114).
SCROOGE has heard the Thanksgiving-through-New Years season referred to by various terms, such as Yuletide, the "Holidays", Christmas Time, etc. But a bank here in Virginia has come up with a new one, as proclaimed by a large red and green sign in its lobby: The Spending Season. Customers are encouraged to apply for the bank's credit card now that the Spending Season has arrived. The display also features play money strewn among brightly wrapped gift boxes. Maybe the bankers are just being honest. To many of us, Christmas does primarily mean spending money mindlessly, and quite often on things that are not particularly meaningful to anybody -- buy it, charge it, wrap it, deliver it, and forget it, just another obligation met and chore completed. Maybe next year the bank will depict Santa's sleigh being pulled by eight tiny MasterCards or the three Wisemen charging their night's lodging on VISA because the Bethlehem Inn doesn't accept American Express.
Paying for the Other Guy's Christmas Presents
Still on the subject of credit cards and holiday spending, over 1.3 million households in the United States filed for bankruptcy in 1997, partially a result of the huge number of credit cards readily available to virtually anybody who can sign a name (1.5 billion cards circulating out there, a 300% increase just since 1980). The plastic money seems to come out in earnest every November and December, as even cautious folks seem to lose self-control. Bankruptcy costs the U.S. economy over $40 billion annually, a hidden tax of $400 per household when these costs are passed on to consumers, as they usually are. So, when you add up your own holiday expenses in January, throw in a nice chunk of cash for gifts that other people bought on credit but then couldn't pay for.
The 1998 Don't-Want-It-For-Christmas Item
This year, we nominate the large category of household appliances, such as vacuum cleaners, rug-shampooers, and electric irons, typically bought by well-meaning men for women in their lives. Even if men do help with chores, most women would probably prefer not to be reminded of household drudgery on Christmas Day, after they have prepared a big dinner, withstood visits from miscreant in-laws, and dealt with children who've already lost or destroyed half of their Christmas toys. These gifts aren't very personal or creative, just as by the same token, most men would not be overjoyed to receive a leaf rake or garbage can, and such items are best chosen by the person who is going to use them. One SCROOGE member recalls a 40-year old story about his father, who decided that it would be a great idea to surprise Mom on Christmas with a new vacuum cleaner, chosen sight unseen from a salesman buddy's cut-rate catalog, one of those models made from World War I surplus parts by slave labor in Lower Slobovia. Dad himself had never been on the business end of a vacuum cleaner, and Mom's reaction to Monster Machine became a family legend to be retold with awe every holiday season.
SCROOGE in the Political Arena
A New York newspaper reporter called to ask if SCROOGE would be supporting any candidates in the recent election. No, SCROOGE doesn't have a political action committee or endorse candidates. Even if an elf or reindeer were on the ballot, we would keep silent, although a reindeer might cost less and be more honest than many politicians. Actually, we might vote for Santa if he ran for office, because he only shows up once per year and works free.
Another organization, Alternatives for Simple Living (www.simpleliving.org), also advocates simplifying the celebration of the holiday season. It makes available a variety of excellent publications on how to accomplish this admittedly difficult objective, and we have to say that these guys are much better organized and more efficient than our out-of-a-file drawer organization. They provide some good tips on how to reduce the pressure, strain, and hassle of the holiday season. To cite a few examples:
- Plan ahead. Instead of going on auto-pilot the day after Thanksgiving, hold a family meeting to decide what the group really wants to do and who is going to do what.
- Avoid debt and refuse to be pressured by advertising to overspend.
- Avoid stress. Don't assume that things have to be the same as they've been in previous years.
- Draw names rather than everybody giving something to everyone else in your giving circle. Set a ceiling on what can be spent for each gift recipient. Give children one thing they really want, rather than an overload of so many presents.
- Put gifts under the tree shortly before opening them and then take turns unwrapping so that each item can be admired and each giver thanked. This avoids the tear-off-the-paper frenzy of greed that starts youngsters out on the wrong foot regarding materialism.
- Give appropriate gifts and consider alternatives (baby-sitting "coupons", crafts, help with a project, contributions to a charity, etc.).
- Perhaps most important (at least in SCROOGE's opinion), make changes slowly but persistently. Don't try to change everything and everybody all at once. The resistance may make you feel defeated and depressed.
For more help and a free catalog of ideas, contact Alternatives for Simple living at 800.821.6153.
Sears has done it again this holiday season, with a particularly garish Christmas item. For the sale price of only $35 plus tax, you can give somebody a talking/singing Christmas tree. Motion activated, the tree has a grotesque face with protruding nose, huge mouth, and raspy voice that "sings" carols and extends holiday greetings. SCROOGE can't imagine how the Sears clerks are going to work all day near this item and not take a hammer to it. There is also a rumor that Victoria's Secret is offering for sale a $5 million bra festooned with diamonds and other precious stones.
As always, SCROOGE is happy to present Debbie Gunia's latest Christmas poem (below) and wish you all a happy and frugal holiday.
Chuck Langham
Executive Director
CHRIS-MS. GUIDED
By Debbie Hughes Gunia
Mirror, Mirror,on the wall
Who's the best Mom at the Mall?
No time for "Sleeping Beauties" now,
No chance for any rest
The holidays are here again.
I'll show them who shops best.
I'll leave my house before the dawn,
And doze in parking lots,
To be the first to stand in line
To get my kinds what's "hot"!
The frenzy's wild for Beanie Babies
There's such a buying tension
They go like sausage pizza at
A Weight Watcher's convention.
Those Beanie Babies - hard to find?
It's all in who you know.
My strategy is finally tuned.
I am a shopping Pro.
The rarest Beanies top my list.
I find them because I'm sly,
Plus I will pay for info from
The "UPS" delivery guy.
There's a PlayStation and Pokeman
Nintendo 64,
The tick'lish laughing Elmo doll,
And Ernie Sleep and Snore.
There's Dentist Barbie; Nascar too,
And Barbie at the Mall
I've heard they plan to introduce
"Bad Hair Day" Barbie doll.
The talking Barney interacts.
And Arthur who speaks too.
There's Warner Brother's Cartoon Plush,
And Pals of Winnie the Pooh.
My kids must have the latest toys,
And my job is to try
To give my little darlings the
Best Christmas Mom can buy.
