Since I do most of my shopping at a co-op, or by mail order, I have not developed the immunity to overly commercialized prepackaged junk that many others have. It's sort of like watching violent TV - when you haven't seen thousands of deaths play-acted on the small screen, real tragedies still seem tragic. Apparently I have not been sufficiently desensitized to the weird marketing schemes that sing their siren song in a battery powered James Brown falsetto. And so it was that I found myself standing, dumbfounded, in front of a display of colored maple syrup. While it was not technically a holiday item, it seemed to represent the entire American Achilles heel of susceptibility to marketing. It is not enough, apparently, to offer synthetic maple syrup; now we must also color it phosphorescent shades of blue and green.
"I cannot even believe this exists!" I exclaimed there in the breakfast aisle at my local SuperMegaMaxiMart. "Who buys this crap?" I demanded of no one in particular.
My three-year old, fortunately, has not yet learned to be embarrassed by her mothers' antics. "Ummm, people?" she ventured.
I left the aisle, and the store, muttering to myself. Who really wants a singing James Brown doll? Or day-glow pancakes? Do people really buy these things? Do they really give them as gifts? Do the recipients keep them? Does anyone notice that these things are made in China? Of unrecyclable plastic? Instead of gag gift, I just see sweatshop labor and wasted fossil fuels.
If you like someone (or are indebted to them) enough to give them a gift, why not make it count? There are hundreds of alternative gifts worth your money; here is a sampling:
Home-baked goodies. I have yet to find anyone who wasn't genuinely delighted to receive a basket of fresh bread, a tin of cookies, or a jar of jam.
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