When I was a kid, the things adults got one another for Christmas boggled my mind. Whereas I always had fun presents, from My Little Ponies to the Anne of Green Gables boxed set, my parents always got such exciting gifts as new socks or garden hoses. I always thought to myself, “I hope nobody ever gets me all those USEFUL things, even when I’m old.”

Well, I think I’m old now. Because as I walked three blocks to work this morning, thinking about the temperatures in the teens and how I simply couldn’t wear my one pair of long johns every single day this week without washing them at least once, the following floated through my brain: “I wish someone would get me a nice, warm pair of long underwear for Christmas.” This coming from the same woman who, at age 12, almost cried when she found panties from her grandmother under the tree.

Yet part of me still has a taste for aesthetic gifts, the objects you don’t necessarily need but that add a bit of grace to life. The hardcover copy of "Mere Christianity" we got David’s dad this year? My idea. My grandmothers have doilies from all sorts of places in my globetrotting (no doilies this year, for the record, but my trip to Graceland was productive). Considering, too, that I’m too frugal to buy myself books, music, or movies very often, I hold out the hope that "The Bourne Identity" will finally be waiting for me this year.

Juxtapose my general gift-giving philosophy with that of the Christmas family we’re helping at church this year. On Sunday I helped sort out purchases made at the requests of a mother and her three daughters. With them, socks seemed to be ever popular.

I’m going to avoid the self-flagellation, though, of launching into my usual lecture on American materialism versus the world’s poverty. I do think that we live in a culture of excess, one that infects us from that first greedy Christmas and spiritually deadens us thereafter. But sometimes, perhaps that CD or Tonka Truck for Christmas doesn’t have to be totally bad. Even our Christmas family asked for, and received, portable CD players for the two eldest children.

I read once that the United Nations funds film screenings in refugee camps. Though many pressing needs exist for refugees, there is something enriching, something humanizing, about the opportunity to engage the mind outside of the rigors of basic survival. Gift-giving can be an opportunity to display unexpected grace, humanity beyond mere existence—a beautiful vase, tickets to see a favorite rock band, a good book. We believe in a God who blesses us every day with the unexpected. How do we show that grace to everyone else?

It is hard to think about giving the superfluous when so many lack the basics. And we shouldn’t give impressive gifts just to “keep up with the Joneses” or to satisfy someone else’s insatiable appetite for material goods. But just maybe, there still is a place in Christmas for gifts from the heart—gifts that remind our loved ones of the light that Christ’s birth brought into a troubled world.

“But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble this woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.’” --Matthew 26:8-12

Kelsey

PS—Want to give a good, fair trade gift that supports others, too? Check out some of NNPCW’s gift ideas on www.pcusa.org/nnpcw/resources/volunteer-gifts.htm#giftshop.

PPS—Chat with other NNPCW folks about holiday consumerism and gift giving in our topic room at nnpcw.forumsplace.com.