Recycled Christmas

By TAD BARTIMUS

Like lemmings, we rushed to the mall after Thanksgiving and bought $12.6 billion worth of stuff.

The National Retail Federation claims 75 percent of Americans shopped during that three-day weekend. My husband was one of them. He came home with the two most popular sale items, a television set and our first DVD player.

It's embarrassing to be so predictable. It's not that I don't enjoy these new electronic toys -- watching TV on a 27-inch screen instead of a 12-incher means I actually see people's faces -- but I resist change. For decades I balked at owning a color television. One weekend when I was out of town my husband bought one. Of course I enjoyed it. But the older I get, the less I need, let alone want.

Why own a dozen pairs of shoes when I can wear only one pair at a time? It's the same thing with pants, shirts, sweaters and the rest of the clutter in my closet. Our rule used to be that if we didn't use something in three years, we gave it away. Now we've revised the limit to one year.

That's why this is a recycled Christmas.

Given our worries about war with Iraq, rising unemployment, terrorism and personal debt, the glossy catalogues in my mailbox seem irrelevant, so I haven't ordered from them. The toy store was outfitted with violent -- and expensive -- plastic rocket launchers, soldiers in battle gear, camouflage-painted tanks, big-wheeled trucks and that horrible "Forward Command Post" dollhouse, so I didn't buy there, either. Department store merchandise had raveling threads, loose buttons and a boring sameness. I passed.

In more prosperous, peaceful times I got a seasonal high from maxing out my credit cards in gaily decorated stores. But January bills always left me depressed, and I never quite recovered from the holidays' financial overdose. This year, taking my cue from a famous O. Henry story about a woman who sold her hair to buy a watch chain for her beloved, who in turn had sold his watch to buy her a comb, I'm giving away some of my treasures to loved ones.

Most of my "good" jewelry will go to young women because I like the idea that my necklaces, earrings and bracelets will attend dances and parties long after I will.

I have no use for a designer purse or a French evening bag, both still wrapped in their original tissue paper nests, so those will be sent to a friend with a weakness for labels and logos. Business suits and dresses left over from my former life will now take other women to the office. Books once enjoyed but now no longer needed will entertain new readers.

Once I figured out that I didn't want to spend money I didn't have on things I don't like to give to people who don't need them, it became easy to share some of my favorite possessions. I learned long ago not to love things, only people.

It feels good to pass along heirlooms. Just as my parents, and their parents, parted with material reflections of themselves, so now do I. I'm delighted that a lace tablecloth that once covered my grandmother's Christmas table will be valued by a young family beginning its own traditions. I'm pleased that a shawl that kept me warm in Paris will now ward off a chill in Maine.

It was easy to decide what to give the grownups because I knew their personalities and tastes, but picking presents for the children was harder. I finally decided to buy them United States savings bonds. Those express not only my faith in their future, but in my country as well.

© 2002 The Women Syndicate

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