My buddy called me up today and asked if I wanted to go to
the mall with him. His family do what is called a Chinese Christmas each year,
and the gifts have to be around the $10 value. Each person picks a number and
then sequentially selects a gift, then unwraps it, one person at a time. The
second person can select a gift or steal the first persons gift. It goes around
a couple of times and then at some randomly, arbitrary time, the stealing
stops. I’m not really sure how it works, and since I am not involved, I just
don’t care. I do like the idea of a gift under ten dollars though. It seems to
be politically incorrect to call it a Chinese Gift exchange, kind of like
calling someone an Indian giver. Neither of the terms makes sense and I suspect
that both names will disappear in the very near future.
We walked around the mall for a while, drifting in and out
of stores, looking for that elusive ten dollar gift. Not surprisingly, there
just aren’t a lot of really good, interesting gifts to be had for less than ten
bucks. There is a lot of crap, but you always want to give something that the
whole family will fight over. Well, that’s what I would like to do. We left the
mall empty handed, but on the plus side, I figured we had earned a coffee break.
Years ago I heard of two sisters that lived on opposite
sides of the country who had come up with a novel way of gifting at Christmas.
The object was to keep the dollar amount to less than ten dollars, but to wrap
as many gifts as possible. The winner was the sister who wrapped the most and
best gifts under $10. They had been doing this for a couple of decades when I
heard about in and were really good and creative with their choices. They would
collect give away items throughout the year and of course friends and other
family members would give them items they collected for free. It sounds like a
hoot to me, but I’m pretty cheap.
I might just start a variation of that game for next year. I
don’t expect anyone will reciprocate, but it will be fun never the less. No one
but me wants a pair of found gloves that aren’t a match, or a broken iPhone
from the side of a highway. There is a lot of cool stuff to be found if you but
keep your eyes open. Yep! I’m going to do it, so be warned family and friends.
If I find something that I think “is you”, don’t be surprised to find it
wrapped and under your tree next Christmas.
I have a couple of days till Christmas this year, but mostly
I am done my shopping. All I have to do for the next few days is to eat cookies
and watch crappy TV Christmas movies. Ahhhh…the good life!
Here is a link to
the rules of a Chinese Gift exchange...It's not too late!
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