Why is it that once the gift-giving holidays are over and the New Year’s resolutions list comes out, the first thing on the list is decluttering, minimalizing and getting rid of stuff? Does anyone see a problem here?
True, we do have a lot to declutter. We’ve been receiving gifts from babyhood onward. Take a nostalgic trip through the ages…
Everyone loves giving gifts to a baby. Parents search the stores for the cutest intellectually stimulating toys. Aunts and uncles compete to see who can offer the most unique and thoughtful baby gift. Grandparents release the flood of gifts that they would have given their own children if they didn’t worry about spoiling them. This is all well and good, as long as everyone understands the basic rule of baby gifts: nothing matters but the box. You might give a cunning interactive toy that says “Mama” in seven languages, but the kid doesn’t care. That one-of-a-kind toy will end up on the floor, while the child plays with the cardboard box it came in for the next three months. Might as well just wrap up the shoebox from your latest pair of sneakers and call it good.
As children grow, they will learn that boxes have wonderous surprises inside. They might even know what’s inside, if their parents were listening when they made their requests at the top of their lungs. But how do they know what they want?
When I was a kid, we got our ideas from the Sears Wish Book, that enchanting volume that contained pictures of every toy known to exist in the natural world. It was a child’s dream come true. I suppose adults looked through this inches-thick catalog and envisioned mundane adult presents under the tree, if only they could get their kids to relinquish their grip on the magical tome. The Sears Wish Book had everything: from dolls to race car tracks to board games galore. Do you want to go skating? It had roller skates and ice skates, depending on whether or not you were expecting a white Christmas. Even though I knew I wouldn’t get everything pictured in those alluring pages, I totally expected that my gifts under the tree would turn out to be toys.
Alas — into each child’s life some sweaters must fall. At the age of ten, the last thing I wanted to unwrap on Christmas morning was a cozy sweater or a fuzzy pair of socks. I didn’t want to see any article of clothing, no matter how unique or irresistible. If it wasn’t a toy, I wasn’t interested.
As a teenager, sweaters or even socks as gifts became more socially acceptable. But what I really wanted was money. Cold, hard cash. My grandmother would send each of us kids a crisp new $20 bill that was so beautiful to smell and touch that I barely wanted to fold it into my wallet, much less spend it. A teen’s experience today is less satisfying. They can’t enjoy that luxurious smell of crisp new bills through a money sharing app.
Adults are the hardest people to buy gifts for. Are they allergic to chocolate or trying to get a jump start on their weight loss resolutions for the new year? Those tempting boxes of bonbons are out. Are they trying to cut down on the amount of stuff cluttering up their lives? That awesome 37-piece set of collectible cookie jars might not be appreciated. Is every horizontal surface in their house covered with towers of books waiting to be read? They might pronounce the baffling words, “I have enough books.” Is there any such thing? If one can’t give books, what else is there?
How about a box? The craft store has some lovely boxes to fit any season or décor. They are perfect for re-gifting all those tempting goodies that don’t align with the New Year’s diet. Shove aside a tower of books to display your new boxes on the bookshelf. You can use them to corral the clutter or store your gift-giving ideas list for the next holiday. There’s nothing quite so entertaining as a box.
• Peggy McKee Barnhill is a wife, mother, and author who writes cozy mysteries under the pen name “Greta McKennan.” She likes to look at the bright side of life.
