What if we didn’t give each other presents on Christmas? How would the U.S. economy be different? (Apologies to other economies around the world – I don’t know the impact of Christmas on other economies.)
There wouldn’t be any such thing as Black Friday. Retailers wouldn’t depend on most of their revenues in a four week shopping binge. Would there be that must have toy every year? A Cabbage Patch Kid that every child must have or they’ll just die? Movies that come out in the late summer wouldn’t be rushed out in December. Gadgets wouldn’t be timed to come out at this time of the year.
We also wouldn’t get a lot of stuff either. I wouldn’t have gotten my iPod if I hadn’t been able to justify it as my Christmas present. And I bet a lot of jewelry wouldn’t be purchased if it weren’t for Christmas.
Or would birthdays be the big thing instead? I mean, we have to buy what’s produced at some point, or it wouldn’t get produced.
What do you think? How do you think our economy would be different?
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2 replies on “What if Christmas != Presents?”
there wouldn’t be any threats to motivate kids to behave. not that anyone follows through on those threats anyway….
i know a particular family who shall remain anonymous who used to be jehovah’s witnesses but aren’t anymore. they don’t really celebrate xmas or birthdays though. but they give each other plenty of gifts, throughout the year, for no particular reason than that they just like each other. takes away the pressure too.
The family has to like each other though in order to get presents…
Seriously though, kids might be good for those few weeks in order to get the presents, but fall right back into old patters on 12/26 (maybe even 12/25 PM).
On a lighter note, I saw the Grinch a few days back (the good one, not the Jim Carrey one). For the first time, Sharon and I noticed it really had a heavy Looney Tunes influence in how it was animated. It looked a lot like those cartoons from the late ’60s.