Of Gifts and Christmas

Who does not like to receive gifts? Kids, especially, think it the best thing about Christmas. As adults, the picture becomes more nuanced. If it is gifts from the family, I’m paying for them anyway. So what’s the point? Did they spend too much? It’s the thought that counts, supposedly. And what if they got the wrong thing? I can’t be seen to not like it. If it is from others, it could be too nice, in which case I will look bad when they open my gift, or it could be too cheap, showing they don’t really care. Even kids too often don’t like their gifts and they don’t mind letting you know as loudly as they can. Why is it so complicated? This year I would rather do without gifts at all. I told my family and they did not take very well to it. They informed me they are going to buy me something (with my money), whether I like it or not. What am I to do?

In Greek we call a Christmas and another gift a “Doro”, as in Dorothy (Gift of God) or Theodore (God’s gift). Two names for the same thing. Wow. Some say it comes from Dorians, an ancient Greek race. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts? I don’t like gifts.

As a kid in Greece I remember another type of gift, what we called “charisma”. Say you borrowed a pen to write something. You liked it and said so as you were giving it back. He said “keep it. It’s a charisma (gift)”. Unexpected, but nice. Or you borrowed $1 from a friend to buy candy (quite a lot, back then). Time to repay? He would say “no need to repay, consider it a gift (charisma)”. Always a surprise. Always unexpected. Always something you saw, something you liked, something you picked, you can keep for free. Nice. No need to reciprocate. Just keep it. He can easily do without it. It’s yours, just because.