Monday, November 24, 2008

Tis the season of appeasement

It’s that time of year again!!! You can just smell the fresh baked cookies and the pine scented fake trees. Its Christmas suckers!!!!! This is the time of year when people lose their minds. You ask why? No not because of homelessness or being homesick. They get the Fever AKA The Debt Before XMAS. People run around like crack heads mistaking a sugar truck for carrying blow. The media calls them consumers. People that obtain all of their food and clothes from garbage cans call them fools. I call them the Big Spenders of Xmas Eve.


They consist of parents that don’t have the will power to tell their child no. And people who are afraid of what family will think if they don’t purchase gifts. You see these folks at work during their lunch break shopping on line (or possibly shopping on line during work). They have these long check lists of gifts that they are trying to fill out. I remember when my grandmother (on my mom’s side) use to give me long johns. I use to think to myself what am I going to do with these. She must have known that in the future I would be turning down my heat to offset those robbers known as Duke Energy. Boy! She must be a psychic!!! She didn’t do like the rest of my fellow Americans and shopped until their credit cards started smoking. So many people are charging their way into debt. What are they going to do when the bill is due? Trust me, the bill is always due. The last time I heard about someone giving away something for free, my high school lacrosse team ended up with mono.


Every Xmas there is the local commercial where some guy walks into a place with his car title and receives a cash loan. This is to show how easy it is to buy gifts for Xmas when the money is low.


Let’s review the tape shall we?
A person takes a car title to a business to receive a cash loan (STOP)!
1) If you are in possession of your car title that means that you have paid off your car loan.


The business gives the person a cash loan (STOP)!
2) This is a loan with a very high interest rate (has to be at least in the double digits).


The person takes the money to buy Xmas gifts (STOP)!
3) If you need a loan to buy your child a toy for Xmas, you must be broke! Therefore you have no business buying Xmas gifts.


Don’t get me wrong I’ve had to eat oodles of noodles (or as black folks call them oodles-n-noodles) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I highly recommend the shrimp flavor. The reality of this situation is that there are consequences to making this decision. Let’s say you don’t pay off your loan in time - guess what? Now this business owns the title to your car which you had previously paid off. So some fool will lose his car because he couldn’t tell his child that they can’t get any toys this year. I’m sure somebody will say Citizen you don’t have any kids so how would you know what it’s like. Well you are right!! I don’t have any kids. And if I keep looking at yours I might not want any!!! I remember one Xmas I wanted a Lone Ranger action figure set. I’m talking The Lone Ranger, Tonto, a Stage Coach and some other foolishness. Well on Xmas day I ran downstairs to open my gifts and I didn’t see what I asked for. This is also the time that I stopped believing in Santa Claus but I digress…. Well what I ended up with was long johns, some other toys and a radio that picked up television stations. I know that last part sounded weird but it’s the truth!!! I could tune the channels like a radio and I would receive television stations. I could hear the television shows perfectly but I couldn’t see the television show. I guess my parents were trying to stay ahead of the technology curve. We were always a little behind everyone else. During my freshman year of college I had a word processor. My parents were all proud like I was going to school with the Apple Notebook. Later on they got me a radio that had a TV in it. Please don’t ask……..


People need to be honest about their financial situation and not get caught up in the hoopla. Xmas is a once a year event but going into to debt can last forever. If the people around you don’t’ understand your situation then change the people around you. Drop your kids off in Nebraska and stop speaking to your relatives.

Merry Xmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 comments:

Debo Blue said...

I wish I could say I've never been part of that herd of folks stampeding into the malls and online to max out their credit lines but alas no.

What I can testify to is that I no longer do this even though I have credit cards. I'm not about to go back into hell -or debt- just so my nieces and nephews can pointedly ask for the receipts so they can promptly return everything.

"If I keep looking at your kids..." you are hilarious!

uglyblackjohn said...

...drop the kids off in Nebraska...
damn... THAT'S funny.

Citizen Ojo said...

Debo Blue - Thats why I started giving gift cards to people. They can buy on their own. It beats having people fake their enjoyment for the gift they received.

UglyBlackJohn - It sure is funny, not to the kids that are getting dropped off though. If you live in inner city Atlanta, GA and your momma drops you off in Nebraska that has got to be a huge culture shock.

Tasha said...

What I don't understand is how people don't plan for Christmas. It happens on the same day every year, so doing the mad credit card dash on the day after Thanksgiving makes no sense to me. The holiday doesn't just sneak up on you and come out of nowhere. I start doing my shopping in July and I pay cash (or use a debit card, but you know what I'm getting at...no additional debt!).

I don't buy mindless gifts. I buy a gift for the whole household to use--I won't give individual gifts unless the kids are still young enough to believe in Santa. Then I'll get an additional gift for each kid and wrap it up and do my best to get it to their parents with a "From Santa" tag before Xmas eve.

Anonymous said...

Parents can help their kids understand what Christmas is all about if they talk to them. I remember one year my siblings and I voted to get what we really needed, a refrigerator rather than toys. However, someone brought us toys anyway. There really was a santa. (The original santa was known for his generosity -giving gifts to the poor.) If you received a gift for Christmas, someone was generous and kind.
smile