I recently saw this documentary "What Would Jesus Buy" about the commercialization of Christmas. I watched it with my wife who, it just so happens, is pretty fed up with Christmas. The past few years have went something like this: We buy a bunch of stuff, give it to a bunch of people who bought a bunch of stuff and gave it to us. The End.
Although we were not very impressed with the good Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, we get it. We're addicted and have been "led like Sheeple to the Christmas slaughter." We have fallen prey to the wolf that is Walmart.
We started to think about what material items we have that we really would not want to wake up on Christmas morning without. Aside from the obvious and most important answers, shelter, clothing, indoor plumbing, the first thing that came to my mind was a plastic gorilla that I found in my grandpa's truck after he died. It is about 5 inches long and has definitely seen better days and to anybody else would no doubt be junk. However, to me it is priceless. This may not be a very good example because it was not actually a gift, but if it were, it would be the best gift I could have gotten. And, now, don't miss this, it was FREE. No long lines at Walmart, no back ordered Elmo dolls or Wii stations, no inconceivably ridiculous price for a piece of plastic that certainly won't make it until next Christmas.
I guess what I got most from this weird and mostly annoying movie was this, I have no idea what was the hot item for Christmas the year my grandpa died, but I'm pretty sure it was not a little plastic gorilla long forgotten that was on the dash of a beat-up old pick-up.
