IT'S ALL OVER

Oh yes, it is. Well mostly. More or less. Except for all those final clearance sales on stuff the store does not want to store until next year. Odd that stores don't like to store stuff, in spite of being called stores. One last chance to squeeze out a few more dollars from the Holiday Season.  
 
You wanna know what gripes my ass? - doing best Paul Sr. imitation voice - Somehow, it has become how much money you paid for something that determines the value of a gift. Odd that I always thought value and money were 2 different things, since advertising used to say that you were getting good VALUE for your MONEY. It is pretty pathetic that you can put hours and hours of work into a thoughtful gift and the first thing that pops into the receivers mind is "How crappy, they MADE me a gift." On top of that, it is completely disgusting that it is suddenly wrong to give something of yours as a gift for whichever holiday you celebrate because either you don't use it or you know someone else could use it more. It even has a new buzzword... REGIFTING. Forget the fact the the entire original premise on Seinfeld was that the people were shallow and selfish and upset that someone gave them a "used" gift... I am using used loosely, as in used meaning it was once wrapped up and then unwrapped, not that the package had been actually OPENED or anything. Forget the fact that we are living in a world where it is all about how much CRAP you can accumulate and then throw into a landfill site and reusing stuff would be the ethical thing to do. You know, there is a reason for that order of presentation: reduce, reuse, recycle... you are supposed to reduce and reuse before you think about recycling because reducing and reusing use less resources than recycling. Also amazing that the remarkably-rich HARPy OPRAH asked two remarkably shallow skanks on her show about the "taboo", and they told her it was totally wrong to regift, and rude and tacky - as if Oprah was regifting to save money. Oh wait, she probably was, since she is so tight with her bazillion dollars that she can't even pay for the gifts "she gives" the audience on her "favourite things" shows, even going so far as to not classify things as her favourite any more if the company won't pay off her endorsement with a shitload of merchandise so she can play "look how generous I am" on her ultimate greed secretly-taped giveaway shows. I mean, do you ever see the beatific look on her face when she is giving this stuff away? Its like she took a job in a sweat-shop factory in China herself to personally make every item for her audience. Oh thanks be to the goddess Oprah, that she taketh from the evil corporations to raiseth her own profile whilst savingest the dineros from her own prehshuss pocketses (oops, sorry... ahem... Gollum in my throat).  
 
Lets put it this way for the gift-math challenged: If it takes 15 minutes to go and spend $50 to get a gift for someone, you have put exactly that much effort into it. If we universally translate that into lets say, $10 an hour (just for arguments sake, we are averaging over all waking hours and not just whatever you personally make at work), then your time and effort adds a value of $2.50 to that gift. Total, $52.50. If someone spends12 hours of work knitting something for you, their gift is already worth $120 in time and effort, not counting the yarn. Of course, this math only applies to those who feel the need to look at a gift for what dollar value is attached and not for the thought, effort and heartache that some people put into these things. As a side note, 150 years ago people could not go to WalMart and all gifts had to be well thought out, planned and either made or saved for to purchase - yet people seemed happier with the gifts they received and more grateful for them - coincidence? I think not.  
 
By the way, did you ever wonder if Oprah actually does pay for anything herself, ever? But, that's another rant altogether...