THERE’S A SPECIAL GIFT YOU CAN GIVE THIS YEAR
For as long as I can remember, I have taken great joy in giving gifts. As a young girl, I would try to give people who I liked my own treasures, just knowing with absolute certainty that they would cherish the item as much as me. When the holiday shop would come to my elementary school, I would painstakingly work to reconcile my meager budget with my recipient list, choosing the ideal item for each loved one. Let me tell you, this was no easy feat. The biggest struggle throughout the entirety of my gift-giving career to date has been waiting until the designated day to give my gift and see the joy it brought.
Throughout my boys’ childhood, I always went big at Christmas and birthdays, not only buying gifts for my sons, but also for a dozen or more nieces and nephews. There were lean times, for certain, but, somehow, I always found a way to splurge: extra hours, a side job, credit cards, even deferring other (necessary) payments.
This gifting to a fault mentality has not been limited to the children in my life. I will never forget the pride that I felt when giving my grandmother a porcelain Snow White doll right out of the Disney catalogue for Christmas my first year of adulthood. Or the pearl ring that I gifted my mother after a year that had been particularly financially challenging for me.
This year is an entirely different story. With the immense weight of the COVID-19 pandemic upon us all for nearly two years now, I am positive that I am not the only one forced to adjust my gifting norms. This second year of financial abnormality has dramatically altered my personal balance sheet. As I am in a very specialized field, steady work has been challenging to come by. I have had to adjust to working as an independent contractor rather than being an employee as I had been previously, and have, in fact, been in between contracts for nearly six months now. Thankfully, I’ve accepted a new contract that begins very soon. However, this year‘s gift budget is literally nonexistent.
I am grateful that my boys are grown and fully understand the reality of temporary financial hardship. But my heart truly breaks for so many others in our city who, like myself, find themselves unable to provide any sort of holiday for their children. Children who are too young to understand why Santa won’t be visiting their homes this season, or why their holiday meals aren’t as grand as they’re used to. So today I, ever finding immense elation in the excitement of any child shredding paper to reveal a precious prize, submit a challenge to you, reader: If you should find yourself in possession of any sort of abundance, give a gift to a family without. A token as small as a pizza dinner or an inexpensive board game may not only renew the spirit of the holidays within that family, but also within your own.
Brown is a cultural resources management professional and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act specialist, mother of two young men, and advocate for Indigenous rights health and wellness. She currently lives on the Barona Reservation.