Children: Christmas in April conversation
It’s April as I write this, and yet it’s all about Christmas! At first glance it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. But if you think about it, it’s only five months until the big box stores start with the carol playing and tempting displays of trendy presents. Yep, and guess what, many parents are still paying off their plastic from last year!
How about if you didn’t even have to worry about spending the big dollars this year? If you didn’t feel a clutch in your heart as those precious kids ripped off the wrapping paper and moved onto the next gift in rapid succession? What if you had an opportunity to teach yourself and your children a more meaningful way to celebrate Christmas?
Let’s Talk!
I want to get in earlier than those big box stores, so you can think about this before they suck you in. I’m hoping you’ll gather your courage and have a great conversation with your children.
Have you noticed a not-so-subtle change in marketing strategy lately? Of course marketers are still aggressively touting their wares, but the difference is there’s now a really bald-faced, no-holds-barred focus on children, not their parents.
I think back a little wryly on my own childhood. I never really bothered about owning things very much, let alone tried to influence my parents into buying stuff for me. It’s not that we had no money, it’s more that we kept so busy doing other things that it was never an issue.
I grew up in a small village in Zululand, South Africa. It’s sort of hard to have shopping high on your list when there are only a couple of small stores to visit! Those weren’t self-serve, either. The owners would keep a careful eye on their stock. You asked for what you needed. None of the touchy, feely stuff in those days.
We walked everywhere, although my dad did have an old Nash car. Our telephone number was 252. That gives you an idea about the population count. My biggest treat of the month was a trip to the local trading store, where I would buy a brown paper bag full of raw red skinned peanuts. Loved those peanuts!
The way it was…
Credit cards were unknown, meaning if you couldn’t afford to buy something, you simply didn’t get it. And it was almost like a badge of honor that you admitted this with a rueful smile. The disappointment of not getting something you coveted was soon forgotten. You resolved to save up for it, or for something else. It was a way to focus your mind.
And at Christmas time we all had the excitement of putting a pillow case on our beds, and hoping during the night we’d see it miraculously fill with small gifts to unwrap. They weren’t ever anything really expensive, but it was so exciting. (We never did see who filled them…)
It’s all to do with money and things of course. And as Christmas approaches, marketing swings into top gear. It’s impossible to see anything on TV that isn’t aimed at being trendy and a must have for children to fit in with their peers. Right now anything at all that relates to a glitzy resuscitated Star Wars is in vogue.
There was no television in South Africa when I was growing up, and certainly no cell phones. They were yet to be dreamed up. Magazines were heavily censored; glitzy ads didn’t exist either, therefore I was unaffected by advertising. Besides, my parents were the decision makers.
Different times, different standards. The expectation was that children passed through a childhood filled with experiential learning, sometimes good, sometimes not so much, but always dependent on their creativity. Admitting to being bored would be shameful in my parents eyes, therefore you made darn sure you always had lots do do and think about.
George Lucas of Star Wars fame probably had no idea his writing would change the ideas and worm into the plastic card wallets of so many! It’s estimated more than 14 billion Star Wars action figures have been sold since the 1970’s. That’s about the same time marketers realized children were worth $700 billion to their industry.
Star Wars = wallet wars!
Those original action figures cost $1.97. Today you pay a huge amount just to get a smile from a child. Sadly, those same North American children often have no idea about money management. They just know what they want and are entitled to expect..
The marketing is aggressive and persistent.The advertising grows ever more violent, the content all about the battle for supremacy in a virtual world, feeding the cravings of both children and their parents for the thrill of ever more battles.
In contrast, somehow younger children are losing sleep at night for a couple reasons.
- Bedtime stories, aren’t recounted by a parent. Instead, children take an iPad or phone with them, in spite of the warnings by various medical associations that this dangerously interferes with the sleeping habits of children.
- their frantic desire for fingerlings, the latest small plastic interactive finger puppets that they must have! Unfortunately bots have beaten all parents to the draw, and bought up the whole supply, reselling them at outrageous prices, while marketing is designed to constantly fuel the flame of desire in those consumerist young hearts.
Who’s running the show?
Precocious little people figure predominantly in most advertising now. And marketers have figured out they watch a lot of adult shows too. The boundaries between adult and child have become blurred. Children are the influencers in parental buying decisions, including vehicles and appliances.
Cars are bought with the comfort of children in mind. Drink holders, wifi hot spots and viewing screens are more important than the actual running of the vehicle.
Recently I was amazed to hear from a friend’s five-year-old’s list for Santa of the presents he wanted.
- A big Lego set
- A mountain bike
- A computer
I was even more amazed that his parents seriously wondered how they would be able to afford them. It’s as if “sorry, we just can’t do it,” would be a disgraceful admission to make.
Whatever happened to enjoying family, and small gifts?
I love this story, and hope you’ll click on it. It’s short, about a paramedic who saw a Christmas need, and had the heart to try and fill it. Perhaps if more folks, including their children were to see this graphic need of others it would inspire and encourage them to think differently about gifts.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/tags-for-tots-christmas-charity-1.4436932
And it’s something many of us could do. That’s how to teach the giving of Christmas.
