Well finally there is something that I agree with the Prime Minister John Howard and treasurer Peter Costello on.
This year for Christmas give your children Love.
I work at a major department store in Australia. The past couple of weeks have been really busy. Being a checkout operator I see what people are buying their families for Christmas. It seems to me that people are buying things just for the sake of buying. They seem to have an endless amount of credit to spend without any thought to having to pay it back in the near future.
But why do people buy so much stuff for their kids and families for Christmas? Is it because they truly need the gifts they are buying or are they spending this amount of money so that it can replace the love lost during the year and make up for it?
Im constantly amazed at work at the trolley loads of what seems to me as *crap* passing through. Why?
I was on the phone to my sister this morning and she was given a wish list to Santa by her two children one 9 and the other 11. She read it out to me. I was astounded at the items carefully thought out by my nephews. It was all computer games and expensive equipment that I would never have dreamt of asking for as a kid let alone now as an adult. What happened to the times when as a kid I was really excited to even get one present, sometimes something simple as a new tee shirt or soccer ball. Commercialism it seems has taken over the minds of the present generation of kids.
So maybe it is some good advice coming from our politicians here in Oz about what we really should be giving not only at Christmas time but all throughout the year... Love.