Santa is usually free. Malls and shops pay his wages so they can attract business.

The union did a gate collection at work a week ago. Usually it goes to help out union members/families that are laid off, but this year nobody's laid off. They'll help a couple of families where the member is out on medical leave, but most of the $7000 will go to children's charities for Christmas gifts.

Yeah, the employees at my firm get heavily involved in the Salvation Army Toys for Tots program. We sponsored I think around 120 families this year. I never saw a final tally but it was at least that many.

I'm not trying to brag, especially because my personal involvement was minimal this year, but I just wanted to point out that some people are getting some help. Put a positive spin on a depressing thread.

Here are a couple pictures of some of the presents before they got sent out for distribution to needy kids.

that guy has really bad acne

We blew our budget for the month buying presents for a family that would not have much of a Christmas. A working single Mom and her two kids. WEbugeted $100.00 and spent $200.00, oh well we had a blast doing it it was a project of our life group at church we also got them some household goods, and got them a gently used TV to replace there old one that doesn't work rite.:santa:

See this is where things get lost in translation :)
It's anything from £5 ($9) upwards to go into Santa's grotto here. Hamleys (famous toyshop) offer packages from £10-£45!
We went to see Father Christmas ONCE when I was a child, and that was paid for as a present by a friend of my Mum's. Mum told us that Father Christmas was so busy this time of year that he sent out helpers to meet children on his behalf. Which also explained why a benevolent gift-giving magic creature was appearing somewhere we couldn't afford to get into.
And this is what I remember of Christmas. Our experience with Father Christmas (who we knew wasn't the real one, as above) was the Rotary Club float that came round every year. The times and dates were in the local paper (something I only discovered a few years ago!) and we would listen out for him. It was a man dressed as Father Christmas, on a lorry, with lots of burly men dressed up running alongside with collection buckets. It was such a big thrill to hear the music coming and run out to the main road with a couple of pence to put in the buckets, and have him wave at us.

I only remember about three specific Christmas presents growing up. Two were stocking fillers, but they feature in a story told and retold here, and the other was a game we ended up having marathon sessions on; a friend got it the next Christmas so we could do the same at her house.

What I remember most is the familiar decorations on the tree - which ones would be broken this year? - Dad's handpainted nativity scene, the year we had snow (1982), family traditions, walking to Mass in the silent morning. And running out into the dark with coats on over our nightdresses to see the Rotary Club pass by like a carnival, raising money for poor children. We had no idea we were relatively poor too, and probably wouldn't have cared if we knew.

As an aside, Mum confessed to us years later that she sometimes spent some of the money sent to us by the London Aunts and Uncles on food and drink for Christmas. If things were tight and perhaps Dad hadn't got the overtime he hoped for. "Good!" I said. Christmas should never be about the presents. (Well, probably not about the food & drink either!) It was a special time for all of us, and despite a few bumpy teenage years, oh and just after my divorce, it has settled back into that again.

good job on the toy collections/charity drives guys :santa:

made me chortle. out loud.

So very right, and so very wrong, all from one guy. :D

I've already put cans in the company food drive. I have to get off my a** and get the Toys for Tots gifts for this year. I think the company just set up the toys collection point a few days ago.

Times are bad. They're as bad as most of us have seen in our lifetimes.

As with all things, YMMV, but even though some of us may have been worse off a few years ago than we are now, it is difficult to say that, overall, things aren't as tough as they've ever been for most.

Comparisons with the Great Depression aren't valid; not in terms of the National Average. But for those who have lost jobs and face the coming holiday season bereft of funds, it *is* as bad as it has ever been.

Let us not make light of the economic crisis. Let us instead take the extra five bucks, if we have it, drop it in a kettle or such, and move on, counting our blessings that we still have any sort of job (if indeed we do), giving thanks to our chosen deities that we have something in freezer (assuming that we we have such), and letting The Universe know that, despite all the suck, we're still in there plugging.

I have exactly $300 to spend on Xmas/Yule for everyone who matters to me. I hope to spend it well, and I'm glad to have even that.

Are you judging this woman by how she chooses to spend the little cash she has? haven't you (and others) -in the past, on here- said something like "you can't understand until you're in their shoes how important a little treat is" (yes, I'm paraphrasing, but....)?

:lol: oh no you didn't!

Okay, it was an off the cuff remark.
My first thought was that the story didn't make sense.
From that thought I progressed to the opinion that the woman's behaviour didn't make sense.
I read it that she had paid to take her children to see Santa in November at a time when her situation was very precarious.

As you know, November is not Christmas here.
And seeing Santa is a luxury.
I accept that neither is true in America.

I also hold my hands up and say mea culpa. I had no right to cast any aspersions on that woman, the way she spends or does not spend her money or way she chooses to celebrate Christmas and when. Especially when it is known that if I had £5 left in the world I would probably go and buy some hair-dye to cheer myself up about the future.

I think I've had more responses to that one comment than to anything else I've written all year :rolleyes:

Very good post SG - much different than would have been a year ago. smiles