I’m sorry maybe it’s my Jewish upbringing or my family’s limited budget, but growing up, Holiday Time was Family Time and not about shopping and gifts. The gift was time spent together during meal prep and the food we ate (sometimes as glutens) but with smiles and joys and lots of thanks to the cooks my Mom, Auntie Annie & Aunt Jean (Also known as the Dolly Sisters.) As the children grew up cousins joined in the prep but Rosie was always in the Kitchen for clean-up and washing dishes (before a dishwasher was installed,) a family worker who was just as much a part of the whole mishpacha as anyone else.

Stores were closed and if you didn’t purchase an ingredient for your meal before 5 or 6 pm the night before the holiday you either borrowed it from a relative or neighbor or did without.

As for shopping for gifts, you had/have many other days of the year to do that and presents back in my younger years meant so much more, they were just that, something special. Today, we buy things just to buy, just to have, even those of us on limited budgets.

The advertising bug has invaded our brains and it has instilled in us that we must leave the circle of family and friends to go spend money and buy their love and acceptance….WHY? They won’t like or love us anymore and the gift will probably be regifted….Just sayin’!