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Better
to Win Than to Receive
By Tim
McNellie
Beginning this year,
I’m no longer handing out holiday gifts to my loved ones.
It’s not that I’ve
grown bitter over the years or that I suddenly dislike my family
or hate the holidays. On the contrary, I find this season to be
the most joyous of the year, and I want to do what I can to
enhance that joy among those near and dear to me. That’s why I’ve
decided to stop giving presents and start awarding prizes.
What’s the
difference between a gift and a prize, you ask? Plenty.
First, gifts are
given, while prizes are awarded. It’s more than just a semantic
difference, because once you get past the wrapping paper, what
gifts really come draped in is sentimentality and/or obligation.
Either someone likes you and thinks that you deserve a gift, or
someone is a relative and feels obligated to buy a gift. Either
way, there are sundry emotional complexities attached. Do you
really like the gift? If not, did your expression upon opening it
betray your true feelings? Did you properly express thanks for
said gift? Did you even think to get that person a gift in
exchange? Was it in the same price range as the one you received?
It goes on and on. It’s no wonder that people are driven so
batty by holiday shopping.
Prizes, on the other
hand, say one thing loud and clear: You are a winner. And it
couldn’t have happened to a better person.
Look at it this way:
In honor of working 25 years at your office, you receive the
customary gold-plated watch. You feel sort of happy about it and
exchange a lot of awkward thank-yous with your co-workers. No one
knows that you’re really wondering how much gold-plated watches
fetch on eBay these days.
On the other hand,
let’s say you purchase a scratch-off lottery ticket and find
that you’ve won $300. You feel a sudden rush of adrenaline, jump
around like a fool, and hurry to your phone to tell people.
That’s the feeling
I want to bring to my friends and family this season; I want them
to know that they are among life’s winners.
The tricky part is
how to go about this, considering that the prizes I’m awarding
will likely be handed out at the same time as the traditional, but
clearly out-dated Christmas “presents.” I haven’t yet
finalized the details, but I suspect that it will involve lots of
glittery wrapping paper and tags that read “Congratulations!”
I’ll also have to come up with specific reasons for awarding a
prize to each person. My mom might get a prize for “Best
Pepperoni Bread,” while my brother could receive one for “Best
Guitar Playing in a Rock Tribute to Pro Wrestlers.”
Naturally, I won’t
expect anything in return. After all, you don’t give Bob Barker
a chair when you’ve won a new dining room set. But if anybody
out there thinks that I too am a winner, I’m open to accepting
prizes.
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