We're all getting nothing for Christmas

    While COVID-19 numbers are starting to drop in most places and many have experienced at least a semblance of a return to normalcy, we are heading into the end of ‘21 with a new global crisis… apparently we have all been bad this year because unless a magical sleigh and eight reindeer save the day, our loot is still on ships or in China and will likely stay there until well into 2022. Global supply delays mixed with regular inflation and a readjustment of consumer spending is likely going to drive prices for a lot of the goods we take for granted through the roof.

    Now this should be a great time to discuss moving some manufacturing back to the Americas so that we don’t rely on one center for the majority of our needs and wants but I’ll save that for another day. No this is not a commentary on the woes of globalization, this is a good old fashion “true meaning of Christmas” argument.

    If all of a sudden we had no Iphones or laptops or Playstations to gift each other, what would we do to celebrate the holiday that most sacredly honours the birth of our culture’s one and true god (capitalism)? How in Milton Friedman’s green Earth are we supposed to spread joy to our loved ones if there isn’t anything worth buying?

    You’ve got all this money you’ve been saving through the pandemic just burning a hole in your pocket, losing purchasing power every day due to inflation and it’s about time to spend it. But lo, the poorly made electronics brought in for Black Friday door crashers will ne’er appear on the floor of the store like days of yore.

    Let us consult the holy scripture of our day, Popular Psychology research. University of British Columbia’s Dr. Elizabeth Dunn’s study demonstrates that one can in fact buy happiness with money but it takes some crafty consumerism to do so and despite what the ‘ghost of replication crises past’ might say, I believe!

    You see, in every instance of ways in which one can buy happiness, each of these products can be produced, distributed, and sold locally. So just like in the case of our fictitious furry friends the Whos, our stuff is stuck atop Mount Crumpit, this is a blessing in disguise. This Christmas has the potential to be the happiest one yet, because now we can invest our hard earned stimulus checks in actual happiness. How? I tried to stretch it into a 12 verse carol but there are actually only 3 tips. 


  1. Buy experiences. The thrill of receiving a thing is quite something but that something diminishes embarrassingly quickly into nothing. Experiences on the other hands provide us with a longer lasting positive affect, which over time is a far superior ROI. Now this is assuming an individual has the basic needs met. I’m not arguing that you should give a starving person a free pass to an escape room, that would be as they say, tonedeaf. Sometimes a well needed object is the exact gift to make someone’s Christmas merry. But for most of us who have been hung up on the hedonistic treadmill of materialism, this is a perfect Christmas to shift towards filling memories rather than storage units. It’s hard to say how many concerts will be available in the near future, the two tickets I got my wife for Christmas in ‘19 ended up being a miss, but perhaps as vaccinations do their thing there will be more options to see your favourite musician or comedian once and for all. Experiences can be grand like a trip to Fiji or 30 minutes in ‘sort of’ space with Blue Origin, but for us regular folk we can find unique and enjoyable experiences that would cost just as much or even less than the crappy electronic device you were going to buy anyway. Maybe there is a class someone has always wanted to take, or specified lessons from an expert in a field of their interest. There are local excursions, unique challenges, and of course there’s that fancy restaurant you have always wanted to try. 

  2. Give money to someone else. Lawton et al. in the Journal of Happiness studies demonstrate a correlation between giving and having lower stress, lower blood pressure, and high life satisfaction. Now it is possible that happy people just tend to be more giving but I’m a psychologist and I’m going to pull rank and say that there is definitely a cause and effect relationship between giving and being happy. Once again, you could make a giant conspicuous donation to a children’ hospital and derive a lot of satisfaction that will last longer than an Iphone would, especially if they name a wing of the hospital after you (unless your name is Mark Zuckerberg). But the joy from giving doesn’t need to be grand or public to pay off. Skip that morning coffee and give five bucks to someone who looks like they could use it more than you. Bring some of your winter clothing to someone who looks cold on the street. No one will throw you a parade or praise you on the news and you know what, sometimes even the person you’re trying to help might not express much gratitude either, but you’ll still feel better about doing it.

  3. Buy time. Time is the most valuable commodity we have. Our time, and the attention swallowed up in it, has become the resource mined by some of the richest people in history. Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, they made billions because we gave them our attention and our time for free and they sold it to the highest bidder. Perhaps the most important thing a global pandemic taught us is that we are all going to die and this life is short. We need to invest our time in a way that will help us feel that at the end of it all, our life was worth having existed. So if you have extra money to buy your kids even more toys they won’t really play with or clothes they won’t really wear but find yourself with little time to ever sit down and enjoy yourself, perhaps you could stand to outsource some of your to-do list and free up some time. This is great for the local economy, there are plenty of people in the neighbourhood willing to clean your house, rake your leaves, or walk your dogs. Imagine if you could hire someone to get your groceries, cook dinner, and do the dishes on those really busy Thursday nights! It sounds so bougie to hire out such menial tasks that you could easily do yourself but there are talented hard working people who could use the money and you could use the time. It’s a win-win. You don’t need to be a Kardashian to hire out.


In conclusion, Christmas has been stolen this year by poor supply chain management and the overdependence on globalized capitalism. So what?! Like our great Who forefathers, let’s join hands, sing “Da-hoo Doray” and get to living our lives in a way that will truly make us feel joy and merriment. Being spoiled for Christmas is something the boomers started anyway, let’s switch the tradition and start supporting local and buying gifts of experience and time that more effectively spread holiday cheer.


Here are some episodes of the Psychology of... Podcast that go well with this article.

The psychology of experience with Steve Christenson

The psychology of Christmas with historian Chris Roedler

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