Two front teeth . . . now that’s a gift

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth…’ My mother has been singing that ditty to my six-year-old daughter for the past while – she who has begun shedding her milk teeth and collecting rewards under her pillow.

Have you been thinking about what you want for Christmas? Or, more importantly, have you been thinking about what to get your loved ones for Christmas?

(Those of you who do not celebrate ritualised gift-giving in December, just pretend you do for now. Thank you)

Here's my guess: you are finding it more difficult to do gift shopping this year than you did last year.

It's not that things are more expensive – (they are, but that's not the reason) – it's just that you really don't have a clue what to get.

There's something interesting happening in the world – technology and economies of scale have been drastically eating into what separates the haves from the have-nots.

Here's one example: when television first came into our lives in this country in 1976, there was a miniscule handful of us who could afford to get one. We would save up for a small black and white set and look with awe at those who could afford to rent those Telefunken colour sets from Teljoy.

Here's another example: the first DVD players sold for around R4 000 in the mid-1990s while the first DVDs were several hundred rand apiece.

Think of the first cellphones, the first car stereos, the first frost-free refrigerators, the first microwave ovens, the first cars with electric windows, the first cars with ABS brakes, the first laptop computers, the first iPods and other portable MP3 players, the first smartphones, the first iPads and other tablets.

Now measure their price and their performance against the current generation.

So your R1-million car has asymmetric all-wheel drive, anti-skid technology, park distance control, rear and front cameras, heated seats and a panoramic roof. So does the R100 000 starter pack that your neighbour's kid just acquired.

Things that are desirable have become more accessible. As they become more accessible, they become less desirable.

So while you might have been excited about getting a big screen TV a few years ago, you discover you don't really need a bigger one this year – your living room isn't big enough for it. Neither do you need a new sound system for the same reason.

You don't need another car because yours is comfortable enough and it doesn't need to go faster because you are stuck in traffic most of the time.

So don't believe the politicians who tell you about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. They lie. There's a great equalisation happening around the world as can be seen by the dramatic increase in satellite dishes on roofs in squatter camps.

And that means you are going to run out of ideas. Very soon, you will not be able to think of what to buy because everyone has one.

(The positive side of that is that theft of those things will diminish because thieves will be less inclined to steal something they cannot sell.)

So why not get ahead of the pack and completely change your mindset around the type of gift you give this year?

Music and books are excellent examples of this. The attraction of immersing yourself in a good book or piece of music is that it touches something within you – it's the experience that matters.

Why not start giving experiences as gifts?

Look for a truly fabulous restaurant and give a gift voucher for dinner there. Give away tickets to visit uShaka Marine World, or Liliesleaf Farm, or the Apartheid Museum, or Robben Island.

Buy someone an advanced driving or defensive driving course.

Buy someone a skydive, or guitar lessons, or dog training classes, or cooking lessons, or wine tasting lessons.

(And if you are really really close, you could buy that special someone teeth whitening or liposuction or breast augmentation or botox – just be careful how you broach the subject.)

Most of those things will leave the receiver with experiences that they will remember forever.

The best gifts are timeless. The best gifts require time.

Happy shopping.