What's on my holiday wish list

Is for materialistic gift guides to disappear: a rant

Some time ago (much earlier than I think both necessary and socially appropriate), I started getting YouTube ads for holiday sales at Nordstrom Rack. And because I don’t have YouTube Premium, I kept coming across the same clip, watching the same girl smile in her white and blue sweater, peering down at unopened gift boxes. Every time, the main thought that passed through my mind was, “what are the chances that that sweater has some polyester or acrylic in it?”

With each passing year, I’m sure we’ve all felt the price of things increasing with the quality of said things decreasing. The Milano cookies I used to love as a kid now come in fewer ounces per bag. Clothing brands that touted sustainability and high quality upon first launch are now found to be greenwashing. A quote to get my hair colored earlier this year was around $450 to start.

So, for anyone who’s still creating materialistic holiday gift guides in our year 2024 (really not any of you reading this, probably, I’m just ranting to hypothetical content creators and influencers), I pass my complete judgement onto you when I ask if you’ve lost the plot.

I think about the ways I’ve reflected on and reckoned with our beautiful, complicated, painful, collective humanity in recent years. And when this kind of content starts springing up in stark contrast, I really can’t take it seriously. A soulless flat lay of candles, perfumes, and fleece lined slippers for the “cozy beauty girlie” in our lives. Maybe we’ll throw in some ribbed glassware or a modern lamp for good measure, for the “mid-century modern enthusiast.” Onion (not chili) crisp in glass jars, the latest gorpcore sneaker, wearable tech that scores your sleep every night - we should be getting closer to knowing ourselves and our bodies, not becoming further detached. How are we still on this never-ending hamster wheel of aspiring to obtain material goods to make ourselves feel better? (Don’t answer that, I know you know we all have our reasons.)

Me, when you say you want Bala Bangles but I’m thinking about the state of our country

And to be clear, I’m definitely still complicit in this kind of consumerism: I purchase mass-produced goods, I eat meat, I drive distances that I can walk. But, can we at least try to move beyond these uninspiring collages and listicles? Give me something more than yet another tinted lip balm. Give me book recommendations, tools that inspire my creativity, a nice walk in the park. Maybe we actually go offline and touch some grass, let the gift guide us to feel the earth firsthand. Give me a card with some nice words on it, genuine words that you mean, that you took a little bit of time to think about. Give me a shared meal, something we can laugh about, something that creates nice memories. Something that cherishes the preciousness and fleeting nature of connection.