NY Times: The Holidays Downsized - No Job and Fewer Gifts

[marmar]

The Holidays Downsized
No Job and Fewer Gifts

By JAN HOFFMAN
Published: November 28, 2008


SUSAN McCABE liked to go all out for Christmas. Presents for friends and 17 relatives: high-end cameras for adults, Nintendo Wii for the children. On Christmas Eve, she proudly treated the immediate family to dinner at romantic white tablecloth restaurants in Manhattan. Sticker shock? Ms. McCabe, who sold eco-friendly technology, wouldn’t blink twice.

But in September, the start-up company she worked for went belly up.

A restaurant dinner? All those presents?

“Out of the question,” said Ms. McCabe, who is scrambling to make the rent on her Manhattan apartment. “And that really bothers me.”

In solidarity, Ms. McCabe’s sister, Robin, a lawyer, suggested a familywide ban on gifts for the adults. Then, to strike a tone more seemly for the times and her little sister’s circumstances, Robin reshaped her annual Brooklyn Heights holiday party: the sparkly, dressy affair will be a potluck gathering with a charitable component. It will feature clothing from Goods of Conscience, a new line sewn by Bronx seamstresses using fabric woven by Guatemalan women, who share in the profit.

Many people have a narrative about their holiday rituals: the worship, the setting, the food, the gifts, the personae, the drama. But this year, the economy is rudely tearing apart those yellowed scripts.

For millions, this is the first time they are compelled to scale back and reframe their holiday traditions. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/fashion/30laidoff.html?_r=1