I know it’s a cliché, but I really love the holidays. My wife and I have three children under the age of six so Christmas is just a great time for them. Seeing the expressions as they tear through gifts is priceless. To the MasteCard marketing team, there’s an idea for your next holiday campaign. I’m sure you don’t get many of those.
Another reason I love the holidays are the passionate conversations our extended family can get into around the dinner table. With a mix of staunch conservatives and liberals, our table sometimes resembles a Matt Lauer interview with Ann Coulter. Lots of talking but no one is paying attention to what the other person is saying. However, during dessert one night the conversation turned to past Christmases and gifts everyone had received. With a few exceptions, it was really hard for us to remember what we received last year. Then the conversation turned to memorable vacations in our past. My wife and brother-in-law vividly described their annual motor home trips across the country…down to the most random of details. My sister-in-law told us about her great trips to northern Michigan growing up and into adulthood. What struck me through this entire conversation was how passionate everyone was in telling their stories and the expressions on everyone’s faces in recalling great memories of places they’ve been and the people they were with. They all looked like our kids when they were opening their presents.
It may come across totally self-serving, being that I’m in the travel business, but maybe one of the upsides of this economic downturn is that we shift our spending from our closets and garages to seeing new places and experiencing new things with the people who are closest to us. As adults, this is what we will remember most.
Mike
Excellent piece, Mike.
Posted by: Mike Seaman | January 15, 2009 at 04:11 PM