There was a news story out of Ottawa last summer of a couple who are both disabled, who get around on electric scooters, and they had no money to buy Christmas presents for family and friends last Christmas. So they went to a nearby cash loan store and were able to take out a loan for the $400 they needed to buy presents they didn’t have money for.
When they had to repay the loan they couldn’t so they took out another loan to pay off the first loan, which was now a lot higher than $400. They also couldn’t pay off this loan so they took out another loan to repay this one. Now they owed somewhere around $2,550 if I recall correctly the details of the story that was broadcast on the evening news cast.
Now being so much in debt for Christmas presents and the loan folks after them to pay up or else, they turned to the news media for exposure and help. The news media lapped up their poor me story and one reporter (maybe more) that I saw on TV interviewed an Ottawa councillor who said there were too many of the greedy cash loan stores on some streets in the city. People on the street were also interviewed and they said yes those cash loan stores were bad and they made poor people poorer.
No one came out and dare say the disabled couple were idiots and should be given counselling on how to wisely spend their disability cheques and not on Christmas presents they couldn’t afford. The focus of the story was on the bad loan stores and how they should be curtailed.
A few weeks ago I was in the Hamilton and Guelph areas and on one street block I saw numerous loan stores all with big signs out front advertising their loans. “Get $100 for only $12” read one sign. I’m not bothered by them; I don’t use them.
I’ve read some interesting news stories how much money the average Canadian spends on gifts this Christmas season. One said $800, another said $675, another said $723 on gifts this year, according to a new national survey.
While that figure may seem high to some, it’s still 18 per cent less than last year’s figure which saw the average Canadian shopper spending $884 on gifts during the same season, notes the survey results released last week by the Chartered Professional Accounts of Canada.
Women will likely spend about $754 on average, almost 10 pe cent more than the $691 that the average male shopper spends.
Now if I had been asked how much I spend buying Christmas gifts that average would have plummeted. Last year we set a limit of $10. That was fun trying to buy something “worthwhile” for ten bucks. We don’t need more things.
In the Netherlands or Holland, as it is more often called, Christmas is not a time of extensive gift giving, as it is in North America. Christmas is not all about children and gift giving. It’s a day to celebrate the birth of Christ, our savior. December 5 and 6 mark St. Nicholas Eve and St. Nicholas Day in Holland and it is the official gift giving time throughout the country.
St. Nicholas is the most “official” of Santa Claus’s ancestors. It was the Dutch settlers who brought this incredible wonderful tradition to North America. More on that in an upcoming column.
