Have you noticed favorite items at your local grocery store have been getting smaller? It's actually been going on for some time, but lately, its become the norm. For instance, a 9.75 oz bag of Doritos is now 9.25 oz while the bag has remained the same. Gatorade reported it redesigned its bottle to be more aerodynamic and easier to grab!!! The real reason for the change? The 32 oz bottle now holds 29 oz...a 14% drop!!! Walmart decreased its Great Value paper towels from 168 sheets per roll to only 120 while the price has remained the same!!! Why is this shrinking going on?
Our illustrious president tells us that his Bidenomics plan is working....but we know it isn't!!!! His policies have caused inflation which in turn, has made the cost of goods increase. This phenomenon is called SHRINKFLATION and its become a reality!!! This same phenomenon has happed to my Christmas as well. I suppose it will happen to most people eventually.
What are some of the symptoms of Christmas Shrinkflation? Well, first, your Christmas tree gets smaller. Gone are the days of hunting down the grandest tree in the forrest with your kids and haphazardly strapping it to the top of your car for an evening of stress and burnt out strands of lights! With kids grown and out of the house, a much smaller and pre lit tree is easily unpacked for the holiday season. Santa and Mrs Claus are now on a fixed income so Christmas bonus money is a thing of the past. So, Christmas spending has shrunk...or it should have!!! Sometimes I wonder. The savings account seems to reflect a certain amount of shrinkage!!! Those are just some of the material symptoms. The Christmas Shrinkflation that really bothers me though...... is the shrinkage of FAMILY and friends.
In the glory days of Christmas, everything was centered around friends and family. In the 1960's my brothers and I were just kids and Christmas was celebrated in glorious fashion much like the beloved 1983 Christmas favorite, A CHRISTMAS STORY!!! We'd head out to Grandma and Grandpa Dell's after Dad got home from work on Christmas eve and my stomach would be in knots with anticipation. After a wonderful dinner, we'd pass out the gifts and spend the next several hours slowly unwrapping them....we always opened gifts one at a time...to make it last longer. Finally after much laughter and delight, Dad would pack up our pre heated car and we'd enjoy the ride home listening to the radio while NASA reported on current Santa sightings. Those rides were magical. We were warm and cozy in the backseats...a family!!! Not a care in the world and a promise of an even more magical morning to come. No fights, no stress, no negatives only positives.
Christmas morning would arrive very early as my brothers and I could hardly sleep. Was there ever a more fantastic feeling that waking up and realizing that it was Christmas morning? After spending the whole day in our pajamas, we would all get dressed and head over to our other grandparents home or perhaps our Aunt and Uncles. Some years, they would come to our house. Later in the 70's, the guitars and drums would come out and our family would play and sing country music all afternoon and into the evening.
As the years progressed, Christmas night would become a big party night and several of my parents friends would visit from Springfield and spend a couple of days. I was on school break and often partied right along with them. This partying on Christmas continued well into the late 80's before slowly fading. Things were beginning to shrink as people grew up and grew OUT of such festivities. By 1990, I had a baby girl and even our family was becoming more insular. But that was great too. There were less friends and more family.
The second nail in the coffin of Christmas and Christmas shrinkflation came with divorce. After my divorce in 1994, my kids were split between their mom in Missouri and my new wife and I here in Peoria. There would be much late night driving and rearranging of schedules to find time for my brothers and their families to meet with us. But, we made it work. We'd basically have two Christmas's. One family Christmas early, and one alone with our own kids. That worked fine for many years. But over time, things shrank even more!!!
The biggest factor of Chritmas Shrinkage is death itself. This began in my family when I was 13 years old. My beloved grandpa Jack left us right before Christmas in 1973. I was a freshman in High school and I couldn't put my finger on why I was feeling so blue that holiday season. I stayed in my bedroom a lot and listened to the radio. I first heard Cheech And Chong's Santa Claus And His Old Lady that year and it did cheer me up a little. We slowly got over that loss and things were fine for many years.
We lost my Dad's Mom about ten years later and while that was sad, it did not compare to when Grandma Mary passed away in 2004. So much tradition left with her. However, the last time I drove her to her assited living facility in 2003, I had the greatest emotional burst of Chritmas spirit I've ever had. Perhaps I knew it would be her last year.
Mom and Dad both were sick the Christmas of 2016, so we met them in the nursing home. Things were shrinking...but we made it work. Dad passed away the following month after suffering a fall. That one was a BIG LOSS. Then we lost Cousin Crystal in 2018 and my Mother in January of 2020. She had one last Christmas with us but she was very sick...she lived for Christmas and died after it was over on New Years Day. But, nothing could have prepared me for the next loss.
In March of 2020, as the world was becoming aware of an insane epedemic, I received a phone call from my daughter. "Somethings happened to Dylan".
Before I could speak, she said the words that haunt me to this day...."He's dead" !!!!
I can still hear her voice in my head and I try very hard not to think about that phone call these days.
A few months later, I was diagnosed with rectal cancer. I ended up beating the cancer....but my Son was gone as well as my Mom and Dad, my beloved Cousin and Grandparents. Our family circle had shrunk!!!! CHRISTMAS SHRINKFLATION!!!!
We still carry on the best we can and Chrismas's now are more centered around the few days my daughter can make it home for Christmas with her family, including her son, Cedric. He makes it fun. We also have Sharen's adult kids and we see my brothers and their families occasionally. But, for me, Christmas has shrunk mostly to my dear wife Sharen and our youngest son Trey, who I'm happy is still living at home. Christmas can be a time a great joy for many, but for me, I'm noticing some depression that occurs around the holiday. The circle of life will continue and there will be more shrinkage but until then, there's always Winters in Florida!!!!
Merry Christmas to all.
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