All I want for the holidays.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Some people, granted, not many, have asked me what I would like for a holiday gift this year. My answer this year, and every year since I was 16, has always been the same: “Don’t buy me anything because if I want something I usually go out and buy it for myself.”

But this year – 2011 – may be a little different. The magazine “Consumer Reports”, (January, 2012) came out this week and listed “25 great gifts.” I thought maybe I could get a few ideas from their list, as I have done in the past. After all, I have 3 children; 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, besides friends that I like to remember during this time. So…pen and paper in hand, a list of those I want/need to buy for and I opened the magazine to page 16.

Whoa! It looks like this year Consumer Reports is catering to the top 1%. The cheapest item on page 16 is an E-book reader for $80. The most expensive item of the 5 items listed is an $1100 Laptop. Well…I don’t want/need or can afford anything on page 16.

Let’s look at page 17.The cheapest item on this page is a $30 hand mixer. Why would I want a hand mixer. I have a full-sized electric mixer that fills the bill nicely. Of course, it cost over $200. The most expensive item is an $800 Advanced Camera. Hmmm. Eight items that I neither want nor can afford.

Bear with me: There is only one page left. The cheapest item of the 12 listed is $35 for a water filter. Not interested in that either. But wait! I finally know what I want. I never would have thought there was something in this selection that would make me so happy. The next person that asks me what I want for the holidays I have something to tell them. And I can tell them where to see a picture of it. On Page 20! Yes, Consumer Reports suggestion of the “25 best gifts”for the holidays has something I want. It is the very last thing mentioned. The one that is set off by this sentence “ . . . For someone super special. ” I want the BMW 328i convertible, listed at a mere $49,525.

Here is my letter to Consumer Reports:

“Dear Editors,

I guess all good things must come to an end after 55 years of being a subscriber. After looking over your suggestions for “25 Great Gifts” in your January, 2012 issue, it is obvious that my subscription to Consumer Reports has reached its end. There was nothing recommended that I can afford and nothing that I wanted – except, maybe, the $49,525 BMW convertible.”

I am trying to cope with the fact that I won’t be getting the only gift I want this year. Rejection? Well, maybe. Guess I have to find myself a 1%er.

Happy Holidays.