Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Rant of the week: Easter overconsumption

Remember back in the day when all the Easter products fit into one aisle at the store? You had your egg decorating kits, a few baskets, stuffed rabbits, plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps? And that seemed a bit like overkill?

This is the first year since I've had children that coloring eggs even sounded remotely fun, so while they were at the drop-in daycare, I headed to Target for supplies.

Boy, was I glad I went alone. There were at least six aisles devoted solely to Stuff You Are Supposed To Buy For Easter. Candy, candy, candy, and more candy, stuffed animals and assorted toys, plastic eggs of all shapes and sizes, plastic eggs with toys inside, assorted baskets, and more candy.

Finally I found what I was after: a simple egg dye kit. Alongside it were several more elaborate kits, with all kinds of stickers, other adornments, and favorite cartoon characters.

Um. Is it just me? Don't most people color eggs just once a year? Since when is dipping the eggs in colored vinegar not interesting enough? Do we really need to spice things up by adding Lightning McQueen stickers?

Ah, but there it is. If my kids had been at Target with me, I'm sure they would have been clamoring for the Lightning McQueen kit, or the stuffed bunnies, or suddenly decided that their lives would not be complete without a brand new Easter basket. Not to mention all that candy. And when we walked out with just two dozen eggs and a small box of Paas egg dye tablets, they would have felt deprived.

Like I said, thank goodness I went alone. They won't know about all that excess stuff. They'll get plenty of candy from the community egg hunt, and we'll have a blast decorating our eggs and hiding them around the house.

Please, don't think I'm a killjoy. I like holidays. I like celebrating.

I just can't quite grasp why we are always expected to celebrate holidays with excessive spending and the consumption of ungodly amounts of processed sugar.

2 comments:

Maureen said...

OHHHH, the Community Egg Hunt!! How fun! I used to go as a little girl, and we brought Kayla and Lauren when we lived there....I hope you guys have fun!

I miss Folsom. :(

Marisa said...

Ruth, I ran across your blog because I was making Amish Friendship Bread. (It is 11:30 pm and I have two batches of bread rising for tomorrow.) You had a link with a curious title. I am curious, so I clicked and kept reading. Your blog made me laugh. Laughter is wonderful. It also brought me memories of coloring eggs with my husband and three daughters (22, 19 and 10) just the other day. Yes, we still color eggs. A word of advice. As your kids get older, keep a tally of which kid comes up with what brilliant idea in your egg coloring escapades. Later they may want to lay claim to certain techniques. Peace.