Boomers Were Christmas Wrappers

The holiday season is underway once more, so Mister Boomer thought he’d take a look at a trend that, in his experience, stands out in stark contrast to the traditions of the boomer years: gift wrapping vs. gift bags.

It can be unequivocally said that Christmas gifts in the prime boomer years (1950’s, ’60s, ’70s) were wrapped. They may not have always been wrapped well, but they were wrapped. The manner of wrapping could vary from family to family, but wrapping was part of the deal. When you think about it, why not? Isn’t half the fun of opening a gift the anticipation while unwrapping it?

Somewhere around the 1970s, Mister Boomer became aware that some people were abandoning gift wrapping in favor of dropping a gift into a bag. Historically speaking, gift bags were used in several cultures in Asia for thousands of years. The people in Mister Boomer’s circle only used a gift bag when the gift was a wine bottle that could use a specialty bag. The entire premise of using a gift bag, in Mister B’s view, is to drop a gift in, cinch the top, and you are ready to give. While that sort of convenience has always appealed to boomers, in Mister B’s neighborhood it just was not the norm. In Mister B’s estimation, using a gift bag is tantamount to raising a white flag — an unconditional surrender. It says “I am no good at gift wrapping, so this is great.” In a worst case scenario, it can imply, “I picked this bag up at the drug store on the way over, so you can only imagine how much thought I put into picking out your gift.”

Mister Boomer’s family had specific traditions when it came to gift wrapping: tape judiciously because if at all possible, the wrapping paper would be saved for reuse in the next year, and put a pre-made bow on it. There were other families who went all out, matching ribbons and bows to the wrapping paper. Mister B had an aunt who not only beautifully wrapped her gifts and finished them with ribbon and bows, but added seasonal bits into the bow, like holly or pine cones. At an early age, Mister B and his siblings were shown the proper way to wrap a gift with as little tape as possible. Saving was a key element, which also carried over to the lower quality of wrapping paper and non-brand cellophane tape that was common in the family during those years.

An oddly-shaped gift posed a challenge. Mister B and his siblings generally solved the problem in a patchwork style, joining pieces of old wrapping paper to cover the shape. Copious amounts of tape were going to be used for those, so at least they were reusing paper from previous years. Through it all, the underlying message was that a personally-wrapped gift was as important as selecting the right gift for the person.

As Mister B entered his teen years and had a job, he added curling ribbon to his wrappings, and made his bows from the curling ribbon. A few years later, Mister B discovered the joy of using better quality wrapping paper; it folded so well, and was generally thicker and “classier” than the repeated wreaths, bells, ornaments, Santas, and snowmen of the cheaper sale brands.

Opening a gift on Christmas morning at Mister Boomer’s home was a little less chaotic than in other families. There was a ritual to follow that required one of the kids to open a gift before the next could open one. While Mister B’s mom would prefer that care be taken in the unwrapping process, that was not always the case. Early on, Mister B was fastidious in his unwrapping, following the tape lines, knowing the larger the piece of paper left intact, the more chance it could be saved and reused in another year. His siblings did not always keep the thought in mind, tearing into each gift with child-like abandon.

By contrast, where is the time to savor the anticipation of receiving a gift when the unwrapping process is to open it like a bag of chips? In the decades since the boomer years, gift bags became readily available in any number of sizes. In some ways, this evolution follows the convenience track — the less time the better — that boomers embraced in so many categories as adults. Boomers grew up with the mantra that convenience meant progress. Still, as boomers have learned, convenience changes things; while it can be subjective whether these changes are for the better or worse, it is different.

Speaking of different, how about gifting from a distance, now that so many families and friends live apart? To Mister B, worse than receiving a gift bag is the “your gift is being shipped.” The package arrives and the receiver unceremoniously slices open a pouch or box, pretty much like a gift bag without the holiday colors.

Mister Boomer can’t help but feel that more than a little has been lost for both the giver and the receiver. For kids, however, it poses the question of how will they remember opening gifts when they come in bags?

How about it boomers? Is Mister B being overly nostalgic, or do you agree that gift bags are a menace to the meaning of gift giving?

Boomers Remember the JFK Assassination

It’s incredible to believe that this past week, the U.S. marked the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was November 22, 1963, when Lee Harvey Oswald shot the President from a sixth story window of a book repository in Dallas, Texas as he rode in his motorcade.

The youngest boomers — those born in the last four years of the Baby Boom — were either too young or not yet born in 1963, so their recollection of the day is by historical records rather than personal observation. Those boomers born in the first half of the Baby Boom in the mid-40s and 1950s, however, recall vividly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that the President was dead.

Mister Boomer was in elementary school. The first inkling that something big was happening came when he heard what can only be described as wailing and sobbing in the halls of the school. It was the teachers who got the news and were the first to react. Mister Boomer had only heard such an outpouring of sorrow once before, at the death and funeral of his grandfather three years earlier.

Very shortly after Walter Cronkite made his historic announcement on TV that the President had been killed, the school principal got on the PA system to inform the students. Quickly, Mister Boomer’s class was ushered into another classroom in an upper grade, where the students were instructed to sit on the floor while a black-and-white TV on a cart was rolled in. There, the combined classes of kids watched coverage of the assassination on television. A short time later, the students were sent home.

It is sometimes easy to forget that John Kennedy had only taken the oath of office in January of 1961. When he was killed, JFK was looking forward to campaigning for his re-election to a second term. In three short years, his presidency was marked by stunning victories and disappointing failures. Here are some facts about his short time in the White House:

• He was the youngest U.S. President elected; he was 46 at time of his death
• First Roman Catholic President
• Set a goal to surpass the Soviet space program by landing a man on the moon
• Started the Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress to bring American idealism to developing nations
• A student of American history, together with his wife, Jacqueline, highlighted American arts and culture in the White House
• His children (Caroline and John) grew up playing on the White House grounds, and the President was often seen playing with them. The President even had a treehouse built for them on the grounds
• The Bay of Pigs incident in 1960 was a failed covert attempt by Cuban nationalists to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba
• Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was a successful embargo around Cuba to prevent the Soviet Union from bringing nuclear weapons into Cuba; led to a test ban treaty in 1963
• Aspired to pass civil rights legislation, which ultimately was championed by his then Vice President and ultimately, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. When President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he said he was doing so to finish the work of JFK
• Proposed and won from Congress a tax cut in 1963 to bolster recovery from an ongoing recession
• Proposed and won legislation to study the causes and possible prevention of intellectual disabilities and treat mental illness

JFK is such an important figure in American history, made even more so by his tragic death. Boomers were there to chronicle the good and the bad.

How about you, boomers? Were you old enough to remember JFK?