Can the Holidays be Free? (please)

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, I went to my favorite coffee shop, Starbucks.
There, after reading their "Good Sheet*," I discovered that America spent $474.5 Billion dollars during the 2007 holiday season.

-$9.3 billion on jewelry
-$30 million on Christmas trees
-$5.8 billion on toys
Along with $700 million in candles and $131 million in eggnog!

Like I said, today is the day before Thanksgiving. I have not yet bought anything for the holidays.
I would like to see how much of the holidays is really based on these billions of dollars.

This year, I will be doing an experiment that compares the amount of money I spend to the level of holiday "spirit" achieved.
In other words, if I don't end up buying-
a tree, ornaments, gifts, wrapping paper, house decorations, Christmas cards, special cooking and baking ingredients, nice clothes, candles, or eggnog. . .
will I still get that magical holiday feeling???


Here is the graph I will be marking, every time I do or make something for the holidays.
My hypothesis is that most of the marks will fall where the arrow is pointing.
Please stay tuned as I post the results of my experiment.
Enjoy the holiday season, and don't spend too much!!!


*weekly series breaking down an important issue to help make sense of the world around us. exclusively available at starbucks.